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

I’m absolutely speechless—completely floored, FLABBERGASTED! This book was nothing short of incredible. A million shining stars for Wren and Ellis because 5 is simply not enough!

“Second chance” is one of my all-time favorite tropes, so when I saw the opportunity to ARC Left of Forever, I signed up without hesitation—and I am so glad I did. This story is the very definition of a second chance romance. Honestly, “perfection” doesn’t even begin to cover it. I’m at a loss for words in the best possible way.

Wren and Ellis’ journey is full of love, heartbreak, deep introspection, accountability, and real, honest growth—both emotionally and mentally. It’s a powerful reminder that love can conquer all, even if it needs to pause and heal before continuing. The emotions are raw, the problems feel authentic, and the entire experience is beautifully relatable. Fictional or not, their story feels real.

Left of Forever is hands down one of my favorite books of 2025, and I already know it’s going to become a yearly reread. I finished it just a few hours ago, and I still can’t get it out of my head. I genuinely believe—in the best possible way—that this book has forever changed how I view life and love.

A heartfelt thank you to Tarah DeWitt, the amazing team at St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read Left of Forever before it hits shelves. I’m eternally grateful for the Byrds.

I have really struggled figuring out a star rating for this book but overall I’m going with 4 stars!

I really liked the take on the letters and the reconnection starting to form from the start and it truly pulled me into this story. It was awesome seeing the co parenting these two did while remaining separated. I do feel like this was slow burn with the reconnection and it made the middle of the story drag a little for me. But it was definitely needed for the characters to fully forgive and re develop their relationship.

The ending of this story was TRULY the star of the show, the epilogues and how everything wrapped up made it hard for me not to say 5 stars. But with just the little lull period in the middle I decided a firm 4 star read for me!

everything tarah dewitt writes is pure magic. the second she presses pen to paper, it’s as if she’s severing a vein — bleeding out the most gut-wrenching tale directly from her heart. i can’t think of any other way she could’ve possibly written such a raw, heart-rending love story. as with ‘savor it,’ tarah balances the heart (so, so much heart!) and heat (ellis, the man that you are) of the book with humor, but none of those diminish the long-lasting poignancy of her stories.

there is gravitas and weight to ellis and wren’s story, yet it’s delicate — so delicate, it feels as if pressure on a crack would splinter it in two. ellis & wren have dealt with heartache and trauma, their love whittled away at by agony and grief, until those pressure point cracks widened into gaping chasms, and they no longer knew each other. knew how to *love* one another.

but a handful of years and one epic road trip is all it takes to change that.

i loved watching ellis and wren learn how to love each other again. there was something so beautiful about the fact that they loved each other — wanted each other — so desperately, yet they had to re-learn how to communicate the latter and demonstrate the former. watching their repair their love story was a bit like kintsugi; those gaping chasms they filled in with their new-found love only strengthened their relationship, made their love story more whole and beautiful.

this is a book i won’t ever forget. it made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me swoon, and more over, it made me believe in love. it reinforced the idea that love — true love — requires work and time and dedication. love is an action, and never has that been illustrated better than with this story. 🤍

We read, “She’s still a Byrd,” and we haven’t been the same since.

Left of Forever is the story of loving so deeply and intimately but allowing grief and fear to make you strangers to even the people you hold closest. It is a story of reconciliation, second chances, and giving yourself permission to heal wounds you never treated.

Wren and Ellis grew up not only with each other, but into each other in the sense that neither would be who they are at their core without the other. I think that anyone in a long-term relationship can attest that there is incredible beauty in allowing someone such full access to your heart that it changes you forever. However, complacency can easily creep up and replace contentment to become something ugly and dangerous, especially amid pain. Wren and Ellis have a second chance to be something extraordinary together, do you think this time they will get it right?

I am not exaggerating when I say that I believe Left of Forever to be the most realistic representation of people who have been together long-term, CHOOSING to do the work so they can stay together. Because that’s what relationships are, choices. Decision after decision to be there, to stay, to do the hard things. To continuously love and to grow together instead of apart with no finish line in sight. LOF presents both sides of the coin – how easy it is to lose yourself and grow apart, but also how rewarding getting through the hard things together can be.

Also, as a note, I REFUTE the implication that just because 2 people have been together forever, that their relationship cannot be exciting, invigorating, and fresh… especially physically. A majority of romances do an incredible job of showing that spark of attraction that turns into fireworks, but few manage to showcase life after the dizzying effect of new love. There is something to be said of the spark of a long burning fire that you have to stoke; of learning how to build that flame higher, or when to let it cool.

I have never in my life read two characters that belong to each other more. I may want Ellis to be my book husband, but he could never look at anyone except for Wren. That’s his girl for life.

Thank you, Tarah, for writing something that feels as though my heart knew it before I even read it. Thank you Forever and St.Martin for the opportunity to read this early!!!

I loved the characters in this book and enjoyed the journey of their development and their dynamic throughout.

The way this man YEARNS for her! I absolutely fell in love with this book. First time reading a second chance when the couple have been divorced but still have those feelings. Ellis and Wren’s story is so beautiful, intimate, and really captures the aspect of not completely falling out of love with your person. I loved how they really figured out what pulled them apart in the first place so they could start this life again together. I absolutely love the Byrd family!!

4 Stars

Tara Dewitt has been a hit or miss author for me in the past, in fact I didn’t even finish the first book in this series! Despite this, I found Left of Forever really enjoyable! I may have even rated it higher if I had been able to devote more time to reading it quicker.

I feel like this specific type of second-chance romance is rare to read about & I’m not sure why! I think this was done well. It was sexy. sweet & earnest.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC of Left of Forever in exchange for an honest review!

this book was so beautifully written!! I loved every single moment of this book and seeing two people who never fell out of love be together again was so beautiful. Wren was such a relatable character and I saw parts of myself in her . And Ellis deserves a huge hug taking so much at such a young age . He deserves everything and so much more.

this book is definitely for those who live and breathe second chance romance !!

3/5 ⭐️

thank you to netgalley for a copy of this arc!
i was confident that this was going to be a 5 star read for me but unfortunately i felt a little disappointed with this one. i know that this is an interconnected stand alone but i really don’t feel like it can be read alone. i have read interconnected series where ill start on the last book and not feel lost at all but i felt like this one definitely had gaps and only gave little to no explanation about the events that are being eluded to. i feel like i enjoyed the couple a lot in the beginning (me being a sucker for second chance) but then the ending felt rushed to me? i guess its not because they were previously married but 5 years is a long time & i would’ve thought it would’ve been more slow burn given that this was the first time they even really had more than simple conversation in those 5 years.
overall i do like the humor & flirting that came from this book & would recommend for someone who is looking for second chance romance!

Here is the summer romance book you NEED!!

This is a second chance romance with childhood sweethearts with tension and yearning that’s spill of the pages. The things Ellis says literally gives me chills. This is the new standard for second chance romance.

I really love seeing how much these two grow. How they both heal their past trauma and come together. Even if that means going to a therapist which I find very important to mental health.

I’m just head over heels with these two and I’m already needing to re-read.

Loved this! This is one of the most wrapped-in-a-bow HEA I've ever read!

The pacing was on point. The first half of the story I was in the feels for Wren and Ellis. Their inner emotional turmoil in their own heads was heartbreaking. Nearly this entire book is a big fat miscommunication trope one after another! But it just worked so well. Ellis's family seems amazing. I haven't read the other books, but now I want to. I loved the therapy representation and the positivity around it.

The writing is beautiful. The way Wren and Ellis feel about each other is MORE than soulmates. I couldn't get enough. The little adventures on their road trip were adorable.

Second change, best friends, soulmates. YES!

Thank you Netgalley, author, and publisher for my gifted copy of this book.

INJECT THIS IN MY VEINS.

I fear this book has taken over my soul. I will never recover. First, never have a teared up before even started a novel, but Tarah Dewitt did that to me. I could feel from her introduction to this book, it was made for me.

Quite literally, the best second chance romance I’ve ever read. I cried every time I got the chance to pick it up and read it. Tarah’s writing is impeccable and the pages were brimming with emotion. STUNNING PERFECTION. I tell you what.

Thank you to St Martin's Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book, and to Kayleigh for buddy reading with me!

Left of Forever is the delightful follow-up to Tarah DeWitt's 2024 release, Savor It. After reading Savor It, a lot of us in our buddy read group were hoping Wren and Ellis would get their own second-chance romance—and Tarah DeWitt absolutely delivered with her latest release.

This story was both sweet and emotional, and I loved being back in Spunes, OR with these beloved characters. DeWitt’s signature mix of humor, heart, and richly developed characters made this book really stand out.

While Left of Forever is a follow-up story to Savor It, you don’t need to have read the first book to enjoy this one—though I’d definitely recommend it, since it adds more depth to the main characters and gives you a nice intro to the supporting cast.

Left of Forever is out now!

What a beautiful, heartfelt, hopefully, and truly emotionally cathartic love story! Tarah DeWitt never fails to capture my whole heart and squeeze it- gently, with compassion and tenderness, but squeeze me none the less. I truly felt this story with every fiber of my being. It's profoundly existential, beautifully emotionally affecting, and deftly resonant. A story whose characters, whose journey feels so unique their own...yet also, somehow yours too. And a story that stays with you long after you turn the final page. Left of Forever is charming, witty, brimming with charming characters and endless chemistry. Easily one of my top reads of the year and perhaps my favorite yet from the endlessly talented Tarah DeWitt.

Tarah's love stories somehow manage to both be a warm and cozy hug while also being an emotional juggernaut. Stories that pack an emotional wallop while also somehow feeling SO fun, flirty, and light. And Left of Forever has a herculean task. It's a second chance romance between a recently divorced couple who married as teens after a teenage pregnancy but who ultimately broke as adults after years of challenges, including infertility....a story full of heavy and traumatic and complicated real life truths and challenges that is attempting to paint them realistically..but hopefully. To convey them with truth and authenticity without. making the narrative feel too HEAVY. And DeWitt sparkles here- she somehow achieves the impossible. She finds the hope in failure and heartache, she finds the romance in a love story the begins after the love story has actually ENDED. And it's brilliant.

I've always loved second chance stories, particularly marriage in crisis ones. It's easy to FALL in love. What's harder is staying in love. Figuring out how to grow TOGETHER as life and experience and age and being a human morph us and change us. And this isn't just a crisis...this is actually POST crisis. Two people who genuinely care about each other who somehow just couldn't find a way to make it work. Who couldn't ever communicate and connect in the way they needed to to heal the wounds between them. SO instead they festered and rotted until it felt too daunting to repair. At some point these two felt it would be easier to face losing someone they care about than actually dig in their heels to make it better- and how devastating is that? It makes for an epic and challenging story emotionally- particularly since there are YEARS of history and unspoken truths and unaddressed hurt that still exist beneath the surface. It felt like an impossible, we felt just like Ellis and Wren. How could this ever be fixable?

But Tarah explores the most basic undercurrent of love and partnership- CHOICE. This isn't a story about how love HAPPENS to us, this is a story about two people CHOOSING to do the work of loving. Because love isn't an accident- it's intentional. It's a choice we make- to love someone, to invest in them. And these characters finally find a way to invest both in themselves and in the other. And oh my gosh it's beautiful. It's intimate. It's powerful. but it's also SO FUN and and clever. Yes, Ellis and Wren have to work through some stuff on their epic road trip- but this isn't just about dealing with the hard emotions alone. They find joy and fun with each other again.

This is a story you don't read. YOU FEEL. I loved every moment with Ellis and Wren. Constructing their future while deconstructing their past. I must admit, after reading Spunes 1, I was OBSESSED with what their story could be...but I was also terrified of it. There is so much history here, so much ground to cover. But Tarah smartly keeps the narrative FOCUSED. The forced proximity element, the fixed timeframe, the laser like focus on the emotional fissures she needed to press on with both of them. We believe in their past, their connection and chemistry literally explode off the page, but the story itself is still compact. Each word, each moment feels divinely intentional- it's a beautiful story construction. Brilliant. It's a master class in characterization, in showing not telling, in emotional interiority and chemistry.

The ending is so rewarding, because this is a love story so hard fought. One where our characters REALLY do the emotional labor of growing, of figuring out how to FINALLY grow together. Love matters. Love matters MOST- but sometimes it's not about just loving each other. It's about leaning into vulnerability, CHOOSING to fight for someone every day. Because being true partners isn't easy- it's work, GOOD work, THE work. The hope, the healing here is so emotionally resonsant. I cried multiple times- but I also felt such warmth and restoration too.

I loved this tender, real, and yet still playful story with all of my heart. And I can not WAIT to be back in Spunes (not to be confused with FORKS) again- it has fast become my favorite fictional escape.

I am NOT okay. Well I mean I am now, but I sure wasn’t after I finished this book. Left of Forever broke me and put me back together in the best, most soul-squeezing way. This was my first Tarah Dewitt book and the second I finished, I was on Libby requesting every single thing she’s ever written. Like, how dare she write characters that feel this real??

Wren and Ellis?? Good lord. The yearning. The way you can feel how much they still love each other even after years apart. It’s soft and aching and so deeply human. Their road trip had me feeling all kinds of things—hope, heartbreak, that scary vulnerability of trying again with someone you never really stopped loving. Every letter, every dance, every tiny moment between them was just chef’s kiss.

And don’t even get me started on the Byrd family—I want to marry into them immediately. The small town, the cozy chaos, the way everyone is all up in your business but also fiercely loving? Yeah. I’d like that.

This book felt so personal. Like someone cracked open my chest, peeked at all the messy parts of marriage, parenthood, identity—and said, “Hey, you’re not alone.” I saw so much of my own story in Wren and Ellis. That feeling of losing yourself in the grind of raising a family and trying to find your way back? Oof. It hit.

I laughed, I sobbed, I texted my husband “I love you” at 1am. This isn’t just a romance—it’s a reckoning and a reminder that second chances don’t come easy, but they’re worth everything.

Left of Forever by Tarah DeWitt

My sincere thanks to St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read Left of Forever. I give my unbiased opinion of it in the following review.

Left of Forever is the second chance romance of a divorced couple. Ellis and Wren were childhood sweethearts who got pregnant and married very young. Things fall apart not necessarily because they didn't love each other, but rather due to circumstances that were hard to handle. Their son graduates from high school, and they go on a trip together to take him to where he will be going to college and on the way home, they explore the possibility that maybe they still belong together.

This book is like no other second chance book I've ever read. The longing on the part of both characters is off the charts. The writing is beautiful and the way the characters truly bare their souls in order to show the other how they have changed and how deep their love goes is beautiful. This is a steamy book which at times was almost too much for me, but that's just my personal feeling and didn't factor into my rating.

What I also enjoyed about this book was getting to see how Fisher and Sage are doing and watching not only them but everyone else in Ellis' and Wren's circle truly pull for them because they knew how important this trip was for the future of their family. So good! I look forward to Tarah's next Spunes story.

3.75 ⭐️
{Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!}

I enjoyed this! it was a solid romance with likable characters and a sweet childhood sweethearts story. The dynamic between the leads felt natural, and I appreciated how the relationship developed without relying on overdone drama or unnecessary miscommunication.

What stood out to me most was how there was no third-act breakup, which is so rare in romance and really made the story feel more mature and satisfying. While it didn’t completely blow me away, it was a cute, easy and entertaining read that delivered exactly what it promised.

Thanks to Tarah DeWitt, Netgalley, and St. Martin's Press for the #gifted copy of this book.

Rating: ♾️/5⭐️

Summary: Childhood friends turned lovers, Wren and Ellis got married young after she became pregnant. Five years ago, they divorced, but both have struggled to move on from their first love. Since their son graduates from high school and is attending an out-of-state college, Ellis proposes a road trip home with just the two of them to see if they can rekindle the love they share. During the miles of their trip, they start to dive deep into their best moments, but also their devastating ones, and start to see that maybe they have a future together.

Dani's Thoughts: Well this is how you write a second-chance romance and it is Tarah's best book in my opinion. Wow, I loved this so much...I'm having trouble putting my thoughts down... but this will hands down be a favorite of 2025 for me. I fell in love with the people of Spunes, OR with the first book and I was so excited for Wren and Ellis after all the tension between them.

This story was such a journey of healing through real conversations between Ellis and Wren. Though they both grow a lot throughout this journey, I think Ellis makes the most growth. I love that Ellis decided to work on himself through therapy before he pursued rekindling a relationship with Wren. There were some swoony and sweet moments(that I will not mention and spoil some of my favorite parts) that had me in all my feels throughout reading this book. By the end, I was just in tears for all the moments these two shared and watching their love story continue.

Though it can be read as a standalone, be sure to read the first book in the series, Savor It. I adored that book so much and it sets the stage for the people of Spunes and also the story of Wren and Ellis.

Read if you love:
💖Second Chance
🚗Road Trip
🥰Childhood Friends to Lovers
💜Found Family
🤩Small Town