Rebecca yarros is one of my autobuy authors. My introduction to her novels was when I picked up the first book in the “Flight & Glory” series (which I still haven’t finished by the way). After that, I’ve read nearly all her books – except some older ones and some installments in series. One of her latest novels is the historical fiction The Things We Leave unfinished and the fact that it’s something different from her New Adult series and her latest adult books sparked my curiosity.

Title: The Things We Leave Unfinished
Author: Rebecca Yarros
Publish date: February 23, 2021
Publisher: Entangled
ISBN: 9781682815663
Number of pages: 448
Genre: Historical fiction, Contemporary, Romance

Twenty-eight-year-old Georgia Stanton has to start over after she gave up almost everything in a brutal divorce—the New York house, the friends, and her pride. Now back home at her late great-grandmother’s estate in Colorado, she finds herself face-to-face with Noah Harrison, the bestselling author of a million books where the cover is always people nearly kissing. He’s just as arrogant in person as in interviews, and she’ll be damned if the good-looking writer of love stories thinks he’s the one to finish her grandmother’s final novel…even if the publisher swears he’s the perfect fit.

Noah is at the pinnacle of his career. With book and movie deals galore, there isn’t much the “golden boy” of modern fiction hasn’t accomplished. But he can’t walk away from what might be the best book of the century—the one his idol, Scarlett Stanton, left unfinished. Coming up with a fitting ending for the legendary author is one thing, but dealing with her beautiful, stubborn, cynical great-granddaughter, Georgia, is quite another.

But as they read Scarlett’s words in both the manuscript and her box of letters, they start to realize why Scarlett never finished the book—it’s based on her real-life romance with a World War II pilot, and the ending isn’t a happy one. Georgia knows all too well that love never works out, and while the chemistry and connection between her and Noah is undeniable, she’s as determined as ever to learn from her great-grandmother’s mistakes—even if it means destroying Noah’s career.

This story is told from multiple points of view and from dual timelines. We have Scarlett in the 1940s and her great granddaughter Georgia and Noah in the present timeline. This is necessary for the plot since we have to switch to both timelines to get a better understanding of this story. Personally, I like this way of storytelling. The multiple timelines invite the reader to continue reading since we slowly find out why it was so hard for Scarlett to tell her story and to finish her manuscript. And trust me, her story is intriguing. I have to admit that I was awaiting the moments when it was time to get back to the past as I really didn’t like Georgia and Noah. They just weren’t interesting to me. In fact, I found them incredibly boring. This probably has to do with the focus of the story since this was more on Scarlett and her past. Georgia and Noah therefore felt like filler characters to me. Scarllet’s story has more depth. I have to conclude that my usual reading experience with historical fiction told in a dual timeline format goes for this book as well, the timeline in the past intrigued me more than the present one.

Yarros’ writing style is like I’m used to, easy to follow and with multiple alternations between points of view. I’m used to these changes and they always work well in her books. This time is no different. The historical fiction aspect gives this novel more depth than i’ve seen in her work before. The military knowledge of the author gets a place in it as well since Scarlett’s duties during her work within the Second World War are described in detail. Not too much, but enough for the reader to understand what her work is. During the book, we get a lot of cliffhangers, especially in the past timeline. I wanted to keep reading to find out how things would develop for Scarlett. I didn’t really care for Georgia’s story unfortunately. It’s just so predictable and felt like a filler to me. This novel is character driven and it partially succeeded in that.

The Things We Leave Unfinished is a different type of novel than we know from Rebecca Yarros. The timeline in the past is the most intriguing one and actually carries the story. Main characters Georgia and Noah just aren’t able to do so because they aren’t interesting enough. For me, the bfocus of this book is on the past. Besides the uninteresting present timeline, I found the ending a little odd. I just don’t know what’s the purpose of this one and I find it actually a bit confusing. That’s such a pity since this book was pretty interesting beforehand.