The Book I Love: Book review: Before I Let Go, by Kennedy Ryan

Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Book review: Before I Let Go, by Kennedy Ryan

“It stings a little, that the ease we used to share is gone. It’s one of the things we never recovered from the most painful season of our lives.”

I started hurting as soon as I started reading this book. And the hurt and the need to cry didn’t lessen as I continued reading. I had a knot in my throat and a hurt in my heart, a need to cry because it was just so damn sad. Two souls who love each other to the moon and back lost their way, and you can tell they still love each other with their whole hearts and soul, and yet, don’t know or can’t find the way to each other.

“Two shipwrecked souls unable to figure out how to save each other. Both sinking.”

I saw how each of them attempted to move on, to forgive and forget, but it was just impossible. It felt like there was a thread that kept them together, that couldn’t be broken, no matter how each tried to break free. I was anguished as I kept reading how they accepted that the other had other interests, how they faked unconcern while they were burning with rage and jealousy inside.

“There is only one letter of difference between love and lose, and somewhere along the way, for me they became synonymous.”

I saw Yasmen’s guilt and Josiah’s distrust, and then I was the one who despaired that this wonderful couple who had formed such a beautiful family and a beautiful life, could let all this perfection go. This story really wrung my heart dry, luckily my despair turned into hope midway through the book and then I was wanting to slap both silly to get their move on!

“Our life, our love, didn’t follow the path we thought it would, but that makes it no less true.”

Not only was this a beautiful love story, but the writing was so sublime. There were so many phrases full of poetry and so fulfilling. It was a delight and a treat to read such beautiful prose! An honor indeed!

Purchase links

US: https://bit.ly/3VbZi2f

UK/Commonwealth: https://bit.ly/3hKC8T6

AU: https://bit.ly/3BR7RIR

About the author

A RITA® and Audie® Award winner, USA Today bestselling author Kennedy Ryan writes for women from all walks of life, empowering them and placing them firmly at the center of each story and in charge of their own destinies. Her heroes respect, cherish, and lose their minds for the women who capture their hearts. Kennedy and her writings have been featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, TIME, O magazine, and many others. She is a wife to her lifetime lover and mother to an extraordinary son.