What Tomorrow Will Be by Kaira Rouda-review & excerpt
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date February 3, 2026
Some loves never die. But only one will shape her future…
At nineteen, Sienna MacKay believed she had it all—a promising career ahead of her and a young love destined to last forever. But a tragic accident shatters that idyllic existence, leaving her with a heartbreaking loss.
Years later, Sienna has rebuilt her life. She’s a successful designer, a devoted mother, and a woman who has dared to love again—with Nate, a passionate, rising-star chef. But as Nate drifts further into ambition, cracks surface in their once-bright marriage. A stormy confrontation ends in disaster, and Sienna becomes caught between two worlds—her near-perfect past and her more complicated present—where she must ask herself: What is the price of true love…and is she willing to pay?
Set on the majestic, rugged coastline of Nova Scotia, What Tomorrow Will Be is a magical, emotional novel about first love, second chances, and finding the courage to stay…or the will to go.
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REVIEW:WHAT TOMORROW WILL BE by Julianne MacLean is a contemporary, adult, women’s fictional story line focusing on interior designer Sienna MacKay and chef Nate Palmer.
Told from three first person perspectives (Sienna, Nate and their daughter Amanda) focusing on several timelines, WHAT TOMORROW WILL BE follows Sienna MacKay in the aftermath of the loss of the love of her life. At nineteen years of age, Sienna MacKay had her whole life before her but a devastating accident left our heroine fighting for her life, and the man whom she loved, gone. Several years later, Sienna will meet law student and aspiring chef Nate Palmer, giving Sienna a second chance at her own happily ever after. Fast forward to present day, the relationship between our couple is deteriorating, and Sienna is reconsidering her future with the man whom she loves. Life, once again, is about to spiral out of control, and this time the spiral will go viral in a world of social medi, consequences and aggressive interference.
The world building follows several timelines, covering approximately twenty-five years in the life of our story line couple. From Nate’s dysfunctional family and his need to prove his worth, to Sienna’s grief, and yearning for the love and attention from the man whose tunnel vision no longer includes the people at home, WHAT TOMORROW WILL BE focuses on the fall out of unrealized expectations, trauma, grief and loss.
The relationship between Nate and Sienna is one of immediate attraction but Sienna continues to battle with the heartbreak of loss, as Nate struggles with his future going forward.
We are introduced to Nate and Sienna’s children Connor and Amanda; Nate’s uncompromising parents Bill and Joan Palmer, his brother Arthur, and Sienna’s friend Becky.
WHAT TOMORROW WILL BE is a story of grief and loss, trauma and shock, family and friendships, relationships and love. The character driven premise is thought provoking, dramatic and edgy-there are some slight but limited paranormal plot points ; the romance is tender ; the characters are desperate, determined and conflicted.
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
Prologue
When I was nineteen, I’d thought I had it all figured out. I’d found my soulmate, the great love of my life, and I was on a clear, direct path to the career of my dreams. What could possibly go wrong? My life was golden—until I went for a hike in the winter sunshine, and fell off a mountain.
I wish I could say I’d learned a lot from the ordeal—that when the ground collapsed under my feet and I tumbled down a vertical rockface, I’d come to understand that life isn’t always steady or predictable. I also wish that afterward, I could have recognized the long-term power and potency of trauma. How, for the rest of your life, lingering scars can steer you off course and make you doubt that anything good is truly lasting.
I’d absorbed no such wisdom that day, nor in the months and years that followed. Even when death came calling a second time, I had not yet recognized my ignorance.
But there I go again, dwelling on the past when this is supposed to be a story about love, forgiveness, and soulmates, and not just the human kind.
It’s a story about lessons learned—that there can be joy after tragedy, and hope after forgiveness.
There is growth in the healing.
But maybe that’s something you learn from life, over decades. Not from a fleeting encounter with death, however intense it may be.
