I think it is genius when authors can create stories that overlap in time and during events so they can be seen from other characters' POVs. I think it must take extra care and planning. That being, I didn’t read the first book in the Red Bridge series, What I Should’ve Said (April 2024) so I can’t comment on how the two books and characters overlap. I see some reviews commenting about it feeling repetitive but I also can’t speak to that.

Josie and Clay are the main characters and when they meet it is instant everything. The story follows the pair over the years. Josie finds she needs to step away from everything and everyone she loves. She has her reasons. But this is a second chance romance. Clay is always true to Josie and wants to win her back when given the chance. This is an emotional and angsty story. Keep tissues nearby. The highs are joyful but the lows leave you gutted. I found myself emotionally invested and wanted a HEA for the pair.

There are jumps back and forth in time from before and after the moment and I found that a little confusing. I am new to the two writers who together are Max Monroe. But I will read them again.

♥︎𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐬𝐭𝐲
♥︎𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞
♥︎𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐓𝐨𝐰𝐧

𝒯𝒽ℴ𝓊𝑔𝒽𝓉𝓈
"𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐈 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝,𝐯𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐝" is the second book in the Red Bridge Series that I have eagerly been anticipating. After devouring "What I Should've Said," I couldn't wait to dive into Josie and Clay’ story.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 book was a rollercoaster of emotions, filled with sweetness, heartache, and unresolved issues. The story features dual timelines from the past to the present, recounting Josie and Clay relationship and the events that led to their separation.

𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐞 loving these characters, I couldn't help but feel that they never truly understood each other. Josie dealt with her pain alone, while Clay remained oblivious to her struggles. Their inability to bridge the gap between them was a central theme that resonated throughout the story. I believed their miscommunication could have been avoided. That being said, there were moments where I felt sympathy for Josie and Clay. Sometimes love is complicated!

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 story did get me in my feels. One, Clay being Clay managed to break through Josie’s walls and did everything to make her smile. That was the sweetest thing. I also loved how beautifully the authors portrayed Summer, a character who left a lasting impact on everyone she met. You can feel how special she is through different perspectives and timelines. Though the tears flowed freely, I loved reliving those little moments. Summer was an endearing character that will live in my mind for quite some time.

𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥, if you’re a fan of dual timelines and second chance romances tinged with angst, the Red Bridge series is a must-read. Just be prepared with a box of tissues to navigate these love stories.

Thank you to 𝐌𝐚𝐱 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐫𝐨𝐞, 𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐀𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐚, and 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 for providing me with an ebook copy. All thoughts shared here are my own.

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝟒⭐️ 𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥: 𝟐🔥

I knew by the 20% mark that this book was going to break me. And it absolutely did, but it felt deeply therapeutic. I connected with Josie on so many levels. As someone who has experienced pregnancy loss, this story hit me square in the chest. There were moments I just wanted her to open up to Clay, but I completely understood her need to carry that heartbreak alone.
Now, about Clay… toxic is putting it lightly. To me, he’s a master manipulator, a charming gaslighter who twists situations into grand romantic gestures, but only when it benefits him. And as with most emotionally toxic relationships, their friends are blinded by the way he disrespects Josie’s boundaries behind closed doors.
All that said, I will gladly die on the hill that this series has been one of the most powerful reads for me this year. If you’re looking for an ugly cry kind of book that shatters you and then pieces you back together in the most healing way, please read this one.

*Thank you to Max Monroe, Entangled Publishing, LLC and Netgalley for the digital copy. I am freely leaving my honest review.

When I Should've Stayed follows What I Should've Said in the Red Bridge Series, with Josie and Clay's story. Red Bridge Barista Josie and local bar owner Clay, have history, and now we get to know the details of why the the tension is thick whenever these two are together! Josie and Clay were once in love and married, there are still feelings but Josie has believed them divorced for the last 5 years! This book alternates between "before the moment" and "after the moment", covering events that lead up to their parting and merging with the ending of What I Should've Said.

Josie and Clay's story is hearwarming and heartbreaking by turns and it was a emotional story, that kept me wondering what it was that drove the wedge in their relationship that seems to be so magnetic. There were swoony moments, tempered by devastating events, and some of the drama from the first book spilling over in the retelling. Overall I loved the story, but found some parts repetitive having read the two back to back, with some scenes being re-played word for word. Additionally, I found it difficult at times to keep in mind the time-frame with only month/day in the chapter heading. If the before/after or the year were included I think it would be easier to follow. Perhaps it was a quirk of the ARC.

Funny enough, I was left with the impression that the title "What I Shoulď've Said" applied as much, if not more, to Josie. I can forgive the few repetitive moments for the love and the laughs and I'm excited for Book 3, which I believe is set up for a Breezy/Tad storyline with the hijinks of Crosby, the injury faking sheep. I'm still laughing and I can't wait to get Tad the sheep farmer's story that has been mentioned in both book as being "a story for another time."

Max Monroe, thank you for making me ugly cry time over a sweet, little girl called Summer for a second time. Even knowing it was coming in When I Should’ve Stayed, if anything seeing her grow from baby to toddler to the sweetest little girl who inspired love in everyone she met, made it harder to read. If you keep this series going, I am thinking I should stock up on Kleenex, wine, and chocolate.

Josie and Clay’s second chance story was angsty and emotional even if as characters I wanted to bang their heads together, it was so obvious they were meant to be together. Josie especially but as their story was revealed as the story jumped from the past to present and back to the past, I began to understand her a bit better. She’d lost everyone she’d ever loved one way or another and in walking away from Clay she was protecting herself even as she justified it by telling herself she was doing it for him. I loved Clay who was just such a golden retriever of a hero with the patience of a saint and the stubbornness of a mule as he hung on waiting for his opening to win Josie back. The way their story is told flipping between past, and present doesn’t make this the easiest book to read and at times it felt a bit disjointed, and I know it followed the same timeline, but parts felt familiar to the first book without the perspective changing. I did love the idyllic small-town setting of Red Bridge and the quirky secondary characters, from Tad the hot but very bad sheep farmer to Sheriff Pete and the reverend all observers to the epic romance of Josie and Clay – now doesn’t that sound like a great title for a C&W song.

I'm just going to leave this here.

🧸💔❤️‍🩹🧚‍♀️

Clay loves José!

~~~~~
#claylovesjosé
#maxmonroe
#whenishouldvestayed #josieandclay #smalltownromance #secondchanceromance #entangledpublishing #maxedoutreaders

@authormaxmonroe
@entangled_publishing

What I should've said, which is the first book in this series has stayed with me since I read it so when I saw there was a second book coming out I immediately snatched it up. I was so excited for the opportunity to get an early copy of this book.

This will also be a book that will stay with you. This story is a bit of insta-love on Clay's part, the timeline goes con-currently with the first book, however this book has dual timelines it goes back and forth a lot. The book makes you dislike Josie until you learn everything at the end. Its a traumatic read about child loss. It's not often that a book makes me feel everything, but this one does. This book had me straight up sobbing at the end.

Thanks to NetGalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review as always, all words are my own.

When I Should've Stayed is the second book in the Red Bridge series. It follows Josie Ellis and Clay Harris.

Max Monroe are the queens of creating heart-wrenching stories and this one is no different. This book follows Josie and Clay on two different parts of their journey, when they were just falling in love and when they were broken up. I loved this aspect because you get the full picture of their lives before, during, and after their worlds changed.

Josie really went through it in this book. She never told Clay or anyone what happened to make her walk away from their relationship but she never stopped loving him. She is the type of person who bottles up her emotions and puts everyone else's needs above her own. She is also loving, caring, feisty, and stubborn.

Clay is a kind man with such a big heart. He loves Josie so much before and after everything went down. The poor man just wants to be with Josie and never knew what happened to make her push him away. I loved that after years of waiting he decided it was time to show her they were always meant to be. He is protective, sweet, caring, thoughtful, patient, and an open book.

Their story wrecked me in a way I haven’t felt in a while. The emotions of the characters literally roll off the page and I cried my eyes out reading this book. Max Monroe has a way of making you feel what their characters feel which is not an easy thing to do. There are also some funny parts mixed in with some zany townsfolk so it’s not all sad I promise!

I loved every second of their story and I hope all who read it do as well!

You will enjoy this book if you like the following:
- Small town
- The one that got away
- Second chance
- Unresolved tension
- Lovers to enemies
- Heavy moments
- Lots of banter
- Slow burn

While this book can be read as a standalone I highly recommend reading What I Should’ve Said first.

Thank you so much, Max Monroe and Entangled Publishing for the gifted copy!

Oh how my heart broke over and over in this one. There was plenty of suspense throughout the time jumps to keep me reading to find out what happened. Clay was so determined and really loved Josie, it definitely showed. Josie was going through so much pain, but I loved how their ending came together.

B O O K ❤️ R E V I E W
TITLE: When I Should’ve Stayed
AUTHOR: Max Monroe
RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
SPICE: 🌶️🌶️
KU: ✅
NARRATOR: Mindy Kennedy & Ryan West

Imagine you marry your high school love & it’s perfect - the perfect relationship - but over years due to loss and life, you grow apart & divorce… but he’s still madly in love with you and well, you’re not divorced…

I enjoyed this book, it was definitely emotional. The first book was a 5 star reading, but the secrets and miscommunication in this one frustrated me where I couldn’t give this one 5 stars but it’s still a great story.

Tropes:
❤️ second chance
❤️ high school sweethearts
❤️ it was ALWAYS her
❤️ healing with grief/loss

When I Should’ve Stayed

By @authormaxmonroe

5 stars

She thought they were divorced. He never filed the papers. Now he’s determined to prove their love story isn’t over.

Let’s start with this beautifully written dedication: “To the power of love. To the dichotomy of beauty and pain. To the hope that resides in new beginnings, and to finding the one person who puts your fears at ease.
And to the love story that sits between these pages. You’ll stay in our hearts forever.”

Tropes:
🩷Second chance
💜Still married(whoops!)
🩷Grumpy(her)/Sunshine(him)
💜Small town
🩷Found family

When I finished the first book in the Red Bridge series, What I Should’ve Said, I was itching to get back to get Josie and Clay’s story. When I Should’ve Stayed not only scratched that itch, but it made me swoon, giggle, sob and heal. I loved the dual POV and dual timelines that crashed into the now. I loved how much Summer was such a big piece of both of these books and of everyone’s lives.

The way Clay proposed a first date to Josie was the cutest and most memorable way ever!! I was cheesing ear to ear!
The 4th of July scenes… truly fireworks!! *Swooooon!*
The water tower at the end. Perfect hilarious icing on the whole damn cake.

This story was beautiful, masterful and made me feel all the feels. This is truly a story of how love can heal you.
I highly recommend putting this series on your summer TBR.
Oh gawwwd, that reminds me, Summmmer!! IYKYK. 🩷

The only question I have….Will Tad, the hot sheep farmer who is awful at his profession, get his own story?! 👀

Thank you Max Monroe + Entangled Publishing for my copy of When I Should’ve Stayed. 🤍 I received this book for review, all opinions are my own and given freely.

What I Should’ve Said absolutely wrecked me so when I saw the opportunity to read an arc of When I Should’ve Stayed, I’ve never ran so fast. I was so delighted to receive this arc and jump back into this world w these characters. I had so many questions surrounding Clay + Josie’s relationship from What I Should’ve Said so I was all too eager to get those answers. I absolutely do feel like you should read What I Should’ve Said before reading When I Should’ve Stayed.

I’m not sure anything could have compared to What I Should’ve Said. I did enjoy When I Should’ve Stayed. I didn’t love it as much as What I Should’ve Said though. I did love getting more Grandma Rose, Bennett, Norah and Summer. I did feel like there was a lot of repetition w this book and book 1 and even though it was different POVs, I didn’t think it was really necessary. I would have preferred if it had picked up from where book 1 ended instead of feeling like mostly a recap of book 1 for the majority of book 2. I did enjoy it though and will continue to recommend it! I’m absolutely looking forward to book 3 as well.

When I Should’ve Stayed releases July 1.

This book is absolutely one of the BEST books! My emotions were all over the place - reading this book is like riding a very intense emotional roller coaster. The book is pure delight, heartbreak and magic - it is everything that makes a reader fall in love with a story. When I Should’ve Stayed not only touches on emotions of happiness & sadness but it also deals with loss, starting over & learning how to rebuild and never walk away from true love. The story of Josie & Clay is so overwhelming intense & easy to fall into.

There are plenty of laugh out loud moments & banter between Josie & Clay. And there is just as much angst and emotion between them. Emotions run deep in this book especially with all that Josie goes through. My heart kept going out to Clay as he held on to Josie & refused to never give up & let go.

It was wonderful to see characters from Book 1 of this series make their way into this story. I did not think Summer could get any cuter or sweeter but she absolutely pulled at the heart strings!

With is a book that needs to be read! There is even an option to listen to the audiobook. Whatever fits you best just make sure to get your hands on this book as soon as possible!

So I absolutely loved the first book in the Red Bridge series, "What I Should've Said." I thought it was heartbreaking and romantic and gave me all the feels. I gave it 5 stars. But I'm really disappointed by this 2nd in the series, "When I Should've Stayed". The only thing I really liked about the book is that the characters were an overlap with the first book - making me feel like I knew them already which was nice. What wasn't great is that 75% of this book is just a rehash of the first book told from a different viewpoint. There was, at most, 25% of new content in the book. That was completely disappointing and unoriginal. I almost DNF'ed several times throughout the book. I wish there was more original content in this instead of just a copy of the last book.

First, if you haven't already read "What I Should've Said" (published in 2024) I suggest that you read it before this one because this book has a lot of spoilers in it if you don't know the story and the characters.

The story is told from two points of view and although each chapter identifies a character and a date for the narrative, the dates have no years and the the years are important to figure out what is happening and why. The years bounce around.

This book is chock full of emotions. Love, anger, grief. I also laughed quite a few times. The authors sure know how to write a story. Love most of the characters. But I had to take a point off my rating because I'm very annoyed with Josie. She makes some really stupid decisions that drove me nuts.

If you're looking for an emotional read, this is certainly the book to provide you with lots of tears and other feelings.

When I Should’ve Stayed absolutely lived up to its anticipation. Clay and Josie are something special and I don’t think I’ll ever get over them. Clay loves Josie so loud and proud that you can’t help but smile and giggle over all his antics to keep her attention.
Josie feels like her decision to divorce was inevitable; She was left without a choice and had to walk away. Red Bridge is her favorite place and can’t imagine leaving, but she also feels like she’s drowning. Clay will stop at nothing to show Josie they still belong together- even if that something is finally confessing they’re actually not divorced🙃
The dual timeline for their story kept me so invested in this story; Before The Moment and After The Moment.
Even though it’s told in that back and forth manner, I felt like their story flowed effortlessly. It kept me on the edge of seat and wanting all the answers.

I absolutely recommend this series if you haven’t started yet. Get your pink heart shaped sunglasses on and tissues at the ready!

Let me first start out by saying I adore Max Monroe. What I should've said was one of the most beautiful books I have ever read .I have been highly anticipating this read for so long and was so excited for an early copy. Unfortunately this book was a total miss for me. Even with such a break between reading both books, I felt like I was reading the same book twice, but with les emotion and investment. The jumping timelines gave us no time to truly invest in what was happening with each character at any point, and when there was any glimpse of a connection forming to the story or the character, the POV AND timeline jumped. I am typically an audio girl, so I waited for the audio release and I am not sure if that did me a disservice, but either the writing itself or the narrators lack of connection made me completely detached from this book. I know this book is already well loved so this could definitely just be a "me thing", but it was definitely a let down for my expectations.

3.75⭐️

I loved What I Should’ve Said. We got a glimpse of Josie and Clay from book one.
I thought I was prepared for the emotional damage, but I was NOT 😭
Reliving Summer’s story then Josie’s sad story really pulled on my heart strings 🥺

I had a little trouble connecting with this story at first. The time jumps were a little confusing.
Also, I felt Josie did not need to wait 5 years to communicate her feelings.
I understand it was her trauma response, but Clay had some patience.

I’m so happy Josie and Clay were finally able to reconnect.
They deserved to find their happiness after all the heartbreaks they’ve dealt with.

🩷Second Chance Romance
💜Small Town
🩷HEA
💜Emotional

4.5⭐
1.5🌶️

Although this is the second book in series, you don't necessarily have to read book one to enjoy this one. My gosh... Max & Monroe seriously did the dirty in this one. I was seriously expecting for my heart to break reading Clay and Josie's story. How they seemingly had everything and then when life dealt them consecutive bad hands, it seems even the strongest love couldn't withstand the heartbreak involved.

I really did feel for Josie, who repeatedly loses those closest to her. If that wasn't enough, she has a manipulative and malicious mother who tries to make her life a living hell. The only really family she has left is Grandma Rose and her younger sister, Norah... And eventually, Clay.

I loved Clay, who since the moment got down on one knee (pretty much in front of all the residents of Red Bridge) to ask Josie for a date until the very end, his love for Josie unconditional. He was a literal cinnamon roll MMC who loved hard and gave his all.

Josie on the other hand never thought she could feel this way about Clay... Loving him so much it hurt. I did feel frustrated with her at times - how she took the choice away from Clay and still went and divorced him thinking it would be the end of that. I felt like because of the grief and regret she was holding onto pushed her into making bad decisions which weren't necessarily the best cause of action. If only she had communicated with Clay it would have saved a lot of heartbreak. Ultimately, I still adored their second chance romance like no other!

I enjoyed the layout of the book which was told in two halves - before and after the moment. It's also dual POV, in which we gain insight from both Josie and Clay retrospectively. Although the story does tend to jump around regarding time frames, it wasn't hard to follow the story at all.

Let's just say, this story will undoubtedly stay with me for some time and Summer will always be the one I think about 💗💗🥹

Get your tissues ready because you're in for one heck of an emotional ride!

Thank you Max & Monroe and Netgalley for the eARC, in exchange for an honest review 🫶🏻

How can a perfect, heart breaking story get even better. This book made me laugh and cry. Just when I thought I was over the story, Max Monroe ripped my heart out and crushed it all over again.

This is a story I’d read over and over again. Even with the pain