This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan: Book Review

Pub Date	March 5, 2024
Publisher	Forever
Page Count	416 pages
Genre	Romance, Contemporary, Adult
Goodreads Star Rating	4.41
My star rating	3

This Could Be Us Book Summary

This Could Be Us by Kennedy Ryan follows Soledad, as her husband destroys their family’s future. In the aftermath, she tries to survive and care for her three daughters, while also learning to love herself. In the meantime, she battles a growing attraction for a man that she knows she shouldn’t date, but can’t resist.

This Could Be Us Book Review

This Could Be Us is my first Kennedy Ryan book and while I’m not sure I picked the right one, I definitely get the hype when it comes to this author. It’s truly a wonderfully written novel, full of lovely descriptions and realistic dialogue that makes you want to jump in and talk with the characters. 

So, this is definitely a case of the right book, wrong reader — or wrong time, at the very least. Perhaps my expectations were incompatible with what this book ultimately was. I went into it pretty blindly, with certain assumptions of what this author’s work includes, so that’s probably one of the biggest reasons why it wasn’t that great for me. 

I was looking for a swoony, heart-stopping romance, which This Could Be Us was not. 

Of course, it does have romance and this is the main premise of the novel. Only I don’t feel like it delivered. And at a different point in time, it would have probably been great for me — I like women’s fiction well enough.

But, as I said, I really wanted a romance. 

This Could Be Us opens with Soledad and her husband attending an event where she meets Judah, an accountant that is, according to her husband, his work nemesis. Sparks fly between Judah and Soledad, though, and they seem instantly attracted to each other. 

I wasn’t exactly comfortable with this, to be honest. Sure, her marriage with Edward is rocky (as we see in the scene prior), and we learn later that he cheated on her, but I just didn’t like it. If they had a conversation and liked each other in a friendly way, it would have been better. 

After Soledad helps the authorities and Judah put her husband in prison, there’s a time-skip of about nine months. We learn that she got to keep the house and most of her assets, more or less, but is struggling financially. 

Now, I don’t know about you, but if I was in her place, I wouldn’t be trying to become an influencer in such dire circumstances. I mean, she has three daughters to raise, a mortgage for a really big and expensive house, two tuitions, and endless extracurriculars for her kids. A more proper job would be a smarter choice (maybe in addition to the influencer thing). 

I understand that all she wanted was to be a stay at home mom, and that’s a wonderful thing. But there’s no one else to support her and becoming an influencer takes a lot of time. Making money from it — especially enough for all the expenses — can take years. So, it’s not a viable career choice for someone responsible for three children and no other support. 

In my opinion, the sensible choice would be to sell the overly expensive house, see about finding a cheaper school for her daughters, cheaper sports lessons (perhaps in community or rec centers), and finding a decent job. She did graduate from Cornell and has some connections, so she would have been better off that way. 

Or, at the very least, the author could have written about her influencer career starting earlier, but Soledad only started to take it seriously when she lost her husband’s support. 

I think it’s very rare that someone manages to build up a financially successful influencer career in nine months. At least not financially successful enough to support Soledad and her children. 

It feels as if this author wanted to write about a struggling woman, but still keep the glitzy aesthetic. 

Plus, Soledad’s “recently divorced mom on Facebook” posts wouldn’t really work that well these days.

She talks a lot about dating herself and needing no man, when in reality, she clings to Judah a lot. And there are serious obstacles between them. For example, her daughters dislike him because he’s responsible for their father’s arrest. They’re aware that their father is to blame, but I find it reasonable from a child’s perspective to blame this stranger than someone they love/ 

Instead of that being the main issue in their relationship — again, realistic, reasonable — the issue seems to be that Soledad wants to keep her independence and keeps stringing Judah along. The children are brushed off, inconsequential in the end. 

And this is exactly why I dislike romance books with children. I can appreciate wanting to add a bit more real life to the genre, and something for all the single moms and dads out there. But introducing new people to your children’s lives is such a huge responsibility and could backfire so badly. What if the partner you choose is abusive? What if they abandon you (and them)? There’s not a lot of room for swoony romance when you have that hanging over your head. 

Especially since Judah’s sons are autistic and more sensitive to other people, and Soledad’s daughters went through so much with their father. I wouldn’t be open to casually or even not casually dating someone in these circumstances. 

Again, if Soledad and Judah started from a more friendly, supportive place rather than physical attraction, it would be better. But they don’t even spend that much time talking. Both make assumptions about the other based on what they can see on the surface level, yet don’t take time to really get to know each other. 

I did like the autism representation and how well it was handled. Judah’s storyline started off pretty strong, and I wish we got more instead of him revolving around Soledad for the majority of the book. 

I also loved how friendship was represented here, and all the lovely relationships between women. It’s rare to find well-written friends and sisters in the romance genre. 

Overall, This Could Be Us is not a bad book — you just have to be ready for the fact that it’s not a romance in a regular sense. A part of the reason I didn’t enjoy it as much as I could have is that it gave me anxiety. I worried about all the five children, even at the end, and I wanted to jump in and shake Soledad into normalcy. 

If you’re ready for this book, and the fact that it’s more women’s fiction with a romance subplot than a pure romance, then you should be fine. I would still advise that you check the content warnings and make sure the tropes and twists are something you can handle. If not, Kennedy Ryan has tons of books, and I know people praise the first book in this series, Before You Let Go. 

Happy reading!