Normally I try to do a before reading thoughts and after reading thoughts when I do a book review because I like being able to compare what I thought about the book and what I'm left with after reading it. But this whole series I didn't do that with. To be honest I didn't expect to read them, or even enjoy them if I did read them. I've just been really wanting to read the books because of how the movie is and I've wanted to compare the book to the movie, which I didn't even do. I know I'm a terrible slacker with this whole thing. But I've really been so captivated by the story that I couldn't leave this world once I started it.
For anyone that has seen the movie you know After follows a girl and a boy and their very turbulence romance. It's very toxic right from the beginning. They are both in college, she's a small-town girl that is being thrown into the big world all by herself for the first time and he is the bad boy. Without spoiling we all know this trope, and it is a very common thing in books, TV shows, and movies. The movie ends in a cliffhanger and I've been really wanting to read the book to get closure from this cliffhanger. I say that I really want to read it but this is something that I have been looking into for over a year now. It has taken me so long because one, the books are expensive because they are adult books and I've been looking for them to go on sale but they have never been on the clearance aisle at my bookstore, or even a used copy. I can never justify spending so much money on a new book from a new author. I get too nervous about it. Plus if I bought the same book on Amazon, even the physical copy was like $10 compared to the $16-18 from the bookstore. Since there are 4, technically 5, books in the series that is a lot of money to venture out on something that I have no clue if I will like or not. I've also been watching my local library but the waitlist for the audiobook is so long and I don't tend to get eBooks because I know I take too long reading them and I don't want to hold onto them. Since we are stuck inside right now I splurged on renting the first book as an eBook from my library. AND I DEVOURED IT! Another reason it has taken me so long is that I've just been busy with school and work, which I know is my excuse for everything but it's true.
Just a little warning there are no spoilers below but at the same time it is a little wonky format since I had originally planned just posting this on Instagram but there was just too much. At the bottom of each book, you will see me talking about tiles, that is the Spring Book of the Month challenges and I'll have that listed at the very bottom.
After by Anna Todd
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I've been really wanting to read this book because I love the movie and have been so curious about the book. If you've seen the movie you know it leaves you wanting more, at least it did me. I needed to know what happens with Tessa and Harden. However, the books at the bookstore are always so expensive since they are adult books. I am a bargain shopper when it comes to book buying and there was no way I could justify the cost of them, especially since it was an author I've never read before. Since we are stuck at home, I was able to get the eBook from my library and I could not put it down! I was obsessed with it and I had to read it! I got through it pretty fast, but it does end in a cliff hanger just like the movie, I think the whole series all pretty much ended in cliff hangers except for the fourth one.
I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. I loved it and I was left wanting to go into the next book but I don't think it was perfect. Yet out of the whole series, this one might have been the closest to 5 stars.
I ended up putting this book on the 'Book about a game.' I sort of really played with the where to put this book because I had so many different places I could put it and I honestly was leaning towards either 'Most Anticipated Book,' 'First in a Series,' or '400+ Pages.' But since the main storyline involved truth or dare, beer pong, and bets I thought it would be perfect for this one. I know this is really far-fetched, but I really liked the idea of it. I might end up moving it before I'm done with all the books, but this is what I got so far.
After We Collided by Anna Todd
⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is the book that I really started finding my annoyance with the series. Even though I needed to know what happened with Tessa and Harden I couldn’t help but get so aggravated with them. I kept comparing my obsession with how everyone is so obsessed with that Tiger King show on Netflix right now. It isn’t the best writing or even the best story, but it is something that I just couldn’t look away from it. I’m trying to stay spoiler-free and to be completely honest about my annoyance with the book is their relationship. If you’ve seen the movie or read the book, then you can understand that they are very problematic, and the book just shows it way more than the movie does. To be completely honest if the book didn’t end in a cliffhanger, I think I would’ve ended it here. But I’m really glad now that I finished the series out
I ended up giving this book a 3 out of 5 stars. Even though I had a hard time a lot throughout the book I didn’t hate it and it did still have a lot of enjoyable moments so it wasn’t horrible, but I didn’t like it as much as the first one.
The book ended on the ‘Multiple POV’ because this is the first book that we start seeing Harden’s perspective and not just Tessa’s. I really didn’t question this one or even think of another place for it other than that one.
After We Fell by Anna Todd
⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is the third book in the After series and I honestly think it is one of my favorites. I really loved it so much, but it was still very problematic and to be completely honest I was getting really tired of how toxic Harden and Tessa are. This is the book that I really started thinking that I enjoyed reading more when Harden and Tessa weren’t together than when they were.
Even though I really loved this book I gave the book 3 out of 5 stars. I loved the first one more. I wasn’t as annoyed with Tess and Harden in the first book and even though I loved the different point-of-view that carried into this book I was still very annoyed and just over Hessa’s relationship.
For this book, I put it on the ‘Male Main Character’ tile. I actually moved Red, White, and Royal Blue off of it and down to ‘2019 Goodreads Choice Awards,’ which works out a lot better. I was really struggling with what book would even qualify for that tile.
After Ever Happy by Anna Todd
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is the final book in the series, and I believe it is the one that I read the fastest. I started reading it yesterday and I finished it just now. I can honestly say that I either love it more or just as much as the first one because I finally get an ending to Tessa and Harden and I really think I got the perfect ending. I don’t want to go into too much detail about how it ends because you literally have to go through fourth books just to get to it and I think it was really perfect. I just hated the drama between Tessa and Harden that happened throughout the whole series to get to this point, some of it I understand but most just infuriated me. Were these reads the best books I’ve ever read and I’m going to reread them all the time I do Harry Potter? No, they definitely weren’t. But they were a fun read that I didn’t have to put too much thought into and really transported me away from this world. I had to literally give my book to my husband so I could do my homework because I was so stuck in this world the last couple of weeks.
Just like the first book I gave this one 4 out of 5 stars. Like I said I either love this one just as much if not more than the first book, but it wasn’t a 5-star read to me. I still loved it though.
I ended up putting the book on ‘A Book about a Book or Book Club.’ If you have read this series, you will know why I did it and how I came to this conclusion. It might not be as obvious as it is supposed to be but, in my head, it makes sense and I really love how it fits.
Overall
I really loved this series even though they got really annoying and very repetitive. I really enjoyed the way it started and how it wrapped up. The middle I think was just really drawn out. There were a lot of things that I really like and thought fit it, but then there was just as much that I think could've been left out. There is another book in this series, but I do believe that I will not read it. Even though I really liked the series I think that the fourth one is where I'm done with it. The last book, from my understanding, is a prequel and I don't normally like prequels. I would rather read the prequels first. I want the story in order versus reading something, finishing the story, and then going back. One tip that I will give you as a new reader to these books is to just jump into them. I didn't read any of the synopsizes for any of the books and I went in with very little information outside of the first book and I loved it. I loved not knowing what was going to happen and just going with the flow. I literally picked the first book up just a couple of weeks ago and completed the whole series. I don't read a lot like I used too anymore and I really enjoyed being able to just plow through them like I did.
Any book-related posts that I read between March and May I'm going to add the following image because I'm trying to complete the whole table. BOTM is the Book of the Month, and one of the groups I have for the subscription service on Facebook was doing these Book Goals so I turned them into this grid below and been adding everything I read to this lately.
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