Before I Let Go

The romance genre has two fundamental aspects at its core: First, whatever the plot, it must be concerned with a connection between two characters. Second, the ending must be happy and assure the reader that all is well in the relationship and the immediate world of the characters. These happy endings often involve marriage and children, with epilogues (casually known as “the babylogue”) often featuring pregnancy. In Before I Let Go, Ryan both subverts and follows genre convention, using tropes to assure the reader that she understands the ways her work departs from expectations but will nevertheless fulfill them. The work opens in Yasmen and Josiah’s past, with the passionate proposal and acceptance that often marks the ending of contemporary romance novels, such as Jasmine Guillory’s The Wedding Date.

Chapter 1 brings the reader into Yasmen and Josiah’s present, where the two have indeed married and had children, but are now divorced. Yasmen’s revelation that the two still work together, and subsequent discomfort and jealousy of Vashti, helps orient the reader by introducing another key trope: the troubled marriage, which will eventually lead to reconciliation. Ryan establishes Yasmen’s lingering feelings early on to establish that at the core of the novel is reconnection after trauma and loss, rather than the beginning of a relationship between people who do not know one another.