Whenever You’re Ready
by: Rachel Runya Katz
September 10, 2024 St. Martin’s Griffin
320 pages
The thing about dead people, is that you can’t argue with them. While this may seem extremely obvious, it has some far reaching implications that are explored in Rachel Runya Katz’s new sapphic romance Whenever You’re Ready. Yes, you read that correctly. A steamy adult romance has a deep exploration of grief on both a personal and societal level, and it just kind of works. Don’t ask me how. The author is clearly a wizard.
Best friends Nia and Jade lost the third friend, Michal, to metastatic brain cancer before the opening of Whenever You’re Ready. Without Michal’s presence, they’ve let their own friendship peter out. Grudges and miscommunication have festered without the third party who could have mediated them. Except maybe Michal still can help her friends, because when Nia receives a letter written by Michal that she was instructed to open on her 29th birthday she is forced to reach out to Jade. Michal has asked Nia to take Jade (and Jade’s twin brother Jonah who just so happened to be Michal’s boyfriend) on the Southern Jewish history trip they were all planning before Michal’s cancer resurfaced. Now the two must awkwardly meet in person again and deal with feelings they’ve both been harboring for years.
Michal and her memory loom large over the plot. It’s not just a question of how to enjoy a trip that was initially planned for their deceased best friend, but also how to become a different person than the one that friend knew. For Jade and Nia to reopen their past, which is shown through flashbacks, and give in to their mutual longing, they must also let go of the versions of themselves that Michal saw. Each moment of growth, of life change, feels like a betrayal of the friend who cannot be there with them to experience it.
Heavy enough for you yet? Well, the Jewish South is no picnic either. Jade and Jonah learn that their Jewish ancestors on their fathers side participated in a system that enslaved people that looked like their mother. Not to mention some horrific antisemitic history, including the lynching of a Jew. How can one square with such a history? How can they even try given all the people involved are now dead? One interesting option is presented when Jade and Jonah meet their long lost cousin who himself has been struggling to deal with his ancestors mistakes. Nia is a steady force at Jade’s side as she goes through all of this, which makes the reader really root for their relationship.
Whenever You’re Ready is a steamy book with longing so fierce it could knock the reader over, and one very hot sex scene. It is a book that holds no punches, yet somehow also manages to be gentle. Jonah’s character arc in particular shows evidence of how everyone can grow. The ending is satisfying and the way the epilogue mirrors the prologue is wonderful. I appreciated the way the author trusted the readers to handle both difficult topics and steam. It gave the characters more nuance and I really learned something while reading.
Note: BookishlyJewish received an ARC of this book from the publisher.