Books

For years, Annie Whitmore has been living the life of her dreams: a devoted husband, beautiful family, and a home filled with the kind of love and stability she longed for as a child. But recently, beneath the surface of this perfect facade, secrets lie in wait.

As Annie grapples with her declining mental health - marked by crippling anxiety and depressive episodes that threaten her very existence, Josh Owens, her first love, reappears after fourteen years of silence. And when she begins to notice her husband Dean’s behavior becoming increasingly suspicious, her fragile world begins to crumble.

Told in alternating timelines between then and now, seventeen-year-old Annie’s life was upended after her mother died and she was forced to move hundreds of miles away to live with the father she barely knew. Failing to conceal the signs of her troubled home life from classmates, an unlikely bond between the high school golden boy and the quiet, withdrawn Annie, was formed. Josh quickly became Annie’s protector, her comfort, her everything - until one tragic night shattered it all. Now, as an adult, with lingering questions and resurfaced feelings, Annie must confront the traumas of her past, the truth behind her husband's lies, and the devastating choice that changes the course of all their lives in an instant.

Before I Go is a breathtaking story of the ties that bind, the secrets we keep, and the lengths we’ll go to protect the ones we love.

Meet Cyndy

Cyndy Gatewood is a women's fiction author who blends contemporary romance into all her stories. Her goal is to have readers laughing, crying, swooning, and gaining a new perspective on life by the time they finish.

Though her books are fictional, Cyndy often draws from pieces of her own traumatic childhood and lifelong struggles with anxiety and depression to bring raw emotion to the pages. Through her writing, she aims to educate and dispel misconceptions about mental health at all stages of life, while empathizing with those who suffer because she believes most present decisions are shaped by past experiences.

Her work has been featured on multiple media outlets, including: TODAY, ABC News, Good Morning America, People, and Us Weekly.

When she's not working on her next book, Cyndy can be found taxiing her kids around to their various activities, reading a good book, or creating content - sometimes heartfelt, sometimes humorous - for her community of a combined 63k on TikTok and Instagram under the handle: cyndyinthesouth.

Cyndy and her husband of seventeen years live in a small town in North Carolina with their three children.

Cyndy Gatewood's Upcoming Release - Preorders Open 04/22/2025 -

Meet Cyndy

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