Review: AFTER (After, #1) by Anna Todd

 

Publisher: Gallery Books

Published: October 21, 2014

Genre: New Adult, Contemporary Romance

Source: Bought

Rating: 4 Stars

GOODREADS

Blurb:

Tessa is a good girl with a sweet, reliable boyfriend back home. She’s got direction, ambition, and a mother who’s intent on keeping her that way.

But she’s barely moved into her freshman dorm when she runs into Hardin. With his tousled brown hair, cocky British accent, tattoos, and lip ring, Hardin is cute and different from what she’s used to.

But he’s also rude—to the point of cruelty, even. For all his attitude, Tessa should hate Hardin. And she does—until she finds herself alone with him in his room. Something about his dark mood grabs her, and when they kiss it ignites within her a passion she’s never known before.

He’ll call her beautiful, then insist he isn't the one for her and disappear again and again. Despite the reckless way he treats her, Tessa is compelled to dig deeper and find the real Hardin beneath all his lies. He pushes her away again and again, yet every time she pushes back, he only pulls her in deeper.

Tessa already has the perfect boyfriend. So why is she trying so hard to overcome her own hurt pride and Hardin’s prejudice about nice girls like her?

Unless…could this be love?

Now newly revised and expanded, Anna Todd’s After fanfiction racked up 1 billion reads online and captivated readers across the globe. Experience the Internet’s most talked-about book for yourself!

There was the time before Tessa met Hardin, and then there’s everything AFTER ... Life will never be the same.

Review:

Okay yeah, I enjoyed this.

I'm going to be honest here, I almost didn't finish this book. Scratch that, I almost didn't even make it past 10% of the book. My thoughts during those times? I thought everyone was over dramatic and overreacted over everything. Oh yeah, Hardin was an asshole and not the endearing kind and Tessa was an obsessed little virgin. Let me explain, I felt like she thought about Hardin every other paragraph, which is beyond annoying. We get it! Hardin is a bad-ass with tattoos, piercings, and is hot as hell. But why does that mean he has a right to act like a dickhead? To answer my own question, he doesn't! He just is...

So I still kind of think those things after reading the book but guess what? I kept on reading and I couldn't stop. And more importantly, I didn't want to. Sitting in bed was ALL I wanted to do but I have a life I have to live...and kids that are too young to feed themselves. Dang it... Just kidding! I would have loved it though if I were able to read it more during the day. I wanted to know more about Hardin even though he was such a jerk. I even wanted to know about Tessa even though I found her character too dramatic.

During the night when I would get my reading done, I would talk to the characters, laugh at them, and  of course cussing them out. Yes, I talk to my kindle. I would giggle like a school girl in the most inappropriate times. And I just couldn't help asking myself, is this really one direction fan fic?! To answer my own question, yes, yes it is. Thank god I didn't picture them while I was reading though. That's pretty much why I've put off reading it for so long.

You guys have all read the synopsis so I won't waste your time with summarizing the book. All I know is that it was full of angst and borderline dysfunctional people. Like for real...it's not borderline, it's full on dysfunction. They spend most of the book getting mad and yelling over stupid s***. It wasn't just one either, both of them were very irrational but weirdly, that's what made me like them. I hate books that have over-dramatize characters but if its written well, I can handle it. Such as this one...obviously!

It was very tough for me to put the book down. I'm glad I took the chance to read this. I'm already on book 2 and plan to get the rest. This is definitely my guilty pleasure read. If you're wondering if you should pick this up or not, I suggest you do. So what if one direction was behind the inspiration? Just picture your own characters and go into this with an open mind. 

About the Author:

ANNA TODD is a first-time writer spending her days in the Austin area with her husband, with whom she beat half the statistics by getting married one month after graduating high school. Between her husband's three deployments to Iraq, she worked odd jobs from a makeup counter to the IRS processing counter. Anna was always an avid reader and boy band and romance lover, so now that she’s found a way to combine the three she’s enjoying living a real-life dream come true. 

Buy Links:

 AMAZON 

AMAZON UK

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