Whenever You're Ready by Rachel Runya Katz Published by St. Martin's Publishing Group on September 10, 2024
Genres: Fiction / Friendship, Fiction / Romance / LGBTQ+ / General
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781250888341After reconnecting on a road trip, two friends must decide if love is the ultimate risk worth taking in this funny, emotional sapphic romance.
Nia and Jade had been inseparable ever since their best friend, Michal, introduced them at her tenth birthday party. But now it’s been three years since Michal died of cancer— since the brutal fight Nia and Jade had in the weeks after— and they're barely on speaking terms.
Until Nia reads a letter Michal wrote for her 29th birthday, asking her and Jade to go on the southern Jewish history road trip they'd planned before she died. To add to the complications, Michal's then-boyfriend and Jade's twin brother, Jonah, joins the trip. Despite the years apart and Jade and Jonah’s strained relationship, any awkwardness quickly disappears as it becomes clear how much Nia and Jade have missed each other.
Unfortunately, old issues soon arise. Nia has been in love with Jade since they were teenagers, and Jade has been so committed to their friendship that she never let herself consider something more. As the stops pass, tensions mount, running high until Nia and Jade are forced to confront what happened three years ago, their feelings for one another, and even their respective relationships with Jonah.
Rachel Runya Katz’s Whenever You’re Ready is about family, friendship, and the kind of first love that could last a lifetime—if only you are willing to take a chance.
Okay, so this novel was a lot! The novel itself has many themes and ideas in it for only 300 pages from friendship to death to how to handle grief. It was also a lot because I wasn’t expecting my own past trauma with cancer to come rearing it’s ugly head.
For starters, I absolutely love the relationship between Jade and Nia. I thought it was well thought out and written. There was so much grief over their best friend’s death from cancer, their own fears of ruining their friendship if they pursue a romantic relationship, and the last time they were together ended in a fight and them not really speaking in three years. There was a lot to unpack and deal with while they were on this road trip.
The road trip itself was fascinating, and finding out in the author’s note that this was based on Katz’s own trip makes me want to go visit these places myself. There was some great history in here and it wasn’t always the most comfortable.
One aspect that just didn’t hit right was Jonah, Jade’s twin brother. While I appreciated the idea that people grieve in different ways, it felt more shoehorned in and out of place at times for the rest of the novel. Jonah and Michal were in a romantic relationship for the last part of her life, sleeping together since the summer, actually boyfriend/girlfriend in the fall. All in all, it’s stated to be a 9 month relationship. But how everyone treats it is that it’s this big romantic, once in a lifetime, this was the woman he was going to marry, type love. Obviously, the cancer progressed so aggressively that it probably wasn’t talked about for that reason. There’s also the fact that we find out that Jonah and Nia slept together in high school, both recognizing that it was a one time instance and wouldn’t be repeated. I know the exaggeration of how Jade’s family treats her after Michal’s death and how they treat Jonah is to further the tension between the two of them. But it just feels really disingenuous for the story. It would’ve made more sense if Jonah and Michal had been dating since high school or even college for how the Pardo family reacted.
There just seemed to be a lot going on in this novel for it to be labelled as a romance. I feel like it would’ve been better if this was general fiction or even literary. I’m not even sure if I like the idea of Nia and Jade being together at the end. Unless they both started going to therapy, I could see them staying together just because of Michal.
I do love the interspersing of the flashback scenes and the letters from Michal. It really rounded out the story and made sense to what was going on in the present day. A vulnerable and sweet novel, but definitely be forewarned that it’s not a typical romance as there are a lot of heavy themes to deal with.
Leave a Reply