Tarah DeWitt’s Left of Forever, is a lovely second chance after divorce romance. I love a good second chance romance, and especially one that is post divorce. They are such a great canvas for exploring hope, growth, acceptance, and forgiveness. Left of Forever does that all well with big heaps of yearning and one of my favorite microtropes, a man who goes to therapy.
Left of Forever is focused on character and jumps around a bit in time before we get to the reconciliation road trip. This gives us a chance to sink into where Ellis and Wren are mentally and emotionally. DeWitt gives us a good foundation for becoming invested in the happily ever after.
Wren has worked hard to create separation between herself and Ellis in the 5 years since they divorced. That’s been a challenge because they live in a small town (Spunes, Washington, not to be confused with Forks, Washington), co-parent their son, spend Thanksgiving and Christmas together with their combined family, and Wren is close with Ellis’s siblings. Though they’ve kept their distance and built separate lives, they have both stagnated emotionally. Ellis’s emotional shutdown is disrupted when he is away helping fight a forest fire and he sees a care package from Wren sent to whichever firefighter picks it up. They begin a brief correspondence, he knows he is writing to her, but she doesn’t know that he is her pen pal. It cracks them both open with Ellis realizing how much he misses Wren and Wren realizing she wants a romantic relationship (though not with Ellis). Ellis knows he is working towards a second chance with Wren. Wren is trying to figure out how to let go of Ellis so she can move on with someone else. Lots of A+ pining and yearning happens here.
DeWitt puts words together beautifully. Wren and Ellis yearn, hope, and feel their anxieties eloquently. It’s a joy to read. Underpinning the beautiful words are well grounded emotions. Ellis is a fixer, the very definition of competence porn. He solves problems and takes care of people. But when Wren needed him to be with her in messy feelings, he tried to bypass emotions and fix the problem instead. The older I get, the less interested I am in the grovel. To paraphrase Hamilton, groveling is easy, living is hard. That said, Ellis gives a beautiful, thoughtful, emotionally honest apology in Chapter 35 that feels like the culmination of his journey in this book. He is not poised to fix anything, he just wants to be with her.
There is a scene involving a kitchen accident (no blood) and sexy times afterwards that I just couldn’t get into because I was too busy silently shrieking in horror. Wear gloves when you work with peppers, people.
I received this as an advance reader copy via St. Martin’s Griffin and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.