All the Days Before Tomorrow

by Rebecca Brodkey

a friends-to-lovers romance about cancer, healing, and love worth scouring the world for.

despite what you may have heard…

Ruby Hirsch is not a tragedy.

Sure, she lost touch with almost all her friends during the slog of breast cancer treatment. And okay, her writing career also screeched to a halt. But she’s trying!

Ruby’s (former) BFF Penelope has everything Ruby lacks: a bestselling book, a doting fiancé, and a solid friend group. But Pen needs something that Ruby has in spades: time. Pen asks Ruby to help plan her upcoming wedding, and in exchange, offers to introduce Ruby to her literary agent, the jumpstart Ruby needs for her writing career.

Ruby must rely on the sunshine best man, Eitan, who seems to have everything figured out—except wedding planning. The more time they spend together, the more Ruby sees beneath his sunny bravado, and learns about a grief that mirrors her own. Eitan, meanwhile, sees the reality of her and Penelope’s friendship and begins asking questions that threaten the entire wedding—and the writing career that Ruby has hanging in the balance.

As the wedding, her feelings for Eitan, and her own dreams for a life post-cancer collide, Ruby must reckon with what she’s actually fighting for, and what it means to survive.

Genres: Romance

362 pages, Paperback

Expected publication June 2, 2026

About the author

Rebecca Brodkey lives in the Chicago suburbs and spends most of her time hunched over a notebook, reading, and eating popcorn. She is a breast cancer survivor, a lifelong mythology nerd, and a dreamer. She is the author of a contemporary romance novel called All the Days Before Tomorrow, and a fantasy novel called Darker Than the Starless Night.

Reviews

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

it was over once he started ecstatically singing dancing through life but the hand flex at the river and him burning her a CD (in 2026) had me folding

if he wanted to he would was a saying inspired by eitan btw

“these are boobs of life” quote of the century

Bookstagram | Blog

[clicktojointhemafia]

a cancer survivor finding her love for life again :') im going to go cry now

[Em · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you so much to the author for a physical ARC of this book! A true honor to receive a physical indie arc because I know how much h work that is on the author themselves!

Before I begin writing this review I want to state that, while yes this book heavily involves cancer, illness, depression, etc. that EVERYONE deserves a happily ever after. It’s not because they are sick, or in spite of, or pity, or idk. I think it’s so important that if I mess up how I try to say this review, I don’t intend to be ableist and that if you took the illness out of this book this was a FANTASTIC romance.

Okay now into the review!

This book was beautiful, amazing, and a total cry fest by the end. Honestly, I was surprised given it was so heavily rooted in cancer I didn’t totally lose it until the end. This book follows Ruby and Eitan in a chaotic few months of weddings within a friend group. Ruby is trying to put herself back out there after not only feeling like she lost herself in breast cancer treatment at 29, but losing all her friends (including her bf who left her the second she “finished” chemo, she didn’t stay friends with. Eitans father died from cancer four years ago and represents that losing someone and carrying the weight of that for so long doesn’t just go away. When he meets ruby at a wedding and then gets thrust into her life, he wants to help her with her goals of putting herself back out there. Ruby suddenly has her friends again when one of her friends tells her she’ll introduce her to her literary agent if she helps take over planner her wedding. Chaos ensues!

This book had so many layers, from ruby being manipulated by her “friends”, to seeing how illness and cancer continue to impact you everyday. I loved the conversations around survivorship. I especially loved the relationship that Ruby formed with Louise. I thought it was so important and really helped contrast some of Rubys relationships. I also loved how Ruby was so real, from angry to sad, to cynical. I loved her dark humor and I also loved Eitan seeing past it.

I loved Ruby and Eitans everyday moments of falling in love.

Finally, I really loved the ending. The perfect way to represent an “end” to a topic so heavily in the unknowns.

[Demetri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Come for the Wedding Planning, Stay for the Existential Meltdown, the Hot Dog, and the Seaglass-Eyed Boy
“All the Days Before Tomorrow” begins with post-cancer social panic and bridal labor but deepens into a surprisingly shrewd novel about survivorship, appetite, and the risk of choosing life anyway.
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | April 5th, 2026


At the threshold between city shadow and lake light, Ruby stands where survival stops being a status and becomes a choice.

Some novels about illness still believe, a little too politely, that catastrophe will sand a person into wisdom. Rebecca Brodkey’s “All the Days Before Tomorrow” knows better. Cancer, in this novel, does not ennoble Ruby Hirsch so much as leave her stranded in the abrasive, unphotogenic afterlife of survival: medically managed, hormonally wrecked, sexually unsure, professionally stalled, socially displaced, and surrounded by people who were much more comfortable with her during treatment than they are with her once she is alive enough to need things again. The book’s great and prickly intelligence lies there. It understands that the crisis is not only getting sick. It is surviving without becoming easier for other people to consume.

That is why Ruby is such a strong narrator. She is not a saint, not a lesson, not a courage mascot in cute compression socks. She is frightened, horny, bitter, self-mocking, often funny in the precise way funny people become when panic has colonized the whole house and wit is the only room left to sit in. Brodkey gives her a mind that does not proceed by revelation so much as by ricochet. Ruby bargains, deflects, lusts, resents, panics, over-interprets, and occasionally says something so nakedly true she seems to surprise herself. The voice has real snap. It can turn a hot flash, a bad date, a post-treatment hormonal shot, or a florist appointment into an occasion for comic dread. At its best, it gives the novel both velocity and sting.


The leap into Lake Michigan turns terror into motion, the cold water becoming both dare and permission.

Ruby has, on paper, done what she was supposed to do. Treatment is over. She is in remission. She has, technically, survived. But Brodkey is superb on the insult concealed in that adverb. Survival is supposed to sound like arrival. Here it feels more like being dropped off somewhere without clear signage, proper lighting, or much sympathy. Ruby’s body has changed. Her confidence has thinned. Her relationship with sex is warped by reconstruction, numbness, menopause symptoms, and the memory of being left by Grant, the boyfriend who stayed long enough to count as decent and then departed early enough to leave a permanent bruise. Her writing career has stalled. Her friendships have hollowed out. One of the book’s smartest running devices is Ruby’s “Be Yourself (Again) List,” a numbered attempt to strong-arm her life back into shape. The list is funny because desperation becomes faintly ridiculous the moment it acquires bullet points.

Then Penelope comes back into her orbit, and the novel’s social machinery starts humming. Penelope is an old friend from Ruby’s writers-group past, now a poet-influencer bride with a booming platform, a coming wedding, a literary agent, and a preternatural talent for making extraction sound like intimacy. She invites Ruby into the wedding party and, more consequentially, into a deal: help me shepherd this monstrous wedding into existence, and I will help get your book in front of my agent. Ruby, who wants back into life with the hunger of someone who has spent too long watching it from behind glass, agrees.

This arrangement is the novel’s masterstroke, because it lets Brodkey yoke illness, friendship, class aspiration, female social performance, and literary ambition into one exquisitely stressful machine. The wedding is not mere backdrop. It is a delivery system. Florals, playlists, vendor meetings, dress fittings, camp itineraries, last-minute errands, conversion details, vows, escort cards, emotional triage – each task becomes another way of asking what exactly friendship means once labor enters the room wearing perfume and calling itself love. Penelope does not read as a cartoon villain for most of the novel. She is much worse than that: plausible. She is socially gifted in the most dangerous way. She knows how to make entitlement sound like vulnerability, how to convert other people’s effort into evidence of her own belovedness, how to let someone believe they are being chosen when in fact they are merely being used well.

Brodkey is especially sharp on the hierarchy of acceptable suffering. Penelope likes having Ruby near when Ruby can function as loyal witness, errand-runner, emotionally intelligent fixer, Jewish wedding consultant, and eventually marketable cancer survivor. What Penelope does not especially like is Ruby as a full person – messy, needful, desirous, intermittently angry, and no longer content to remain decorative. The novel’s most acid insight is that people often prefer illness when it is visible, noble, and finite. Survivorship is harder to romanticize. It keeps asking for time, sex, patience, practical help, and moral flexibility. It ruins the symmetry of other people’s stories about you.

The publishing subplot deepens that point rather than merely echoing it. Ruby spends much of the book believing that Penelope’s career represents a path she, too, might follow if she works hard enough, says yes often enough, and keeps proving herself useful. When she finally meets Penelope’s agent, Alice Sutherland, the fantasy curdles. Alice is less interested in the book Ruby has actually written than in the version that can be repositioned around breast cancer. It is one of the novel’s best turns, not because it exposes publishing as corrupt – that would be too easy – but because it reveals how thoroughly Ruby’s pain has been translated into opportunity by everyone around her. The wedding wants her labor. The industry wants her wound. In both cases, what matters is whether the suffering can be arranged attractively.


At the microphone, Ruby’s private dread becomes public language, and being heard starts to resemble being alive.

And then there is Louise, the character who blows the whole book open. If Penelope represents the sleek vulgarity of image culture and transactional intimacy, Aunt Louise represents appetite in its least apologetic form. She is wealthy, caustic, funny, vain, exasperating, affectionate, and living with metastatic recurrence. Brodkey does something braver with her than simple wisdom-distribution. Louise is not in the novel to provide tasteful perspective from the edge of death. She wants hot dogs. She wants the casino. She wants to complain, to joke, to meddle, to flirt with the world a bit longer. When she and Ruby go out for Chicago-style hot dogs after an oncology appointment, the book suddenly acquires a second pulse. It becomes not only a romance or a survival narrative but a novel about illness stripped of uplift. Louise will talk about recurrence, pain medicine, shrinking horizons, and the indignities of treatment without once pretending that suffering improves character. She refuses the role of moral décor.

That refusal matters because Brodkey’s prose, while mostly accessible and contemporary, is strongest when it leans into the body rather than the slogan. She is very good at altered sensation: the strange map of reconstructed breasts, the hormonal volatility, the hot flash arriving in the wrong place, the body as both self and traitor. She is very good, too, at weather. Lake water, storms, humidity, early autumn chill, aurora-lit sky – the atmospheric writing is sometimes a touch over-insistent, but usually it performs real emotional labor. Ruby experiences feeling as climate: sudden, physical, destabilizing, impossible to negotiate with. The imagery can recur a beat too often, and there are places where Brodkey explains what a scene has already made clear, but the prose has real tensile feeling. It wants to move. Even the jokes come attached to nerves.

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Under the aurora, Ruby and Louise occupy a brief human clearing between awe, mortality, and the stubborn fact of wonder.

Formally, the novel is more disciplined than it first appears. Brodkey straps nearly everything to the countdown toward Penelope’s wedding, and that choice gives the book a tautness that saves it from becoming merely episodic. Florist consultation, beach day, open mic, camp trip, rehearsal dinner, wedding collapse, biopsy dread – each episode does its own work while also tightening the screw. The calendar structure is not especially flashy, but it is effective. It makes every emotional hesitation costlier. It turns delay into plot. It also lets Brodkey stage a nice tension between ritual order and bodily disorder: weddings demand timelines, bookings, matching looks, formal entrances, perfected surfaces; cancer has other ideas.

The romance with Eitan Moreno arrives right where it should: at the point where Ruby most wants back into life and least trusts herself to re-enter it. Eitan is charismatic in a way many readers will either surrender to quickly or resist on principle. He is very handsome, emotionally intuitive in bursts, grief-marked, funny, maddening, tender, occasionally avoidant, and given to gestures that would be insufferable in a lesser book. Here, mostly, they work. He works because Brodkey refuses to make him a cure. He does not heal Ruby’s fear. He does not erase the medical plot. He does not even always know what to do with his own feelings. What he does offer is legibility. He reads her correctly. He notices that the jokes are cover, that the competence is overcompensation, that the so-called improvement project is often just fear wearing sneakers. Ruby, in turn, understands that his buoyancy is partly generosity and partly a defense against grief. Their connection has charge because it is built not only on attraction – though the book is pleasingly frank about attraction – but on the unnerving relief of being recognized without being simplified.

Some readers will find the romance almost too winning. I suspect those readers will be the same ones who distrust charm in fiction on moral grounds. I am not among them. Brodkey knows exactly what she is doing with the bathroom-door meet-cute, the beach scenes, the dance-floor electricity, the camp-tent intimacy, the hand-on-the-cheek near miss, the eventual sexual reawakening. Yet what rescues these scenes from generic uplift is the fact that they are not about Ruby becoming desirable again so much as about Ruby becoming inhabitable to herself. Eitan returns her, however briefly and contingently, to the possibility of feeling like a body instead of a diagnosis, a case file, a management project, a lesson in resilience.

The novel’s central achievement, then, is not that it tells a moving story about cancer and love. Plenty of books can do that. Its achievement is that it understands the humiliations of partial recovery – the way desire, ambition, fear, grief, and social hunger can all coexist inside one person without arranging themselves into a better moral order. Ruby does not come out of illness with serene wisdom or a tidier soul. She remains petty, funny, terrified, ambitious, jealous, desirous, self-aware in flashes and delusional in others. The book does not punish her for that. Better still, it does not ask her to become inspirational before granting her feeling.

Its central limitation is that by the end Penelope begins carrying slightly too much symbolic freight. For most of the book she is painfully recognizable: vain, charming, insecure, acquisitive, intermittently warm, socially lethal. In the final act, especially around the rehearsal dinner and wedding implosion, she becomes just a shade too perfect as a vessel for everything the novel wants to indict – influencer narcissism, prestige hunger, exploitative friendship, self-mythologizing literary culture. The confrontation is dramatically satisfying, but it is also one of the few places where the book’s appetite for payoff slightly outruns its patience for complexity. A few speeches elsewhere also arrive a touch over-shaped, as though the novel momentarily wants us to underline them.

Even so, I would rather take that excess than a more tasteful, flatter book that never risked ugliness. “All the Days Before Tomorrow” earns its mess. It is willing to be hormonal, funny, lusty, cruel, sentimental for a second and then embarrassed by its own sentimentality. It lets a hot dog matter. It lets an open mic matter. It lets a ruined wedding matter less than one dead woman’s final days. It lets a romantic reconciliation stand not as proof that life is fair but as proof that unfair life can still contain gifts. That is a much tougher claim.


In the cheap fluorescence of The Sunny Island, shabby sanctuary becomes fate’s preferred architecture.

I’d place the book at 88/100, or 4 stars. That score suits its temperature: genuinely moving, structurally shrewd, often very funny, occasionally over-emphatic, and more ambitious than its packaging first suggests. It is strongest where it refuses to confuse illness with enlightenment. It is weaker where it presses too hard for moral clarity. But it keeps insisting on something harder, stranger, and finally more convincing than triumph. Not that suffering makes life meaningful. Not that love cures fear. Not that surviving entitles anyone to coherence. Only that life, even half-healed and badly timed and medically shadowed, remains worth wanting in its vulgar particulars.

That is what the ending sharpens. By the time Brodkey arrives at biopsies, burial, cancelled weddings, agent disillusionment, broken friendships, and hard-won love, the question is no longer whether Ruby will become her old self again. It is whether she can stop treating life as something that begins after fear ends. The novel’s answer is no, and thank God for that. Fear stays. The body stays precarious. The future refuses to clarify itself. But the book denies fear the final aesthetic word. It leaves Ruby not purified but awake – hot dog in hand, weather shifting overhead, phone about to ring, life still messy enough to choose.


Before the lake light and threshold resolve, the painting begins as a search for where solitude, city, and survival can share a single frame.


The pencil map keeps the emotional architecture spare: a figure, a threshold, a band of water, and more unanswered air than certainty.


The first washes let feeling arrive before detail, staining the page with lake-blue hesitation and dusk-pink resolve.


The palette narrows the book’s weather into workable color – bruise, bloom, shoreline, interior light, and the small warmth that survives them.

All watercolor illustrations by Demetris Papadimitropoulos.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars!

Okay normally I'm a casual reviewer in the sense that I take all the hobbled thoughts I had about the book and just put them together at the end. This is the first time I started writing a review mid read because I related to this too much and needed to write my thoughts down before I lost them. I don't have cancer but I deal with it everyday. I'm an oncology nurse so though I treat patients with cancer I'm not the one sitting in the chair. I'm giving the Benadryl I'm not feeling "the rush of Benadryl hitting your bloodstream, submerging your mind in cotton candy ... The chemo agent that gets pumped in through a port in your chest ... Look out rapidly growing cells, no one is safe ... Least of all your dignity." (I point this out because it's so accurate. How many times have I watched the Benadryl hit a patient and they lose track of the story they're telling? How many times have a I asked a patient if they wanted privacy during a port access or injection and they say they don't care about that kind of stuff anymore? How many times have I said if cancer wants you cancer is gonna get you? When the author said "cancer will still find a way" that's when I started writing this review.) I'm watching it happen and that's totally different from experiencing it. The way I understood and related to this book despite not having cancer was such a surreal experience for me because I could understand it from my own point of view as the nurse and from the patient's point of view in the treatment chair. I know what's it's going to do to the patient, I warn patients of what they're going to experience now and after the treatment when they get home. But I'm not feeling it, I'm not nauseous, I'm not jittery with energy from the dexamethasone at 2am when I should be getting rest.

And it wasn't just the oncology aspect that I related to, it was the feeling of loss and grief. Of losing who you once were and having to reconcile this new you. This person that you don't know yet have to build into a person you want to be, even though you've had this devastating event happen to you and are still trying to hold on to the old parts of you that you want to keep despite them slipping through your flagging grip. And you feel like everyone can see it, see your struggle. Like oil staining your hands, there's evidence of the person you tried to hold onto and eventually lost. And it feels like failure when you can't be who you were and aren't yet who you want to be. You've lost someone or something and the world is still the same yet you're totally different and now you have to go on and make new choices that you're not ready to make. You're still living in the ruins of loss so you tell yourself "I'll be ready when my life sucks less" (another line I related to all too much) but who's ever really ready?

To me unfortunately cancer and loss/death kind of go hand in hand so though I couldn't relate to the disease I could relate to the emotions. I felt Ruby's confusion, pain, and anxiety. So many lines in this book I read and thought "damn did Rebecca Brodkey interview me?" Because some lines just really hit me, they were either thoughts I've had, or things I've dealt with.

Outside of the story itself the writing style was so good, really right up my alley in terms of writing. Quick, witty, and articulate without the cringe social media speak other authors unfortunately sometimes use to say "hey I'm cool and relevant". The chemistry between eitan and ruby was perfect and although I think the romance couldve been a little stronger I recognize that this book was about more than just romance and I still appreciated it. Overall just a good book, right book right time.

Thank you to Rebecca Brodkey and the publisher for a free arc in exchange for an honest review. And sorry to everyone who read through that long ass rant

[Nicola Frasier · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not your ordinary romance, but a book about survival and finding yourself again. About having to return to normal life after something life changing - something that could've been fatal - even though it seems impossible.

"It feels like I'm becoming a new person. There's the old me, and there's this new version I will be. But I'm in the middle of the transition, so I'm not that new person yet, and I'm not my old self. And it's - painful."

Ruby is a cancer survivor who lost touch with her friends during treatment. To integrate back into society, she tries to pick up where she left off before the treatment. Desperate to get her old life back, she somehow ends up being convinced to be an unofficial wedding planner for her previous bff alongside Eitan - the dashing best man. He seems so bubbly and confident at first glance, but as they navigate the wedding planning together maybe they understand each other better than they thought. As she tries to regain her previous friendships, and battling pressure of cancer returning, was her old life really what she wants? Or is it time to forge something new - a life of a survivor.

"At any moment we're approaching death, no matter which way you slice it. All we have is this time now, and this life that we have no choice but to live."

The main reason I loved this book was that beneath the dark humour that Ruby used to hide her grief and struggles, she was a woman who wanted to be loved. She deserved a life where she could be herself and build a new foundation for more genuine friendships. I resonated with her trying to fit in with groups of people, desperately seeking connection. In true heroine fashion, she spent this book finding herself and coming into her new body and creating a new life from the bottom up. A strong life and will that can only be born out of survival.

"Maybe the pain of an ending is worth the euphoria of a beginning. Maybe I need to see for myself. Maybe what I want is stronger than what I fear."

Though this is labeled as a romance, the friendships and journey post surviving cancer far surpassed the romance. I was glad she was able to find someone who understood the isolation that is a side effect of having or knowing someone who has cancer. But the journey of self discovery, renewal and surviving was the main story in this. All in all, it was beautiful and healing but if you're expecting a heavy romance then this is not for you!

[Eren Valentine · Rating 5 out of 5]

My time reading this was definitely a rollercoaster of emotions. Watching the FMC trying to become who she once was before breast cancer, trying to get her book published, and trying to date... this girl has her struggles. I cried, I laughed, I wanted to hug the characters, I wanted to smack others, and am definitely going to be adding this to read again!

Ruby is a survivor, she's got the perfectly dark sense of humor that would make her easily my best friend. She's persistent in her want to get her book published and in wanting to regain her friendships. I found myself being able to relate in some ways to the FMC. I have not gone through cancer but I have had people I have lost to cancer which does also help me relate to Eitan. I myself had my time where I wanted to do better and try to interact with my friends to later find out their true colors. Ruby is strong and very human and it was something that I found I really appreciated in this story. No superpowers but persistence, strength, and dark humor.

Eitan was refreshing for an MMC. Powered by Burnt CDs, a walkman, and knowing that the best expression is sometimes really just said with music I definitely loved him. Upon first meeting him I was like huh okay, well there's gotta be more to him than the bathroom moment... I was right. Below the surface there is so much more and I absolutely loved getting to know his character through out the story. He's smart, kind, loyal, and so much more.

Neither of them expects for things to go the way they do. If you're looking for a book that features a strong FMC, breast cancer survive, touches on a heavy subject but also adds in humor with characters who truly do everything that we as humans do (joking during tough moments to get through it was definitely one) then I recommend it. There were characters that I met during the book that really made me realize back on my own friendships growing up and the realization as to WHY they aren't my friends. I've had the Penellope's in my life and I definitely need an Eitan and a Ruby.

Rebecca easily wrote another book that I couldn't help but absolutely love and makes me love the fact that she is an auto-buy author for me! Thank you Rebecca for beautifully being you.

[Jenna ♡ (Jenna's Corner) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I had all of the words to describe how I feel about this book. I'm no stranger to Rebecca Brodkey's writing- but this novel is a testament to love, a human hunger to live, and the city of Chicago.

Out of the cast of characters we have in this novel, Ruby is a shining star. You can tell Ruby's mindset was rooted in the authors personal experiences, because there is no way someone could dream up the things Ruby went through. It was deeply emotional, vulnerable, and jaw dropping. That being said, I want to hug the shit out of her! Her perfect match was found in Eitan. He is the definition of 'to be loved is to be known.' It was almost like every time I read his name Kiss Me by Ed Sheeran started playing in the background. He is everything to me!!

I could not get enough of Calliope and Louise. I want more more & more of them! That being said, the ending ruined me. I'm not one for spoilers, and letting you know this is a HEA, but my goodness it was not without heartache! I'm craving a Chicago Style hotdog & I may just have them toss 2 pickles on the top.

Penelope can fuck right off. I've never wanted to punch a character more in the throat. She's got it coming, karmically!

If you want a book that feels like genuine romance (not just 100% unrealistic situations where everything magically works out) this is the book for you. I learned so many things about what cancer patients go through, that I feel my eyes have opened. Simply put, I think every woman should read this book!!

This book is not just “a story about a girl who had cancer" it’s 343 pages of "I want to live but I'm not quite sure how to find myself, but maybe I'll meet her along the way" and it was easily one of the most beautiful books I've ever read.

Big smooches to that author, Rebecca Brodkey, for letting me be an ARC reader. I HIGHLY suggest you pre-order this book or snag it when it comes out on June 2.

I promise to never lose sight of all the days before tomorrow <3

[yapping_about_bookz · Rating 5 out of 5]

First I want to start by saying thank you to Rebecca for giving me this opportunity to read this book. I didn't really know what to expect from this book because this is the first book I've read where cancer is involved.
I honestly loved this book. It's so unique and I loved both the characters. I also loved the fact that Eitan is bi, you don't really see that often in books that aren't LGBT:)

This book really opened my eyes and made me really think about the fact that cancer occurs not only in older people, but also in younger people.

The way I felt protective over Ruby was craaaazy, I just wanted to protect her and scream at everyone who was rude towards her and especially Penelope. The way Penelope treated Ruby was absolutely disgusting and disrespectful. Penelope is a brat and she doesn't deserve Josh. (sorry not sorry)

This isn't just a story about someone with cancer. No it's about a woman who got the most heartbreaking and terrifying diagnosis when she was just the age of 28. She went through (I think) everyone's worst nightmare, alone.

This story is about building yourself up again, to learn yourself again, to go back in a society only to realize you'll never truly belong because of that diagnosis. It's fighting for happiness, for your own happily ever after.
In a way, I could recognize myself in Ruby and the way she was so angry at society. Because as a late-diagnosed autistic person, I personally struggle very hard with this in every day. Living in a society that is not made for people who are different and/or carry a heavy backpack (if you know what I mean) is simply exhausting, almost killing. I know it obviously isn't the same situation.. But I could feel and understand her rage.

I'm not gonna lie.. I was relieved when I read that the author, unlike Ruby, did have good friends and a loving husband who supported her.

This book has a special place in my heart. Thank you Rebecca for writing this book. It's such an unique, heartwarming but also strong and emotional book.

[Catherine Barker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hopeful, beautifully reflective story about life after cancer, messy healing, and figuring out who still deserves a place in your future.
This isn’t just a story about illness, it’s about everything that comes after — survival, reinvention, grief, anger, hope, and the loneliness of being the one who is still here and expected to move on. Thank you @rebeccabrodkey for this ARC.

What really worked for me was Ruby’s voice. She’s funny, sharp, messy, angry, vulnerable, and very, very real. The humour lands, even when the subject matter is heavy. I also really loved that it made space for her to be furious about what happened to her instead of forcing gratitude or toxic positivity. The romance worked for me too, mostly because it felt rooted in real emotional baggage rather than just chemistry. Eitan definitely had moments where I wanted to shake him, but I still really liked him, and once the emotional walls started coming down I was fully invested. Also: consent king, emotionally complicated, and apparently in possession of slutty forearms. Powerful combination.

One of the strongest parts of the book was the way it handled friendship and community. Ruby slowly realising who is actually showing up for her hit hard. The side characters added so much, especially the people who gave her room to be honest rather than palatable all the time.

This is an emotional read, but not in a manipulative, tragedy-porn way. It felt much more reflective than devastating. More about learning how to build a life after everything has changed than about making the reader cry on command. And I really loved that.

[Shannon McDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't even know how to fully explain how beautiful this book was. The depth of the main characters was so well thought out and displayed. The raw emotions behind Ruby and all she has faced and has held onto was the foundation of this book. I found out that Ruby was inspired by the author herself who wrote this book during her own breast cancer journey. She poured so much of her heart and soul into Ruby and Louise and it shows, beautifully. Seeing people who lost everything choose love despite the fear of what could happen was the definition of inspiration. And the way the book ended! The slight cliff hanger highlighted that it doesn't matter what happens next because they'll be in it, together. Don't hesitate to read this book, it was everything!

Some of my favorite quotes from the book:
"You say your life isn't a tragedy, but it doesn't always have to be a comedy either. You don't need to hold the world at arm's length with jokes for the rest of your life."

"If you don't dream of anything, you're truly dead. If I keep dreaming, I keep living."

"I made it so you always know how I feel. Even if I'm having a bad day."

"It's impossible to regret dying, but it's real easy to regret the way you live."

"You never lost yourself. You just had to change. Without warning and against your will."

"I can focus on what's been taken from me, or I can focus on what has been given. It's a choice."

Do yourself justice and dive into this work of art when it comes out in June. ebook pre-orders go towards a cancer non profit and the author notes highlight breast examines. So much love has been poured into this book, so make sure you show it some love too ❤️

[Rosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Received this as an ARC thank you Rebecca!

4 ⭐️
I feel like you can truly feel that this brook was written from experience. And just thank you for sharing something so deep, and personal and true to you.

Content warning ⚠️‼️ cancer, cancer coming back, grief, depression, and mention of death.

I couldn’t put myself in Ruby’s shoes because I haven’t experienced this. But I couldn’t help but wonder and hope that I could be the friend that Ruby needed during this time. Part of me just wanted to shake Ruby “you deserve more!!”

Our FMC Ruby is trying to get her groove back after having gone through cancer treatment. In all our girly just wants to be seen and be included. Her friend group is truly not it. But in the means to getting her groove back and hopefully get picked up by an agent she creates a list, and somehow she end up as bridesmaid to a ONCE close friend. Eitan is our sunshine boy who is also the best man and just wants to help Ruby. Taking their roles of bridesmaid and best man seriously they are handed some task and helps brings them closer. But life has a funny way of doing things just when Ruby was getting her groove back.

I enjoyed the book, it was heartbreaking to just see the reality of how life can be in friend groups. I enjoyed being able to see this perspective and liked the ending. I feel like it allows us to have it open to interpretation and I loved the Ruby and Penny (Bride) scene. I liked that in the road to trying to reconnect with her old friend who made no effort at all, she ended up finding some new ones 🩷

Happy Reading! Book will be released in June 2026!

[Brianna (Briasbookishthings) · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I received this arc I was so happy that I think I screamed, and I was not disappointed! Ruby and Eitan were the perfect mix of love and courage.

Ruby (bridesmaid / maid of honour) is on her journey of living. In a world where her life was treated as over, she has to reclaim herself and take up the space she deserves. Only, the space she is given is not there for her, but for others. Eitan (best man) knows how to take up space and be himself, but that came at the cost of a year of his life and a type of devotion that beat him down. Both of our main characters are looking to be the heart of someone else's attention, but Ruby wants to be loved and Eitan isn't sure he can do that.

Together, they plan a wedding for their friends and get into a relationship that felt so authentic to me. I loved their dynamic and how their personal issues shone through without clouding over their personalities. The spice was relatively calm and didn't make me cringe at all (and I cringe a lot!). The calm love that they shared felt like going home to a cozy fire. Warm, safe, loving.

The overall plot was quite basic as it was about wedding planning, but I did learn things about Jewish wedding traditions which I really enjoyed. The cancer side of the story also took a very different approach to most other media featuring a character with a cancer journey. Ruby's life is not over, it's just changing. She is changing, and learning to move with a world that never stopped is hard, but she does it.

Thank you so much Rebecca Brodkey for this ARC and...

Happy reading my lovelies xx

[Danielle Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Rebecca Broadkey for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Holy Blinklebob! This was exceptional in every way. If you have had any intimate brush with cancer, whether through a loved one or personal experience, I think this book will resonant with you. This is a to die for romance rooted in the realities of grief.

This book has so much attention to detail and care poured into it. I figured I would find things to relate to in this, but I didn’t expect it to hit home so hard and then continue to beat me into a pulp. Although I am not a cancer survivor myself, I’ve danced with it from a young age as my dad battled it again and again (he won a lot of those battles but cancer won the war). There are just some things that are fundamentally changed after those kind of things that I feel this book was able to put into words. There’s anger, there’s sadness, there’s the continuous absurdity of it all.

There is a part in chapter 21 where our main characters go to a meet up with other survivors to talk about their experiences. And one of the first speakers is Mark S. This could have been a nameless character and had the same impact on the story. But this small little detail was huge for me because that was my dad’s name. He wasn’t just a Mark, he was a Mark S. What a silly way to unintentionally make me cry.

But Big C aside - this story is full of dark humor, the struggles of fitting in, and complicated friendships. All wrapped up in a love story between an attentive MMC and a broody FMC.

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have received an advanced copy of All The Days Before Tomorrow from the author! 🫶

It’s time to give a standing ovation to All The Days Before Tomorrow because this is one of the most beautifully written stories I have ever read and I loved it with all my heart and soul! 🥹🩷 It’s everything to me and I will be forever be recommending that everybody read this when it comes out in June! 🫶

Rebecca Brodkey truly put her whole heart and soul into writing this and it made me so emotional while reading to the point that I cried multiple times. I wanted to go and hug Ruby so many times because she is such a wonderful FMC and I would have immediately been her friend if I were a character in the story. Her struggles with being a breast cancer survivor truly brought such heart and soul to the story. Eitan on the other hand is the sweetest and I love his golden retriever sunshine energy so much! 🐶☀️ He also secretly loves musicals and Taylor Swift so that already is the ultimate book boyfriend. I additionally love Calliope so much and I relate to her so much with all of her struggles that it made me cry yet again! 🫶🦓 I honestly would love another book with her as a main character because I would love more of her story! 🫶

If you love romance books, mental health representation, reverse grumpy x sunshine, and a book that is beautiful and heartwarming then this is the one for you! 🫶

[Steffs.Chapter · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I’m stuck on the outside, shaking the snow globe, trying to find a way in."

No words.
Absolutely ruined me, in all the best ways.

I don't know what to do with myself. I need more. but I also don't because that was perfect.

I fell in love with our Ruby/Gem and Eitan. And Louise. And I had a little cry.

You can tell it's a read that's been lovingly pulled together from experience, with such heart, humour and determination yet hurt and suffering too. It was a perfect balance of rawness, romance and drama.

I loved the depth Rebecca brought to her characters and the character development of the MC's. Eitan you walking green flag! and Ruby was just, everything. Her journey on the "be yourself (again) list". Seeing her grow, make 'mistakes' and overcome so much, in such a natural way that isn't forced. Just ugh. There's so much to love!

A lot also resonated with me from a chronic illness perspective, that was almost, comforting and honestly, I can see all falling in love with this story 😭

I also adored the authors note, the information and the shout to check your boobs! Check em!
🎀🎀

“You say that your life isn’t a tragedy, but it doesn’t always have to be a comedy either. You don’t need to hold the world at arm’s length with jokes for the rest of your life."

----
edit.
I tried to order paperback.
Realised there wasn't one yet (of course... duh).
Got sad (well... sadder).
📣 Release day June 2nd loves✨️

[Haley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review from an ARC copy**

Usually, I can come on here and write a simple review, maybe sprinkled with a pitiful dad joke or two, or even gush about the tropes in the story but this story was different. This was my first time reading a story about a breast cancer survivor, so I went in blind but hopeful. This story hit a lot of emotional points, and more than once I felt myself tearing up at these vulnerable moments. I have never dealt with breast cancer on a personal level, I have never had to experience the pain that cancer survivors have gone through. The ugly truth of it is that this book makes you confront a lot of feelings you wouldn't have to think about. The what ifs of it all were hard to deal with, yet when you deal with those, you get to also read this story about love and finding yourself after hard times. I connected to Ruby's character, to the uncertainty of life and personal connection. Can I also just say I really adore Eitan, not only for being a bisexual king, but also because he was dealing with his own grief and he still tried his best to hold onto Ruby. I didn't always like the "will they, won't they get together" of the dynamic, but after reflecting, I realized that their relationship wasn't going to be as simple as other ones I've read and they had to find their way to each other. This story was well written, and by the end of it, I felt hopeful but I was also excited that Ruby got new friends. Seriously...hers were awful.

[Ketyna · Rating 5 out of 5]

🩷
aspiring author fmc
manic pixie dream boy
dark humor
maid of honor x best man
friends to lovers
one tent

🩷
Wow, this story got me in my feels. I could relate on a level I wasn't expecting. 
Rebuilding a life after the other is  undetectable
Rebecca told a story that hit a little to close to home. 
The layers of this story I found healing and comforting. 
This isn't just about illness it's about, The fight for life after surviving. Reinventing brings anger and fear. The grief of the life once lived. 
illness isolation, survivors guilt, 
set backs made this story feel authentic. 
Ruby is my favorite FMC to date. Unapologetically herself, a hot mess and I found it endearing, she's funny, the anger comes out in dark humor. That shows real vulnerability. She didn't fall prey to toxic positivity. Friendships and community. Ruby navigating who is actually showing up and giving her space to be vulnerable not just palatable for other to digest. 
Ruby and Eitan I found endearing this is a connection I believe in, it felt earned. 
I wanted to shake Eitan at times, but it felt real more than just chemistry, more than  working through emotional baggage. Which the author did a beautiful job with. 
Emotional without being overwhelming funny without being crass. 
The Banter was AMAZING my type of humor. and the side characters I felt as if I knew them. Louise and Calliope. (Iykyk) Just read it . 

[Lore Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was an absolute rollercoaster of emotions right from the very start. Not entirely surprising, given that the story follows a breast cancer-survivor, Ruby, as she tries to recover the life she had pre-diagnosis. Rebecca Brodkey does a stunning job of balancing deeply emotional moments with those of levity and humour, as well as the thing we're all here for - the romance. I have never had cancer, but I have been chronically ill and disabled for 8 years now and there were so many moments in this book that resonated strongly with my experiences. I could tell (and had it confirmed in the author's note at the end) that this story had been written from a place of experience by someone with a clear connection to what Ruby has been through.

Ruby is such a well-realised character, and I'm so glad that she was given the agency to feel all of her emotions in this story without being painted as 'an inspiration'. Eitan might just be one of the sweetest male love-interests I've ever read - even if there were moments when I wanted to shout at him through my Kindle! Their relationship was lovely to watch as it unfolded. The moments of vulnerability as they grew closer together really allowed me to get to know the two of them, and I loved every minute. It also never hurts to reveal a secret love of musical theatre!

A special shout-out to Calliope, Alma, and Louisa, who were incredible supporting characters. I wanted to know everything about them, and I only wish we could spend more time with them.

All in all, this is a gorgeous contemporary romance with a huge heart, that deals with heavy themes beautifully. It also contains some lovely representation: Jewish, bisexual, and non-binary characters! Do yourself a favour and get cozy with this indie book full of humour and heart - releasing on June 2nd 2026!

Thanks so much to the author, Rebecca Brodkey, for sending me this eARC!

[Rosie_is_reading_books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ruby and Eitan are a great couple with a beautiful story of healing each other's past trauma and learning to live and love again. The slow burn is top tier.

Ruby's breast cancer story is such an important and hard hitting topic, this book is definitely something everyone should read. The raw emotion is undeniably the heart and soul of the book with the characters feeling real and their emotions were written perfectly for you to feel right there with them.

Eitan's struggle is also emotional and traumatic, seeing everything through the eyes of someone who loses someone he loves and how to cope with that. It is excellent to have both sides represented in this book.

I hated some of the side characters, the "friends" from before Ruby's diagnosis and surgery cannot call themselves "friends" but her new friends are fantastic, supportive and accepting.

Rebecca's personal experiences offer such a strong foundation to this book, making it such a good read. I just wish there was slightly more closure at the end but I will choose to live in my optimistic dream world where everything worked out for the best for everyone!

Overall a very impactful and thought provoking read that will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you Rebecca for the opportunity to read an eARC of this book. You are such a strong woman and role modal to all.

[Jaszmin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to give a big Thank You to the author for giving me an ARC copy!
This book will stay with me. I read the authors note and acknowledgement at the end and was a little shocked to learn this hit close to home for the author. I am glad she had a better support system than Ruby. In some ways I feel like Ruby viewed the world with rose colored glasses. At least with love anyway. She was mapping out her life with anyone who made eye contact that she found attractive at first it was annoying but when I sit here and think about her story its truly heartbreaking. She did not have the support system and did not receive the love everyone truly deserves so she resulted in coming up with how her life was gonna go instead of actually trying because the track record was just so gut punching. In steps Eitan who also had his own struggles but was willing to step up and be the coach to push Ruby into investing in her new life on the other side of her cancer diagnosis.
I would also like to say 🖕🏾 Penelope.
This book was real and the characters were perfectly imperfect.
I encourage every woman to read this book cover to cover.
This book taught me to leave the outside world better than it was given. Be kinder to yourself and when people show you who they truly are-believe them. Life is too short

[Miranda Arjona · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book follows FMC Ruby who is an aspiring author & breast cancer survivor. She’s trying to find her footing in the world and trying to mend her friendships that may have fizzled out due to treatment.
One way or another she runs into her former bestfriend (Penelope) and is asked to plan her wedding in turn Penelope will help Ruby jumpstart her writing career.
During planning Ruby meets a couple of people that change her life for the better. Starting with the best man Eitan (our MMC) He puts on a great show of having everything figured out but the more time they spend together the more Ruby sees who he truly is. All while this slow burn is happening Eitan notices how poorly Penelope treats Ruby and is trying to understand what the wedding is truly about.

This book couldn’t have come at a better time for me. Since hitting my mid twenties anxiety has become so prominent in my life. The topic of death has come to the forefront of my mind and trying to navigate that feeling of one day no longer being here and the world contineing to
spin. Rebecca wrote these thoughts beautifully and gave me a little bit of peace with these thoughts.

“..the end isn’t the thing you should be scared of. Life has too much joy and awe in store for you.”

[jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow does this book make you THINK! it certainly has me reflecting on certain things in my own life.
this book was real and relatable and messy and i think that’s part of what makes it so wonderful.
the open, cliffhanger-like ending leaves everything open to the reader’s interpretation, insinuating that life goes on and we don’t always need to know what happens next, which i think is beautiful.
the representation in this book with shitty friends and finding the right people for you, that will support you no matter what is SO important to me because, in the friend department, i’ve had so many similar experiences to Ruby, so many Penelope’s in my life.
i think everyone needs an Eitan in their lives, especially if you’re a Ruby type. their relationship, platonic or not, means so much to me 🥹 Eitan pushing Ruby to do the hard things because he just knows she’ll be a better version of herself is, i think, a big part of what makes them so perfect for each other.
if you want to read a book that makes you think about your own life and your own decisions, a book that makes you feel seen in so many different ways, then i think this book could be for you!
thank you Rebecca for gifting me this ARC! 🫶🏻

[Caleigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you so much to Rebecca for an ARC!

This story is so well written, it talks about the fear and the aftermath of cancer through survivors and ones who have lost loved ones. I love how authentic this story feels.

I think this book is also so unapologetically Jewish and it makes me so happy. The two main characters are Jewish!! I love reading Jewish stories.

I think the whole plot of the book was so meaningful. Ruby is trying to get back to normal and in doing so she realizes that she is changed and thats okay. Ruby has made a deal with her former best friend, Penelope, that she will help plan her wedding if Penelope gives her an opening to meet her agent. It seems mutually beneficial, but is it?

I love how Ruby judges Eitan but we see that it is not at all how he is. I do think they were a little on and off (like Ross and Rachel in Friends lol), but it always made sense as to why. I was more so rooting for their healing rather than the relationship.

Overall, this book is a beautiful tribute to recovery and learning to adjust to the hand live has felt with you. I really enjoyed this book.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and couldn’t put it down. I knew early on it was going to be a five star read. The writing really draws you in and allows you to see Ruby's perspective, making it easy to feel everything she is going through. Ruby and Eitan are dealing with their own struggles, and things they are working through. They see each other clearly and want to make things work, even when they don’t know how. That made their relationship feel very real, including the mess, struggles and how you need to keep actively choosing each other.

Ruby’s journey felt deeply relatable. Although I have not been through cancer, the idea of having a before and after in your life, and trying to reconcile the two, is something I could connect with. Watching her rebuild her life and figure out what she truly needs from both her life and the people around her was one of the strongest parts of the book. The emotional growth felt so poignant, and I loved seeing her make new connections in her life, and how much she learnt from Louise.

Thank you to NetGalley and The Vibrant Machine Press for the opportunity to read and review this book. All opinions are my own.

[Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

💛 Finding love after fighting for your life? This story will stay with you long after the last page.

✨ Review ✨

Emotional, heartfelt, and even laugh-out-loud funny at times, All The Days Before is a powerful story about love, hope, strength, and survival—all while navigating life as a woman in her prime.

In the midst of remission from breast cancer, Ruby has lost touch with most of her former friends. That is, until her former best friend (who is just as high-maintenance as ever) unexpectedly asks her to be in her wedding.
From there, Ruby meets the best man, and for the first time in a long while, she starts to feel something again. As they bond over shared experiences, their connection grows into a beautiful relationship built on understanding, vulnerability, and healing.

Rebecca Brodkey did an incredible job telling Ruby’s story with both humor and heart, creating a journey that feels real, inspiring, and full of hope.

Be sure to check out this beautifully written cancer love story when it releases on June 2 💛

[Colleen Hurley Jozwiak · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to thank the author for sharing a story so close to her heart. This book has so much heartache for a life that had been divided by: before, during and after cancer. This book gives you glimpses into many different aspects of the way cancer attacks your whole life, losing friends, family, hair, the life you saw yourself having, your body it destroys everything!

Eitan has been on the other side of cancer losing his father to cancer and has struggled with that loss. It’s changed his life and he’s struggled to rebuild. I absolutely hated Penelope, everything about her, she was the definition of cancer just destroying everything in her site. I hope Louise’s tough love was what she deserved. I hope Ruby continues to build her confidence, strength and will to continue to fight, love and overcome obstacles.

My only complaint was I felt the book was a bit long at points. But it’s a story that needed to be told.

[Rebecca Brodkey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wowza this book did a number on me. Or maybe it was the breast cancer treatment I was in while I wrote it? Either way, I am so proud of this one and honored to share it with you. This story comforted me while I recovered from surgery, while I sat in the treatment chair, while I figured out how to continue on with life after it felt like everything had burned down.

I hope you enjoy, and read with care, keeping in mind the following content warnings: cancer (including recurrent and metastatic cancer), death from cancer, and some (consensual) sexual content. Humor is used often by the main character as a coping mechanism. If you are sensitive to dark humor related to cancer, and death from cancer, this may not be the story for you. (And that is okay!)

Thank you, as always, for reading 🖤

[Nicole Johnston · Rating 4 out of 5]

✨ARC✨
First: Thank you SO much for the opportunity to ARC read this emotional story. Cancer in people under 50 but older than 18 is pretty limited, so I think a LOT of people (men and women) will see themselves in both Ruby AND Eitan.

The inclusion is there. A lot of POC and queer characters. Very much showcasing the diversity of a big city.

LOUISE IS MY IDOL! I NEED a kaftan ASAP! I love love love her sm!

Eitan was SO real. Yes, we get the HEA but goddamn do we have to work for it 😂

One thing is… ugh I don’t wanna say it…
I hate the ending.

I hate the loss. I hate the unknown (iykyk).
I’ll never look at a Chicago style dog the same again. I’ll probably cry if I see one, truthfully.

And finally,
Penelope can get fucked.

Thank you, again, for allowing me to be a part of your journey!

🎀🎀🎀🎀

[Dana Mack · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was just wow! A breast cancer survivor finding love with a man who experienced the loss of his father due to cancer. Her a taken for granted bridesmaid and him the best man.

The raw emotions and spot on feelings of this book were so beautiful. The dark humor of the main character had me giggling and the book itself put me through all the emotions.

Trying to find yourself after such tragedy is not easy. As Ruby steps back into her social life grasping to what she knew and trying to find herself, she is offered coaching from Eitan who has seen her experience in his father in some ways. As she struggles with putting herself out there Eitan tries to show her the life worth living.

This book really hit home as every woman on my mother's side have had breast cancer. I cried, I laughed, I gasped and cheered on these characters. 100 percent recommend picking this up!