Review: In the Likely Event by Rebecca Yarros

Note: This title was purchased under Amazon's First Reads program.

When I learned Amazon was offering In the Likely Event as part of their First Reads program for the month of July, there was simply no way I could pass it up. Yes, I'd already pre-ordered the book months ago, but with a discounted price AND getting to read it a full month in advance? Please and thank you! This standalone is bestselling author Rebecca Yarros' first with Montlake, and after the awe-inspiring and much deserved success she achieved with the fantasy romance that is Fourth Wing, this upcoming release is a return to more familiar territory--military romance. If you've never read anything by Yarros before, this novel is as good a place as any to dip your proverbial toe in, because simply put, you cannot go wrong with any book of hers as an introduction to her phenomenal storytelling. Take it from someone who has read everything she has ever published--and I'm sure I'm not alone in laying claim to that either.

In the Likely Event is a military romance about finding love at the seemingly wrong time, with the main characters' lives intersecting at pivotal points. Isabeau Astor is eighteen and the younger daughter of wealthy parents when she first meets nineteen-year-old Nathaniel Phelan on a flight out of St. Louis in November of 2011. She's on her way back to college in Syracuse, New York, and he's headed to basic training at Fort Benning (now Fort Moore) in Georgia. There's an immediate kinship formed as they're seated next to each other, but their plane crashes soon after takeoff. Their lives change in that instant; Nate goes on to build a career in the military, and Izzy one in politics. Over the years. their paths cross, whether by fate or by chance, but they seem to keep missing their chance to make an actual go of what's been between them for years. And then in August of 2021, Nate is in Kabul, Afghanistan...and so is Izzy.

There was angst, there was wit, there was suspense, and there was a whole lot of romance! Rebecca Yarros did NOT disappoint with her latest standalone, delivering the kind of emotional military romance that she's known for, giving it her own creative touch and making it another Yarros original. I couldn't help but feel for Izzy and Nate. Were they destined to be star-crossed soul mates, each meeting over the decade becoming touchstones to just look back on? Their story was akin to having the right love at the wrong time (cue Barry Manilow). There was no doubting that they were meant to be, though, even when it seemed like the odds were stacked against them. However, love conquers all, and if any two people deserved their happily-ever-after, it was Nate and Izzy. From beginning to end, In the Likely Event ticked all the boxes for me, and I'm thrilled it crash landed into my Kindle Fire a month early. It snags five stars.

Release Date: 01 August 2023

Date Read: 01 July 2023

Learn more about Rebecca Yarros.

Pre-order In the Likely Event on Amazon.