Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan
Published: 2022
Genre: Fiction (Romance)
My Rating: 5/5
When I Read It: October 2025
Grief is a grind. It is the work of breathing and waking and rising and moving through a world that feels emptier. A gaping hole has been torn into your existence, and everyone around you just walks right past it like it's not even there.
My Review
This was maybe the most beautiful book I've read about marriage. I cannot tell you how long this book has been on my list. It has received such high reviews online — everyone is always talking about it, and I put it off for a while. I'm happy I came to it when I did.
This book is one of a few from this year that I really appreciated because it provided perspective on goals that I could never relate to. The book's main character, Yaz, has an American dream nothing like my own. She wanted the kids, she wanted the husband, she wanted the house, she wanted the successful business, and I really appreciated hearing her perspective through the challenges of their marriage because marriage isn't something that I've ever aspired to. I'm not opposed to it, but unlike Yaz, it's not on my radar and it isn't something that defines my level of success in life.
This book reads like a movie, and at some point, it was so hard to put it down. Toward the end, I was excited for it to end though. The language was so colorful that I was able to paint this book in my mind like a movie.
I went into this book knowing that it was the first of a series, but what I didn't know is that each book of the series is about a different woman in the friend group. To be honest with you, I don't know that I care to read the other two books. My biggest takeaway from this is that marriage is work and marriage is a decision, and I don't know if it's a decision I'll ever make.
Plot Summary
Their love was supposed to last forever. But when life delivered blow after devastating blow, Yasmen and Josiah Wade found that love alone couldn’t solve or save everything. It couldn’t save their marriage.
Yasmen wasn’t prepared for how her life fell apart, but she’s finally starting to find joy again. She and Josiah have found a new rhythm, co-parenting their two kids and running a thriving business together. Yet like magnets, they’re always drawn back to each other, and now they’re beginning to wonder if they’re truly ready to let go of everything they once had.
Soon, one stolen kiss leads to another … and then more. It's hot. It's illicit. It's all good—until old wounds reopen.
Is it too late for them to find forever? Or could they be even better, the second time around?