📆 Publication Date: 14th October 2025
⭐️ 5/5 stars
📖 Length: 352 pages
📱 Format: ePUB
⏳ Read Time: 6 days
Synopsis
When New York architect Tate Donovan arrives in Cape Cod to design his best friend’s summer home, he is hoping to make a fresh start. Recently discharged from an upscale psychiatric facility where he was treated for acute depression, he is still wrestling with the pain of losing his beloved sister. Sylvia’s deathbed revelation—that she can see spirits who are still tethered to the living world, a gift that runs in their family—sits uneasily with Tate, who struggles to believe in more than what reason can explain. But when he takes up residence at a historic bed-and-breakfast on the Cape, he encounters a beautiful young woman named Wren who will challenge every assumption he has about his logical and controlled world.
Tate and Wren find themselves forging an immediate connection, one that neither has ever experienced before. But Tate gradually discovers that below the surface of Wren’s idyllic small-town life, hatred, jealousy, and greed are festering, threatening their fragile relationship just as it begins to blossom. Tate realizes that in order to free Wren from an increasingly desperate fate, he will need to unearth the truth about her past before time runs out . . . a quest that will make him doubt whether we can ever believe the stories we tell about ourselves, and the laws that govern our existence. Love—while transformative—can sometimes be frightening.
A story about the power of transcendent emotion, Remain asks us all: Can love set us free not only from our greatest sorrows, but even from the boundaries of life and death?
What I thought
When I first spotted Remain on NetGalley, I knew I had to read it. As a longtime Nicholas Sparks fan (The Notebook will always hold a special place in my heart), I was determined to hit that 80% feedback ratio to improve my chances of being approved. And when the acceptance email arrived? Let’s just say I couldn’t contain my excitement.
I deliberately saved this book for the -ber months, and it was the perfect choice. Imagine a cosy evening with candles flickering, soft jazz playing in the background, and this book in hand. The atmosphere matched the story perfectly—and the story itself? Absolutely captivating.
I genuinely loved this book. I was slightly apprehensive it might lean too dark or graphic, given Shyamalan’s style, but it struck a perfect balance: tense and thrilling when necessary, yet always anchored by the tender romance at its core. Once I started, I found it impossible to put down.
The characters completely stole my heart. Wren quickly became a favourite, and her bond with Tate, developed through shared gaming nights, felt incredibly authentic. Early on, the book tugged at my emotions (have tissues ready), but ultimately, it’s a story about love, loss, and the fragile boundary between memory and reality.
“When all we know, or feel, or see,
Shall pass like an unreal mystery”
This is a five-star read for me, one I’ll be picking up in hardback as soon as it’s released. And here’s hoping the upcoming 2026 film adaptation lives up to the book’s magic!
If you’re curious to check it out yourself, you can pre-order Remain here on Amazon or by supporting local indie bookshops at bookshop.org
Thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers – Little, Brown Book Group (UK) for this e-ARC in return for an honest review.
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