The Things We Leave Unfinished by Rebecca Yarros

Amy  

romance, historical fiction

In 1940, Scarlett is serving in the British Royal Air Force when she meets and falls in love with an American pilot, Jameson. In present day Colorado, Scarlett has just died after living a long life as a very successful romance novelist. She had raised her great granddaughter, Georgia, who has inherited Scarlett’s unpublished, incomplete life story. When Georgia finds out that another author, Noah, has been brought in to finish Scarlett’s novel without Georgia's approval, she agrees to allow Noah to attempt to complete Scarlett’s novel but under her terms.

Since I am enjoying The Fourth Wing series so much, I wanted to read something else by Rebecca Yarros. I knew that The Fourth Wing was Yarros’ first fantasy novel and that she is known for her romance novels. The storyline in The Things We Leave Unfinished was, obviously, completely different than The Fourth Wing. However, I could still see some general similarities in the way the characters have had trouble in their lives, they now face some new, extreme trials, they are attractive and fit, and eventually fall in love. Some people die. Also, similarly, there are some steamy sex scenes woven into the main storylines. This formula is not unique to Yarros, of course. But Yarros does it very well by creating terrific characters that this reader can get behind.

The past and present storylines alternated throughout the novel—just the right amount of each one before switching. The 1940s story was my favorite because it felt more genuine and plausible than the current day storyline. But I still enjoyed them both. And then, Yarros went ahead and shocked me not only once, but twice! I felt so many emotions while reading this one! The tension was great.  The unexpected plot twists were awesome! The conclusions were satisfying. I really enjoyed this novel! I’ll definitely read more by Yarros.

The audiobook narrators were Carly Robins reading sections from Georgia’s and Scarlett’s points of view and Tim Paige reading those from Noah’s and Jameson’s points of view.  My main complaint is that I didn’t appreciate the accent Paige gave to Jameson. I’m not sure what he was going for (maybe Humphrey Bogart?) but it just sounded like he had a speech impediment. Otherwise, I thought both narrators were good voice actors and had enough of a vocal repertoire for the novel. I’ll give them an A- as an ensemble.