Book Review: After by Anna Todd

After 

(After #1) 

by 

Anna Todd

Pub October 21st 2014 

by Gallery Books 

ARC for Review 

Summary
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?

New Adult At Its Sassiest

After was a very entertaining read chalk full of drama drama drama. Wow this book will have you from the first page. It says its nearly 600 pages but those pages fly by with Tessa trying to find her place in this world. Cue the oober sexy ever elusive Hardin. Extremely standoffish and down right rude! Ugh this guy got under my skin but something about him called out to Tessa. He made her feel things she never imagined and she gave her heart to him. Mistake after mistake Tess kept on forgiving him because she saw through to his heart. Once he finally opened up to her and admitted his feelings we see a softer side to him. Unfortunately all is not well as his biggest regret/ mistake is revealed. SHOCKING!!! I was heart broken by his actions. Tessa isn’t entirely innocent as she to commits some pretty crap-tastic moves on her boyfriend who by all accounts is an amazing guy. BUT and I mean BUT that no way justifies Hardin’s atrocious behavior towards her. Do I want to continue this series? Heck YES! Everyone has some splainin to do! I want to see it done.

A-spirations, all Tessa has ever been trained to do is work hard and get into college now that the moment is here she is having second doubts about her ability to stay above water. 
F-riends, Tessa has always had Noah he’s been her rock and foundation now that she is away she is finding this new freedom refreshing. Something about her roommate and her friends seems off though they keep inviting her along Tess finds herself being at the butt of their jokes.
T-ruth, meeting Landon has been good for Tess they have an instant connection and become fast friends. Landon confesses to Tess his relationship with Hardin bringing them all closer than she first imagined, things begin to make sense in a fundamental way.
E-scape, through extremely rough patches full of arguments and ups and downs Tess finds herself happiest in Hardin’s arms but something is still off. Tess knows he is hiding something from her and she doesn’t know how much longer she will last.
R-evelations, through coincidence Tess finds herself in the middle of an extremely painful situation. Once again the butt of ridicule and snide comments. Tess is crushed not only by the people she considered friends but by the guy who claimed to love her more than anything else.


Ouch, yea it was pretty painful to watch. Tess trusts Hardin and he basically crushes her with little to no remorse. I’ll admit when everything comes crashing down on these two he seems heart broken but I just can’t get past his actions. I want these two to work things out but Tess really needs to make a stand and Hardin needs to step up and really change for her. Words are one thing and I hope Tess has had her fill of them its time for Hardin to take action and change his ways. Talk about betrayal and heart break…wow…just. wow. Like I mentioned before this does not lack drama! A very entertaining read with all of the New Adult qualifications list marked off. Tess and especially Hardin have some growing to do and I definitely want to see it happen! This was a great read that I enjoyed even though I didn’t see eye to eye with the decisions of our main characters…buy hey its all about growth right?

My Rating

4.0 College, Tattoo’s, Red Hair, Pink Hair, Truth or Dare, Parties, Fights, Nightmares, Stream, Firsts, Apartment, Internship, Step Mother, London, Wedding, Bar, Truth, Knees, Broken Heart, but Passionate love filled stars!! I look forward to seeing whats next!!

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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 center. 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. 

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