Great and Precious Things

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.

A New York Times and USA Today best-selling author, Rebecca Yarros (born in 1981) has written more than 20 novels. Most of her works are contemporary romance novels, including The Things We Leave Unfinished (2021), In the Likely Event (2023), and Variation (2024). She gained popularity in 2024 with her best-selling fantasy romance Empyrean series, Fourth Wing (2023), Iron Flame (2023), and Onyx Storm (2025). Yarros currently lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and six children.

As a military spouse, many of Yarros’s novels explore the impact of military deployment on families and the transition of military veterans back into civilian life. For example, her 2019 novel, The Last Letter, explores the love between Ella and military veteran Beckett, who met via letter correspondence while he served. When Ella’s brother is killed, Beckett fulfills his last request to take care of Ella, and the two eventually fall in love. Through their relationship, the novel explores themes of resilience, love, and healing, focusing on how Beckett’s military service and Ella’s experiences as a military wife impact their lives.