Left of Forever by Tarah DeWitt

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This book tells the story of Wren and Ellis Byrd fell in love young, had a child as teenagers, and built a life together in Spunes, Oregon—until their relationship fell apart.

Now in their 30s and divorced, they still occupy each other’s thoughts. After dropping their son off at college, Ellis proposes a road trip back home, hoping for a second chance.

As they reconnect along the California coast, Wren begins to hope again—but buried wounds and unspoken truths threaten to derail their journey. In the end, a heartfelt letter may hold the key to healing—or final goodbye.

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My thoughts:

TARAH DEWITT DID IT AGAIN!! I'm unwell after reading this book. The story was so beautiful that it made me cry. LOVE LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH! Very recommended.

Ps. I changed my rating from 4 to 5 stars because this book is so beautiful, I want to read all over again.

Read this book if you like:
- second chance
- only one bed
- childhood friends to lovers

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for the eARC.

Wren and Ellis have known each other since they were kids. They were friends until they became more in high school. Soon after they became parents at the ages of seventeen and eighteen. Ellis was already a parent to his younger siblings after their parents died, and Wren was always right beside him. Now they had their own child to raise. As the years went on, everything was good. Until it wasn’t. Life threw Wren and Ellis into a rough patch they couldn’t get out of, and they eventually divorced.
Five years later, they are sending their son, Sam, off to college. In the five years they were apart, they stayed cordial with each other for the sake of their son, family, and friends. But they also never really moved on from each other despite how hard they tried. When getting their son settled at college, Ellis asks Wren if she would be willing to take a road trip with him on their way back. He desperately wants his wife back and wants to use this time to see if they could have their second chance. When Wren agrees, Ellis knows he’s only got one week to get her back and have what’s left of forever with her.

Tarah has done it again! Left of Forever was such a heartwarming, emotional, and beautiful second chance story. I’ve read a couple other books by her, and they had the same heartwarming and emotional feel to them. Wren and Ellis’s story had me going through so many emotions. My heart was hurting for them because you could see how being apart was hurting them. They each had their own issues and unfortunately didn’t communicate them when they were married. Now that their son is going to college, it feels like maybe they could have a fresh start. I really loved how they communicated their feelings this time around and didn’t hold back for the sake of the other person’s feelings. I also loved that they were working through their issues before getting physical. Their story had me crying sad and happy tears. This is the best second chance romance I’ve read so far. Tarah did an amazing job and I can’t wait to read more by her.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press and Tarah DeWitt for the eARC!

I’ve loved everything Tarah has written, and this book was no exception. I couldn’t put this down, I was so captivated by Ellis and Wren. Their story was raw, real, and emotional. The kind of story you feel in your chest. 

Wren and Ellis were childhood best friends who became teen parents, then married young. Life hit them hard with infertility struggles, unspoken resentment, and a growing distance that eventually led to divorce. 

Five years later, Ellis realizes he’s still in love with Wren and wants another chance. They dropped their son off at college and took a road trip home together. Each stop on their journey was meaningful and intentional, showing Ellis’s thoughtfulness and how deeply he knew Wren. I loved watching them slowly open back up to each other and work through the pain of their past. I had no doubt that these two were meant to be.

This is a story about second chances, healing, and the power of love. Full of emotion and gorgeously written, this is another unforgettable book from Tarah.

This might be a book that i need to wait for the actual audio book. i feel like the story is there and there is potential for me to like it the execution is just not there for me yet at least in the current format i am reading it.

After dropping their son off at college, exes Wren and Ellis Byrd decide to take a week long trip to celebrate a job well-done and see if there’s a chance for them to reconcile. As they drive through California, they experience new adventures together and find that while 5 years apart has not dulled their desire for one another, there are still some unresolved issues. As they make their way back home, can they make their way back to each other?

I loved this! I was so thankful to receive a physical ARC and wanted to savor the experience of reading it, but much like Wren’s character in this book, I “overdicked it” (Set It Up anyone?) and ended up needing to read it in two days! No matter because I was entranced per usual by Tarah’s writing and flew through it.

The chemistry and connection between Wren and Ellis was so strong. Like most others, I’ve been rooting for them since Savor It and am so happy they took the chance on being together again. Ellis is so tender hearted and earnest. His commitment to showing Wren he’d changed and his declarations of love for her had me swooning. I loved that they didn’t shy away for talking about the tough issues that had broke them apart, but they also had fun and flirtatious moments.

I didn’t tab my ARC (I’m waiting for my pre-order to arrive), but I made 18 notations of quotes or moments that made me feel something, including a nod to You’ve Got Mail. For me who doesn’t usually tab, it’s a lot!

While I’m not there yet with my children, one of the parts I actually related to the most and that made me emotional was when they drop Sam off at college. Both the aspect of leaving him, but also wondering who you are when you aren’t someone’s full-time parent. I think so many couples face that challenge of finding out who you are both together and separately once your children are grown.

Of course, I loved catching up with all the other Byrds as well as Fisher and Indy. I can’t wait to continue on with the series!

I am forever going to be an Ellis Byrd Stan!!

Ellis and Wren literally have had me sobbing. I don’t even have words to do this book justice. Brb as soon as I can find them.

I swooned, I cried, I smiled. Tara DeWitt can do no wrong.

Thank you to the author and publisher for the ARC!

OMG Left of Forever completely wrecked me in the best way possible. I seriously did not expect to feel this many emotions!! One minute I’m grinning like an idiot and kicking my feet and the next I’m ugly crying on the couch. The characters felt so real it was like I was living their story right alongside them. I had to set the book down and just stare at the wall for a sec. If you love stories that punch you in the heart and then gently hold your hand after, read this. Immediately.

If you know me, you know I love a second-chance romance, so it’s no surprise that I devoured this book! I thought Wren and Ellis communicated so maturely, which is always a breath of fresh air in romances. The yearning, vulnerability, and tension between them were off the charts, and the pacing of the story was done perfectly. I liked that the road trip plot took place in the span of a week and never felt rushed or even drawn out. If you’re looking for a new second-chance romance, go read this. It’s out today! Thank you for the ARC St Martin’s Press 🫶🏻

I'm not typically a second-chance romance fan, but I am a huge Tarah fan so I had to read this!

It hurt to get through, but reading about two soulmates lose each other and then find their way back was very beautiful 🥹 It only hurt because the writing is so, so good as always.

I would recommend to anyone who likes:
- small town 🥄
- first-loves 🫶🏻
- second chances 💝
- firefighter mmc 🔥
- quick-wit fmc 🧠🧁
- letters 📝
- serious honesty / communication around relationship

thank you to netgalley and st. martin’s press for the arc! 🫶🏻

rating: 4.75 🌟

left of forever is about a divorced couple, wren and ellis, who 5 years after separating still can’t seem to shake their feelings for one another. when their son, sam, graduates high school and moves for college, ellis proposes that he and wren take a road trip the week after and see if there’s any way they can rekindle their relationship.

i adored this story! i think it’s tarah dewitt’s best writing yet. i loved both ellis and wren and their inner monologues were so heart wrenching while they were missing each other and when the hope struck them both that maybe they really could find their way back to each other.

as someone who got married at 20 and has been married for almost 14 years now, this book really resonated with me. while we haven’t ever separated, i understand how hard things can be sometimes as you essentially grow up together and how hard you have to work to keep things together. i loved the idea that you can keep falling in love with each other over and over again through different seasons of life and the inevitable different versions of yourselves that will emerge throughout time. that gives me so much hope for the future of my own relationship and is also so motivating to read a second chance romance. you have to put in the work and not let things get to a point where you stop fighting for each other. just my personal takeaways!

more about the actual book! the way that ellis byrd realized his mistakes and did everything he could to rectify them was amazing. i loved how they both went all in on the agreement to try and how many walls they had to shatter in order to get through the other side. the open communication and letter writing was so lovely.

overall, an amazing book and i would definitely recommend!

tropes:
💔 divorced couple
❤️ second chance romance
🌿 small town
🚙 road trip

TW:
-infertility, ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage
-death of a parent, grief
-chronic illness
-fire/fireinjury

quotes:
“you’re still a byrd.” “i am,” i say proudly.

“I miss you, too sounds glib. You have been missing from me is more accurate. There’s a void where you lived in me.”

“I’m just saying. My DNA mixed with yours, and it altered your very bones, Byrd.”

“If you won’t have me back anymore then I’ll find you in the next life. You are the only thing that makes me believe in that.”

hi hello this book was INCREDIBLE!!! Idk what it was about these characters but I was ✨OBSESSED✨ let’s be real… it’s a second chance romance so I should’ve known lol

I loved how descriptive the writing was in this book - I truly felt like I was third wheeling on Ellis and Wren’s little road-trip vacation! The pacing of this book was also incredible and kept me engaged & invested the entire time! 🤩 overall this book gets ♾️⭐️ from me and is a new favorite!

forever obsessed with Ellis Byrd and his slutty mustache 😮‍💨

I don’t cry at romance books. I don’t. I squeal and kick my heart, and maybe sometimes there’s a hand-over-mouth moment, but crying?

Not until this book. Happy tears. I think it’s safe to say that I connected with Wren and Ellis; second-chance romance is deeply personal to me and Tarah DeWitt just perfectly captured the emotion of it.

I picked up this book as an escape from heavier themes — and it is! It’s sweet and funny and sexy, but the emotions are the part I didn’t expect. The longing, the hope, the pain — all done so well. Tarah DeWitt is now an auto-buy author for me.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the ARC. Admitting that a book made me teary is a thing I did all on my own.

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

So we were all obsessed with Ellis and Wren the minute he said "She's still a Byrd", right?

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Happy pub day to Left of Forever! Going back to Spunes felt like coming home. I missed these characters and this little small town in the PNW. This book was one of my most anticipated releases of 2025, and I'm so grateful that I received an arc! Like always, Tarah Dewitt's characters are complex and messy and make you fall in love with love over and over again. And oh my, did I love Daddy Ellis. My absolute favorite part of this book was seeing the Byrd's all together again and the chaos that ensued. The way they all tried to "parent trap" Wren and Ellis was perfection. 🤭

While this book wasn't my absolute favorite of hers, it provided a great set up the rest of the books that she will be writing in Spunes (aka Silas's and Micah's books).

"I'll love you for everything left of forever, in every lifetime we get."

Read if you love:
💍second chance marriage
🤍childhood friends to lovers
💍found family
🤍road trips

ARC Review:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for Left of Forever by Tarah Dewitt

Left of Forever is a second chance romance following Wren and Ellis. It’s got a small town setting and also a bit of travel for the two. This book was absolutely adorable. While second chance isn’t usually my favorite trope, this one is done so well. I loved that they fell in love young and were able to find their way back to each other. They did so without sacrificing their parenting roles and to me that made this special. I loved the letters to each other and how they explored their past relationship. I felt like the groveling and the effort to fix their previous mistakes made me actually root for their love story.

Definitely recommend picking this one up and it’s out today! May 20, 2025

Thank you to Netgalley and @stmartinspress for the opportunity to read this e-arc

I had no doubt this book would be emotional and beautiful, and it didn't disappoint!

I really enjoyed Savor It last year, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on Ellis' and Wren's story!

Second chance romance is one of the hardest trope to get right in my opinion, and it was done flawlessly in this book! You can really feel the love and longing between Wren and Ellis, who both tried and failed to move on.

Honestly, I loved everything about this book! Ellis was top-tier book husband! I loved how he was honest with Wren about his intentions from the beginning, how he was ready to do the work and talk about the hard stuff they went through.

The letters. The yearning. The found family. The roadtrip and all the fun destinations they stop at. This book was amazing and I can't recommend it enough! Prepare to tear up and laugh out loud, swoon and cry while you go on a healing journey with these characters.

Also, when I saw Far Away by Nickelback on the playlist for this book, I was so happy. It's one of my favorite songs ever.

Tarah DeWitt creates a love story that reminds us all that sometimes when you love someone you need to let them go, so you can both grow and fall in love all over again.

What I absolutely loved about Left of Forever was how it made me believe in love again. It was a second chance romance that reminds us how love isn’t just get married and have a HEA, but something that requires work and communication. And sometimes that means you need to let each other go to grow and then maybe the new versions of yourself will fall in love too.

Wren and Ellis were so young when they both grew up quickly, from getting pregnant to taking care of Ellis’s younger siblings all while falling in love and finding the person who made you feel complete. But then life does what it always does and gets in the way, leading to them divorcing but ensuring they coparent for their son.

Now they’re faced with the fact their son is graduating, and the dynamic of their current relationship will change with him going away. But Ellis has already realized how much he missed the person who knew him best and the woman who he never stopped loving. So of course he starts formulating a plan to see if they can find their way back together.

And so we get to watch Wren and Ellis fall for each other all over again…although you do question have they ever truly stopped loving each other? Along the way we see them have the tough conversations of what lead them to divorcing. I think what made me love this book is it showed two people who had to let each other go to become the versions of themselves they needed to be to love each other again. Also we love seeing a man going to therapy!

Wren and Ellis were by far lovable characters that you wanted to root for as they found their way back home. Back to the person who the hardships of life tried to separate them from, but who was worth fighting for again. And as someone that has been surrounded by divorces throughout her family, seeing these two get a second chance and how much love they had for each other made me believe in love again. It’s a reminder to us all that love requires work, honestly, and communication to truly work…especially when life throws hardships your way.

Left of Forever by Tarah DeWitt is a touching and emotional second chance romance that really stayed with me. Wren and Ellis were high school sweethearts who had their son young and built a life together, but over time they grew apart. Now in their 30s and divorced, they still care about each other deeply. When they take a road trip after dropping their son off at college, old feelings come back and they start to wonder if they could try to love each other again.
I loved how real and heartfelt this story felt. Wren and Ellis have been through so much, and watching them slowly reconnect was both sweet and heartbreaking. Their love story is full of emotion, hope, and healing. The writing is beautiful, and I was completely pulled into their journey.
This is the kind of romance that makes you feel everything. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves emotional and romantic stories.
Very grateful to the publisher for my copy through NetGalley, opinions are my own

Ooooooou second chance will get me every!! single!! time!! The yearning, the heartache, the pain and the payoff after was just perfect. Wren and Ellis' story was just so raw, tender, and deeply satisfying. Cannot wait to read more of Tarah!!

Tarah DeWitt has done it again with Left of Forever—a tender, funny, and achingly romantic second-chance love story that left my heart full and my eyes misty. This isn’t just a romance; it’s a deeply felt journey through heartbreak, healing, and the kind of love that refuses to let go, even after years of silence and scars.

Wren and Ellis Byrd aren’t your typical will-they-won’t-they couple. They already have a rich, complicated history: young love, a son, a marriage that didn’t survive, and the kind of emotional residue that doesn’t just fade with time. DeWitt doesn’t gloss over the pain of divorce or the challenge of co-parenting a child into adulthood. Instead, she leans into the messy reality of two people who have always loved each other but got lost along the way.

Their road trip from their son’s college back to their hometown of Spunes, Oregon, is the perfect backdrop for a slow-burning, soul-searching reconnection. DeWitt’s prose glows with warmth and humor, and she balances intimate moments with emotional weight in a way that feels both honest and cathartic. The chemistry between Wren and Ellis is undeniable—yes, there’s "melt your face off intimacy," but also vulnerability, shared history, and an aching desire to get it right this time.

The setting along the California coastline adds a dreamy, cinematic quality to the story, echoing the themes of rediscovery and reflection. And while the romance is front and center, DeWitt also gently explores themes of identity, forgiveness, and the power of words—especially when they come in the form of a letter that just might change everything.

Left of Forever is heartfelt, hopeful, and beautifully written. It reminds us that sometimes love needs time, space, and a second chance to bloom fully. A must-read for anyone who believes in the enduring power of love and the magic of finding your way back to the one who feels like home.

There are some books that leave a lasting impression from the very first page to the very last. Left of Forever is absolutely one of them. Ever since the “She’s still a Byrd.” moment in Savor It, I had a feeling Ellis and Wren would become a couple I’d never forget. And wow, was I right.

Watching these two stripped down to their rawest selves, grappling with emotions that never really went away, growing both individually and together, and ultimately realizing they’re meant for each other, was the very definition of second chance romance. Which just so happens to be one of my favorite tropes ever. This book was beautifully written, and I loved every second of it.

Tarah handled some tough topics with so much poise and care. Ellis, Wren, and the entire Byrd family felt so real, flaws and all, which is exactly why I loved their story so much. This isn’t your typical cookie-cutter romance. It’s rough, it stings at times, but if you're willing to put in the emotional work, it leaves you with the kind of satisfaction that makes you believe in love again. Like Ellis and Wren, you come out the other side stronger and happier. I know I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time, and I’m honestly jealous of everyone who still gets to experience it for the first time.

I loved it so much that I signed up for the audiobook as well, it did not disappoint both Megan Wicks and Connor Crais brought the story to life so beautifully. Whether you read it or listen to it, you’re in for something special. I already can’t wait to reread it. I’ll be thinking about this one for a while.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St Martins Publishing for the eARC and ALC.