This book is a like a gospel to young, everlasting love. There’s something so unique about loving someone like this (speaking from experience), while you grow up beside them. TD captures it beautifully, allowing the reader to feel the tender connection between Wren and Ellis in soooo many ways. I enjoyed the author’s choice of reliving our character’s memories through letters and journaling instead of going the traditional flashback route. I didn’t need to read through that much of Wren and Ellis’ past to feel how interwoven they were in the present, and that’s a true testament to the author for her character development and beautiful writing. This book made me fall deeper in love with the Byrds (the whole fam!) I hope we get to see more of them soon!!!

Thank you St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC!

Fair warning, this book made me want to get pregnant at 17 and married and divorced by 33 just to reconnect with my ex-husband. I don’t know what Tarah puts in her books, but holy hell was this good! I was hooked from the prologue and deeply attached to Wren and Ellis 5 minutes after starting their story.

I’m always hesitant to read a second chance romance because I hate conflict and only want the cute falling in love story, but I loved the way Wren and Ellis reconnected and did the work. There was no argument or miscommunication for the sake of it, it was just a masterclass in communication and unconditional love.

💕Second chance
❤️‍🩹Divorced couple
🚗Forced proximity (roadtrip)
💘Childhood friends to lovers to divorced to lovers

Tarah DeWitt does it again, folks. Left of Forever is everything I wanted—a stunning, emotional, second-chance romance that hurts in the best way before putting your heart back together. If you love childhood-friends-to-lovers, exes who never stopped loving each other, and a good ol’ messy, angsty road to reconciliation, then this book is for you.

Let’s talk about Wren and Ellis Byrd. These two have been through everything together—first loves, marriage, heartbreak, divorce—but no matter how many years pass, it’s never really over between them. Their love has always been deep, raw, and real, but life (and circumstances) tore them apart. After five years of keeping things civil for their son Sam, Ellis finally decides it’s time to do something. His idea? One last road trip together as they send Sam off to college. And let me tell you—this road trip is a journey in every possible way.

This book is packed with so much emotion. The regret. The longing. The love that never really faded. Seeing Wren and Ellis navigate their history, their heartbreak, and the years of feelings buried between them? I FELT EVERYTHING. There’s mutual respect, there’s messy communication, there’s yearning (oh my god, the yearning), and there are moments so full of love it actually hurts. And when all those unspoken words and unresolved feelings finally boil over? Yeah. I was a goner.

And let’s not even get started on the spice because whew. Tarah said let’s make this the hottest one yet, and she did not lie. The intimacy between Wren and Ellis? Mental, emotional, spiritual, chemical. Ellis’ POV during those moments? Yeah, I was gnawing on my Kindle. (Pleasure dom king, hello???)

Beyond the romance, Tarah does what she does best—building a world so rich and real you don’t want to leave. The Byrd family, the small-town charm of Spunes, the friendships and relationships that feel so lived-in—I was envious knowing these characters aren’t real.

The pacing? Perfect. The writing? Breathtaking. The emotional depth? Gut-wrenching in the best way. I laughed, I cried, I sweated (👀), and I fell in love with Wren and Ellis over and over again. This is second-chance romance done right.

Honestly? I already want to re-read it. And when the audiobook drops? Prepare to be sick of me.

✨ What to Expect:
💍 Marriage Reconciliation
💔 Divorced Couple
📖 Childhood Friends to Lovers to Strangers to Lovers
🚗 Chaotic Road Trip
👨‍👩‍👦 Co-Parenting + They Have a Teenager
🌲 Small Town Romance
🔥 Angsty, Emotional, and Ridiculously Sexy

A once-in-a-lifetime love, rediscovered. Don’t miss this one.

I was very hesitant to read this second chance romance, but I ate this book up. I read it in less than a day and I felt all of the emotions. This is second chance romance done so well. I loved how we got both POVs and the mutual pining was perfect. I normally cannot stand the miscommunication trope but all I felt was sadness that it took these two so long to figure it out.

This is one of my top 2025 books for sure.

4.5/5 ⭐️

When I read “Savor It” last year, I hoped that Tarah would give Wren and Ellis a chance and write a book about them. Side characters in a love story about someone else’s, and they already had me yearning for a story about their love. And I was right to be waiting for this one.

There is something about a second-chance romance that speaks to me more than any other trope can. I admire characters who take a chance to heal and are able to flip the sad part of their stories into the absolutely best one. A love so all-consuming, mate-like, and fearless – this is how I would describe Wren and Ellis’s story.

Ellis is the perfect MMC, a man so down bad for Wren that I cried every single time he opened his mouth. His love confessions could easily be some of the most beautiful words I have ever read.

With all that in mind, I kind of hoped Wren would be a bit more yearning for Ellis from the beginning. She just kind of hopped on this trip down memory lane, but I wasn’t 100% convinced that she was as in love with him as she claimed. This is just a tweak, but I have to cut 0.5 stars for that, as this thought wouldn’t leave my brain for the entirety of this book.

One last thing worth mentioning is the incredible found-not-found family trope that is done so excellently here. I am excited for the next books to come, already so in love with Silas and Micah. Spectacular – give me 14 of them right now.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

In the introduction to the story, the author writes that she never planned on writing a second book in Spunes, but Ellis and Wren just demanded her attention when they appeared in her earlier book, Savor It. And wow, am I glad they were so demanding to share their story with us all. I adored the characters. They were both so gone for each other, but had been so hurt and so lost in their marriage because of the challenges of life. There were a lot of assumptions between the two that had an impact on their relationship, but it never felt like the author was using miscommunication for the sake of a trope. It was heartbreaking, raw and honest, but so sweet and passionate.

And that's the reason I love reading books by Tarah DeWitt; every single one of them has been so realistic, you feel like you know the characters. They, and their stories, are fully realized. You can't help but get lost in the story. She's done this so well in other books, but it is masterfully executed in Left of Forever. This is, hands down, my favorite book by Tarah DeWitt so far.

Thank you to the author, Tarah DeWitt, and the publisher, St. Martin's Press/St, Martin's Griffin, for an advanced copy of this book.

I devoured this book. Heartbreak, to growth and healing. Never have I felt that two characters were so meant to be together and I rooted for them the whole way.

‘Left of Forever’ is a magical, heartwarming, funny and HOT(!!!) read.

This was my first read of Tarah’s, and wow was it ever PERFECT!!! Childhood friends-to-lovers, second chance, forced proximity, and found family galore.

I haven’t always been the biggest fan of a second chance romance, but this one was executed so perfectly. Wren and Ellis’ clumsy reconnections were constantly tugging at my heartstrings. The LONGING!!! The TENSION!!! The HOPE!!!

I am obsessed with their small town in Oregon, and the California roadtrip made for such a dreamy setting!

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the review.

I’m a big fan of Tarah Dewitt and Left of Forever not only became my #1 book of hers but maybe my favorite romance of all time. It was sweet, tender, steamy, and REAL. I laughed. I cried. 5 stars.

Left of Forever is the ultimate second-chance romance (my favorite!). Ellis and Wren (or Byrd as he calls her) have been through it. Fell in love super young, had a kid when they were still basically kids, were parental figures to his siblings at the same time. They fell apart, divorced, and have been apart for five years but their lives and families are completely intertwined. Wren has tried to move in, dating people and no one ever makes her feel the way Ellis did and she wonders if she’ll ever get a second chance to be with someone. Ellis has realized he wants her back but has no idea if she feels the same way because she certainly doesn’t act it, keeping her distance and trying to keep things perfectly polite for the sake of their son, Sam, and mutual family/friends. When Sam gets in to his dream school in California, Ellis talks her into moving Sam down together and then taking a trip together afterwards to spend time together away from the pressures of their daily lives and figure out what went wrong between them and if they could ever be together again.

Omg, Ellis, (cue sigh). He’s kind of a dream guy. He knows that he lost the best thing that ever happened to him, messed up by not appreciating her and is actively trying to be better for her. He plans a trip with various stops that seem random initially but ultimately come full circle because they parallel things she’s always wanted to do. Wren is cautious, not sure if they can get past all the things that broke them but ultimately she really really wants to be with Ellis and there’s a lot of love still between these two (as well as some meddling family members who don’t at all buy that this is really the “friend” trip that they’ve billed it as).

I absolutely loved Ellis and Wren plus Tarah DeWitt is a Northern California native so the places that appear in the book are so familiar to me and that made it extra fun. A definite preorder must!

Thanks to St. Martin's Griffin via Netgalley for this ARC.

I have been PINING for this book since Savor It came out (maybe as much as Ellis has been pining for Wren?) and Tarah DeWitt DID NOT DISAPPOINT. This was everything I love in a second chance romance:

-Flashbacks (but not written as a true dual timeline)
-TENDERNESS, gah the tenderness!
-Character growth, individually and in relationship
-Vulnerability
-The giddiness of old love that's new again when the brush of a fingertip feels like straight up sparks

There were so many beautiful lines in this one too:

"I'm dying to reach over and squeeze his hand, to thread my fingers with his so we might celebrate the best thing we ever did together." SOBBING (as a parent).

"I miss you too sounds glib. You have been missing from me is more accurate. There's a void where you lived in me." DYING.

"God, I would have died for this man, once. Now we're reduced to single syllables and stilted silences." CRUSHED!!

Add this to your TBR immediately folks!

consistent with the other books I’ve read by DeWitt: fun, sweet, and maybe even if briefly heartbreaking but not in the everything is ending way.

the only downside was it felt a smidge too rushed in the storytelling but that didn’t break the flow like it can with other books, I just enjoyed the characters a lot and wish I had more with them and their journey of coming back together.

would recommend to literally anyone who will listen though

What I liked: the longing, the uncertainty, the chemistry, the realness of how people change over five years apart. I loved seeing Sage and Fisher, not to mention LaRynn and Deacon (what an absolutely delightful surprise)!! I love Wren and Ellis individually, too; Tarah DeWitt is so good at writing women with a little bit more of an edge than we often see in contemporary romance. I feel like Wren and LaRynn could have been friends.

What I didn’t like: I didn’t love the letter-writing plot device. If I was Wren, I would feel deceived and creeped out by that. I also didn’t like that they decided to only do new things as their relationship got physical. It seemed odd to me that they would jump to stuff they hadn’t done before, when they're first reconnecting after so much time apart. It seemed less intimate, somehow.

Tarah DeWitt remains a strong auto-buy author for me!

I’m dead smitten & in love with the whole Byrd family & the fun, quirky lil community that is Spunes, (not to be confused with Forks). Seriously. I wanna be a Byrd now.

DeWitt outdid herself with the depth of her characters. She breathed life into the MC’s & the secondaries so effectively and then entwined them all together in such a seamless way, that it delivers this sort of panoptic visual for the reader. Or it certainly did for me. The cast was magnetic. I was living in the pages and hardcore rooting for Ellis & Wren and their second chance romance, 5-years post divorce. Ughh, they were both positively worthy & swoon-worthy.

Getting swept up & emotional in a good book is familiar terrain. But me, crying…? Eh eh. That’s as common as cowboys in chaps, herding a pack of feral cats. Takes a special kind of talent to get me there. & I’ll be damned if it didn’t happen here. Twice. Now this wasn’t some pop-a-cork-yowling-at-the-moon-while-flappin-like-a-fish-on-the-floor kinda meltdown. No. This was a silent affair.

~ Left of Forever simply moved me to tears.

Andddd then there was that heat!🥵 DeWitt slapped up the spice knob on this one! The Ellis & Wren *Doin'-The-Laundry* 👁️👁️ (winks) scenes... yea, those... They had me a clittle weak in the knees🥴 My legs didn’t wanna leg anymore. Hell, even that 1 pack of feral cats was feelin’ feelings, purring all up & down the street!🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Ooh & “seeing” Fisher & Sage again made my heart frolic & chirp happily about..🥰

I wonder if we’ll see Lennon Kirby again….?🧐 No matter, I’m so eager for brothers, Silas & Micah, to catch their own screen time & HEA. I can’t wait to see that magic.

4.5⭐️ & easily my favorite from TD so far!

Big thanks to NetGalley, Tarah DeWitt & St. Martin's Press for this arc in exchange for review!

Pub: 5.20.2025.

How wonderful it is to be back in Spunes! The story of these two had me intrigued since the Savor It, and I love getting to read more about the Byrd family. Wren and Ellis went from childhood friends to high school sweethearts, to teenage parents, to strangers looking for a second chance at love. I live for the second chance trope, and this book served it on a golden platter.

After five years apart, they embark on a road trip to rekindle their relationship. I enjoyed watching their evolution—from the initial awkward moments to returning to old habits and openly discussing both the highs and lows of their relationship. It was amazing to read how they reconnected and fell in love with each other again; even though they still had strong feelings for one another, both had to put in the work to make it work.

I really liked that communication was key in this book, and I think everything fell into place perfectly. My ebook is filled with underlined quotes, and I hope to return to Spunes and learn more about the rest of the Byrd siblings!!

(+) I loved reading about certain characters I adore— currently living on crumbs .

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review 💗 I love you, Tarah DeWitt, you did it again!

There’s nothing anyone could offer me to make me react normally about this book. This was the most beautiful and actually heart aching book. Tarah Dewitt you are absolutely nuts (In such a good way.)

I have so many thoughts surrounding this book but need time to put it all together. Infinity stars though.

I didn’t want this book to end. This will probably be one of my favorite books of the year. I don’t know if it’s because I resonated with a lot of the story (my husband and I went to high school together), but my goodness, it was such a beautiful story. Spicy but heart warming, lots hard conversations had. I just loved Ellis & Wren so much. 5 star read for me!

this was one of my most anticipated 2025 books and it didn’t disappoint

thank you netgalley and st. martin’s press for the arc in exchange for an honest review

I just have to give a huge shoutout to Tara DeWitt and everyone involved for letting me read this ARC—what an absolutely fantastic book! I loved every moment of it! I haven’t had the chance to read any of the author’s other books yet, but I’m definitely going to dive into her other works after enjoying this lovely gem! Getting to know Wren and Ellis was such a delightful experience! Wow, what a ride this story was! It took me on an emotional rollercoaster, making me laugh one minute and wiping away tears the next. It was such a breath of fresh air to see a mature couple and dive into their family dynamics. I was completely invested in Wren and Ellis’s journey, watching their childhood love evolve and grow over the years. The mix of lighthearted moments with the tension of them wanting each other made it even more enjoyable—I found myself cheering them on! By the end, I had goosebumps; it really pulled at my heartstrings. I can’t wait to recommend this incredible book to everyone and explore more from this amazing author! I absolutely loved this book, I couldn’t put it down! I finished it in a day, and if I could give it 10 stars, I totally would! I can't wait to dive into more from this amazing author!

Left of Forever by Tarah DeWitt was such a joy to read. This book tells the story of Wren and Ellis, who were childhood sweethearts, who got pregnant and married when they were young. At the start of this, they've been divorced for close to five years and Ellis wants to get back together with Wren. It's a heartbreakingly beautifully written book and thought that the character development was done so well. I love to see an emotionally stable man. This was more than just a goofy, silly romance. It had depth and I'm so glad I was given the opportunity to read it. I will definitely be recommending this book to everyone looking for a top tier second chance romance.