This is the best second chance romance I’ve ever read. I don’t have the words to describe how beautifully written it was. The foundation these two had having known each other their whole lives made their reconnection so sweet. And spicy! Lots of great open door spicy scenes.

I loved how they took the time to finally talk through the breakdown of their relationship. The roadtrip setting was perfect for that.

Both Ellis and Wren were deep complex characters and I thought the book really showcased their relationship well.

Both narrators did an excellent job. I loved that they each read the letters and emails their character wrote. That really brought the dual POVs to life.

There’s so much emotion packed into this one. I dare you to finish it without crying! And you’ll find yourself wanting to highlight some amazing quotes.

I read this one having not read book one and didn’t feel lost at all. Of course now I want to read book one!

If you love small towns and second chance romance, you should pick this one up today!

Thank you to @Netgalley and @stmartinspress for the chance to review this ARC and to @macmillan.audio for the ALC.

Left Of Forever by Tarah DeWitt 🌲

My heart was shattered and put back together again by this book. I will always and forever read anything that Tarah DeWitt writes.

Wren and Ellis's story is so unique and special. They fell in love in high school and end up having their son as teenagers. With no reason to wait because they are meant to be together, they also get married young. They remain married for years but end up getting a divorce after drifting apart from each other. Five years after the divorce they are about to send their son off to college. They've mastered co-parenting but despite living separate lives, they can't stop thinking about each other to fully move on. Ellis convinces Wren to take an extended road trip after dropping their son off at college to explore the chance for them to have a second chance. As they explore the dreamy California coastline together, they have the hard conversations, or sometimes written letters, about why their relationship didn't last in the past and how they could make it work in the future.

This book is such a special one to me. I was tearing up and laughing at multiple points throughout the book, sometimes at the same time. Wren and Ellis are soulmates that drifted apart and it was beautiful to see them find each other again. Both the characters felt so real with their emotions and the reactions they had. The way that Tarah puts emotions that are so complicated to convey into words that beautifully and perfectly describe them is incredible. The tension, the pining, the banter, and the relatability. All of it was done so well. There are so many amazing lines in this book that feel like a stab to the heart (in the best way).

I adore the small town and group of characters that this series has established so far and cannot wait to see what comes next. While this is a standalone you'd be doing yourself a disservice not reading Savor It before reading this book. I mean you have to experience the iconic "She's still a Byrd." moment!

🤍 second chance
🚗 roadtrip
💌 letters
🛏️ only one bed
🫠 yearning and pining
🕊️ meaningful tattoos
🫂 found family
👏🏻 no third act breakup

dual POV
5/5 stars ⭐️
2/5 spice level 🌶️

Thank you to NetGalley, Tarah DeWitt, and St. Martin's Griffin for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Okay, now that I'm done reading this--life got in the way the last couple of days--I can officially say I was right. This is a second-chance romance done right and probably the best second-chance romance I've read in a long while. I wasn't too sure how this was going to go because I wasn't the biggest fan of Savor It, but I was pleasantly surprised as to how much I enjoyed reading this! In the midst of all of the two and three-star reads I've had this month, this was a diamond in the rough, and I never wanted the story to end.

Wren and Ellis Byrd fell in love when they were kids. After Wren gets pregnant with their son, Sam, at the age of seventeen, they get married, move into a house, and raise him while they also care for Ellis's family with his younger siblings in tow. Fast forward to now, and they've been divorced for five years and have moved on with their lives, but Sam is the glue that's keeping things amicable...and the fact that they still have unspoken feelings for each other. When Sam announces that he's moving out for college, Ellis makes a proposition to Wren: after they drop Sam off, they spend one week together traveling to see if they can reconcile and make things right and perhaps, get back together and start anew.

First off, I want to preface this but saying that you do NOT have to read Savor It before reading Left of Forever. Tarah DeWitt also makes this disclaimer at the beginning of the book, but do be advised that there are minor spoilers for Sage and Fisher's story at the beginning. Left of Forever is divided up into 3 parts, with the first part being a flashback that overlaps with the events at the ending of Savor It if you're looking for a specific timeline. You don't need to read Sage and Fisher's overall story to understand what's going on with Wren and Ellis, but if you want the full, immersive reading experience with the small-town feels and vibes and a better understanding of the characters in Spunes, I'd definitely read Savor It first.

To me, this was the best second-chance romance I've read since Final Offer by Lauren Asher. I had SUCH a hard time getting into Savor It, but I started reading Left of Forever and I couldn't stop. Life got busy for a few days, and the only thing I was thinking about was wanting to read this book. I think that's one of those feelings that pushes a book from a 3-star read to a four or five-star read for me- when the book is so good you're UPSET when you can't read it or don't have the time to. I loved the pining, the unresolved feelings, and the tension between Wren and Ellis. You could tell that the feelings were still most definitely there and they still care for each other, because you would for someone who's been your high school sweetheart and has been in each other's lives for literal DECADES at this point. Sure, Sam was the glue that kept them together and kept things amicable between the two after the divorce, but they did an amazing job raising him and making sure that their divorce and their issues never got in the way of parenting Sam.

However, in retrospect, this also made me somewhat confused. I can tell that Wren and Ellis still care about each other to the point where I could practically feel the tension and the love just pouring out of the page and jumping out at me screaming, "THEY LOVE EACH OTHER, CAN'T YOU TELL?!" but at the same time, if they really still did love and care for each other, I have an extremely hard time believing that they couldn't try to work things out given the circumstances that led up to their divorce. In Wren's words to Ellis, "You robbed me of you!"

Now, I've never been married, which means logically, I've never been divorced, but I also know that there's a lot more stuff that goes into why people divorce, and it's not always necessarily a black and white situation. However, given the (little) information that we know about the beginning of the end for Wren and Ellis leading up to it all, I'm somewhat shocked that they didn't attempt to fix things--moreso Ellis than Wren--if they truly loved and cared for each other THAT much. I think the story could've expanded a little more on everything leading up to the divorce in the first place.

The one thing this story was lacking, in my opinion, was the flashbacks that we so commonly see in other second-chance romances. I think that would've helped tremendously with building Ellis and Wren's backstory and everything leading up to their divorce. We get little hints of past (mostly petty) arguments and issues here and there, but never to the point where we get a full, detailed backstory. If I could compare this to another popular second chance romance that a ton of people have read, I'd say that it was sort of along the same lines as Love Redesigned by Lauren Asher where we get brief flashbacks of Dahlia and Julian but never a full backstory, and that's another couple who were childhood friends as well so they'd have DECADES of backstory.

With all of that being said, I feel like as much tension and pining and angst as there was, this felt very low stakes for a second-chance romance where the HEA is practically guaranteed from the start. It almost felt insta-lovey at times, and I know it sounds stupid to say because this is a second-chance romance and they already had lingering feelings from before because they obviously still love each other, but aside from a third-act conflict that probably lasted like, 2-3 pages AT MOST, I feel like there could’ve been more done with it. I would've loved to see more of Ellis and Wren talking through their issues rather than ah....physically, if you're picking up what I'm putting down.

(Also, just as a side note: how do they not recognize each other's handwriting? How have you guys been together for literal decades and not know what each other's handwriting looks like? If you know, you know.)

Onto the main characters:

Wren: I just want to give her a giant hug for everything that she's been through. She's a loving mother, daughter, and friend, and I loved that she was able to let go and rediscover herself on the road trip back from moving Sam into his apartment.

Ellis: Well...I also kinda wanna give him a hug for everything he's been through. I understand why he had to do what he needed to do at the time given the cards that life has dealt him, but I also see the alternate scenario where none of this would've happened if he put in more effort from the beginning in learning Wren's feelings on a deeper level and learning how to express his feelings better. I know he had a lot of responsibility on his shoulders at such a young age, and I can relate to the idea of everyone needing something from you to the point where you have no pieces left to give and you're just...exhausted. However, he was so determined to get Wren back throughout the entire story, and I loved that. I love it when a man grovels lol.

Overall, what a great second-chance romance story! If you're looking for a summer beach read or just a summer read in general, I'd definitely recommend this book! Bonus points if you read this while camping or going on a road trip for the full experience that Wren and Ellis go through lol. I was nervous going into reading this, but I'm so glad I read it and finished it. I can't wait to see what Tarah DeWitt has in store for Spunes, OR next! (I want a story about Silas...or maybe Micah and Kirby??? We shall see.)

P.S. I'm never going to be able to look at ice cream the same way ever again, and I'm not just saying that because I'm lactose intolerant.

Well if this isn't the cutest dang book I've read, I don't know what is!! 🥹

Wren and Ellis are couple goals. Such a sweet uplifting story about a couple reconnecting after falling apart. I went into this book not knowing it was second in a series, but it was definitely a standalone. And believe me when I tell you, I will be looking up the first one from this series and all other books written by this author!

This book had me smiling, blushing, and tearing up. It was beyond well done and I felt like I was in the book experiencing all the things right along with them!! I will be recommending this book to any of my fellow romcom, modern romance book lovers!!

I wish I could give this book 5+ ⭐️ It's one if those books you wish you could go back and read for the first time all over again just to feel all the feels again ❤️

HUGE THANK YOU to Tarah DeWitt, St. Martin's Griffin, and NetGalley for an eArc to read and review!!

Hot and steamy second chance romance from Tarah DeWitt! I was thrilled to be back in Spunes and to get Wren and Ellis’s story. The wit and banter were top notch and it was a total emotional rollercoaster.

Tarah is an auto-read author for me and this book was no different.
Ellis and Wren have been divorced for 5 years and they take a road trip to drop their son off at college and to spend time together on their way home to see if the spark is still there. The yearning between them was so good. They both wanted to try to get back their relationship and were willing to work on it.
I loved being able to see into their history, all the way back to childhood, to see what their relationship had been like and what it evolved into.
I enjoyed getting to see what Sage and Fisher were up to, along with Ellis’ other siblings. Also LOVED The Co-Op cameo.
Tarah writes characters with such heart and soul that you feel for them as if they were real. She balances it out with humorous moments, like the cooking class.
I adored this book and hope just maybe there’ll be books for the other brothers!

This felt like a raw and real story that I absolutely devoured. There were so many heart gripping and tender moments in this book and the way Wren and Ellis fell back in love or rekindled it was so sweet.

I will definitely be going back to read the first book in this series because I need Fisher and Sage's story. I love the Byrd's and this book held my heart and mended it.

Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me to read.

4 ⭐️
2.5 🌶️

A special thanks to Tarah DeWitt and St. Martin's Press for the ARC. While the review copy was gifted, all opinions are my own.

I felt the first 20-25% of this book was really slow moving. I wasn't completely hooked after reading that much of the book so I waited till the audio was released. Audio was amazing - narrated by Connor Crais and Megan Wicks. A chapter or two after where I left off on my Kindle the story picked up and I enjoyed the rest of the ride. Ellis is a top MMC - he is so charming and so many things he said caught me off guard and had me swooning. I do think audio is the way to go with this book.

Some of the reconciliation at the end felt rushed/brushed over. While I enjoyed Left of Forever, Savor It is still my favorite in the series.

a man who yearns is a man who earns! good lord, I am so down bad for Ellis. It's depressing that this man is fictional. He truly proves time and time again that he will do anything to get her back, SWOON! Second chance romances are my jam and this one did not disappoint! I cared so much about these two and about them working out their issues. Wish I could read a whole series about them!

4.5/5⭐️
3/5🌶️

“It terrifies me to think that I might’ve let this life go by without finding my way back to you.”

MY FIRST TARAH DEWITT BOOK AND IT WILL NOT BE MY LAST. This book had me crying tears of sadness and tears of joy. Their story was so beautiful and their journey of finding their way back to one another was so perfectly imperfect 😭 This was funny, emotional, and gave me all the butterflies!!!

-second chance
-divorced couple
-small town romance
-road trip

This book is a beautifully written reminder that to be loved is to be chosen every single day. Ellis’s love and commitment for Wren is so vast, and it’s seen both in his words and his actions on the page. Their history is messy and so realistic. Tarah Dewitt did an amazing job of putting the reality of being human into this book, with enough funny and spicy moments to keep you from crying the entire time. Thank you to St. Martin’s Griffin for an early copy!

This is going to be part 1 of a billion LoF posts because I don’t think I’ll stop talking about it. 💖 I definitely needed a minute after finishing this one. I’d been reading it over a few days, and WOW it hit hard. So real, so emotional, and just totally relatable. I felt everything in my gut, my heart, and my soul. Tarah really worked her magic here. I was completely sucked in from the start, and even after I turned the last page, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Still can’t. Honestly, I wanted to highlight the entire book. 😍😍😍

Wren and Ellis’s story just got to me. They were high school sweethearts who got pregnant young, and now they’re in their 30s, divorced, doing life on their own. But there’s this quiet longing they both carry, like something’s just not right. With their son Sam heading off to college, they start finding their way back to each other in the most tender, bittersweet ways with secret letters, road trips, and journaling. It was all so beautifully done. The connection they shared felt so deep, so lived-in, and so raw and spicy 😉

And let me just say, the family dynamics in this book were amazing! They brought such a grounding, comforting vibe to the story. The kind of love and support you hope people have in their lives. It made the characters feel even more real.

I am obsessed with Wren and Ellis. 🥹🤩 Like, #WRellis forever. I’m officially a stan and will not be taking questions. Their story was everything 💕 Gut-wrenching, heartfelt, nostalgic, hopeful. I didn’t even realize how much I needed this kind of emotional ride until I was halfway through and already falling apart.

From the moment I read Savor It by Tarah DeWitt last year, I CRAVED a story about Ellis and Wren. I was so excited to receive the ARC for Left of Forever and I gobbled it up in less than a day. Their second chance romance was written with so much passion, sadness, laugh out loud moments and heartfelt conversations. I've struggled with putting into words how much I loved this book because it was basically perfect. I love Ellis and Wren, I love the continued stories from the first book in the city of Spunes and if I could erase it all from my brain just to experience it all over again, I would.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Griffin and Author Tarah DeWitt for the ARC!

Looking for a book that’ll rip your still-beating heart out of your chest and leave you bleeding out in the middle of your room from second-chance angst and some of the swooniest yearning you’ll ever read in your LIFE?!

Then, good news — Left of Forever will ruin your life in the best possible wa.y

If you, too, have been positively foaming at the mouth with feral glee over the ‘she’s still a byrd’ comment from Tarah's Savor It, prepare for this book to put you 6 feet in the ground. Buried at sea. Shot off into a cannon into outer space to orbit the Earth for all eternity the same way Ellis orbited Wren THEIR ENTIRE LIVES but especially after their divorce.

Tarah DeWitt is a master of her romantic craft — this book is everything a romance book can be and should be. A gut-punch straight to the heart. Reading about these two childhood friends to lovers to divorcees finding their way back to one another through years of guilt, isolation, and messy family dynamics is AWARD WINNINGLY BEAUTIFUL, IN MY HUMBLE OPINION. This one smacked me in the face, made me cry, and made me LIKE IT. And is therefore, obviously, an absolute masterpiece.

If you like second chance romance with a side dish of letter writing, yearning, and a cast of meddling side characters — pick this up immediately, and then join me in the class action lawsuit against Tarah for writing the most agonizing final line of a book I’ve ever read in my thirty years of LIFE. JAIL TIME, TARAH!!!! JAIL!!!!!

I adored every second of this, and officially worship the ground Tarah walks on. Thank you ETERNALLY to St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this early and then cry about it for the next 3-5 years. Infinity stars!

I have been waiting to get this book in my hands the moment I finished reading Savor It, the one quote alone “She’s still a Byrd” had me emailing the publishers for an early copy of the next book. To my relief, I was approved to read it early, I was excited and yet nervous, second chance romance is at many times a hit or miss and the way I was hyping this book in my head I was scared it wasn’t going to live up to what I wanted this book to be. But this is why Tarah DeWitt is the writer and I’m a reader; this book lives up to the expectations and more, it delivers a story of love and finding your way back to it.

With any second chance romance I’m always looking for two things: a valid reason why the couple broke up (or in this case why Ellis and Wren got a divorce) I don’t want a simple issue that could have been fixed with a simple conversation but a reason enough that in the end breaking up (or in this case getting a divorce), was the only way they could move forward. Second, a romance story that will convince me without a shadow of a doubt that when I close the book I know they will live out in their HEA. And I can confidently say this book delivers that and more, the pining is there, the tension, the longing and the quotes that will have you running to the store because you’ve run out of workable highlighters.

This is what all second chance romances must live up to and believe me when I say these shoes are too big to fill.



Solid 5 stars



Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Tarah DeWitt is an author who continues to impress me every time I read her stories. This story feels fresh and unique. People in their 30's deserve love stories too. People who have been with the same person for a long time and have grown a long side each other deserve stories about their love as well. And that's what Tarah does.

Left of Forever beautifully depicts a couple finding their way back to each other and trusting in their love. As someone who has been in their partner's life for 20 years, there were so many things that rang true throughout their story. And while we've never divorced, we have had periods of struggle and had to learn how to be with each other in new phases of our life's. To be honest about what needed to be fixed. To trust ourselves and each other. And fall back in love.

I'm still in tears, thinking of the last chapter of this book. I know it's message will stay with me for a long time to come. I highly recommend it and cannot wait to see what Tarah has in store for us next.

LEFT OF FOREVER by Tarah DeWitt was so anticipated for me that I basically was salivating on the first page. I enjoyed the characters - especially their dynamic as people who grew up loving one another, created a family, and then found their way back together. I enjoyed being back in the setting of Spoons.

FCKKKKKKK. This book wrecked me in the best possible way. 5 stars. 5 fucking stars.

"We've been divorced for over four years, but her last name is still Byrd, so...she is still a Byrd."

✨ Second chance romance
✨ Childhood sweethearts / Divorced couple
✨ 30s mcs
✨ Close Proximity / Road trip
✨ Emotional

This is such a raw, real, and so achingly beautiful story about a second chance with the love of your life. Ellis and Wren were childhood sweethearts who became teen parents and married young. Life eventually got in the way and they divorced. Over 4 years later, Ellis realizes he never stopped loving Wren and is determined to win her back on a road trip after they drop their son off at college.

The absolute love that these two still have for each other brought literal tears to my eyes. Ellis is absolutely committed to winning Wren back through beautiful declarations and gestures that he had trouble displaying previously in their relationship. The open and honest communication that these two had via way of question game was so genuine and real and there's no way you couldn't not root for them. THIS IS HOW YOU WRITE A LOVE STORY FOR THE AGES!!

I'm not sure I'll ever be over this book and I'm immensely glad that St. Martin's Griffin gave me an advanced copy! 🖤

"We have whatever's left of forever, you and me."

Left of Forever by Tarah DeWitt was super cute! Savor It, the first Spunes, OR book, is still on my TBR list and while probably helpful to read beforehand, wasn't necessary to understand the plot here.

Wren and Ellis Byrd fell in love as kids, having their son Sam when they were barely adults, and fell apart. They're now divorced and in their 30s, living separate-ish lives. When Sam gets accepted to college, Ellis convinces Wren to take a road trip with him to give their relationship one last chance.

I liked that this was a unique plot for a second-chance romance. It was so refreshing to read about characters that were so down to earth and real. I loved that there wasn't any big "thing" - just that in the mix of life flying past them, they fell out of fighting for each other. Watching them want to find that again was just really refreshing and fun and I totally was rooting for them the entire time.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wren and Ellis Byrd may have divorced five years ago, but they are still not quite over each other. When their son Sam is accepted to college in northern California, Ellis proposes that they take the trip home as a week long road trip vacation to see if they want to rekindle their romance. The two have been working on themselves since the divorce (including therapy for him!), and Wren only agrees to the trip if they can talk about what went wrong the first time. But will old wounds keep them from moving on?

This is a standalone novel that is in the same world as Savor It. I'm not normally a huge fan of second chance romances because in too many cases it all boils down to miscommunication. But the issues between Wren and Ellis are so much deeper and you can understand both why their marriage fell apart and why they still love each other. Overall this was a very heartfelt story and I was invested fully in the characters and their outcome. Taking a quarter of a point off for the name Wren Byrd though (seriously!?!). Would recommend to most romance readers, especiall y

Overall: 3.75/5
Spice: 2/3