After (After Series, Book 1)
2014
- man-woman relationships
- contemporary women
- contemporary
- fiction
- romance
- fiction, romance, contemporary
- fiction, women
- fiction / romance / contemporary
- fiction / contemporary women
- nyt:combined-print-and-e-book-fiction=2019-04-28
The story
Now a major motion picture! Experience the internet's most talked-about book from Anna Todd, the writer Cosmopolitan called “the biggest literary phenomenon of her generation”—now with new exclusive material! There was the time before Tessa met Hardin, and then there’s everything AFTER... Life will never be the same. #Hessa 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, and tattoos, 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?
What it’s like
Warm, sun-washed campus light and bright dorm rooms give way to late-night dimness, with prose that is breezy, intimate and heavy on close first-person-style interiority, the pages full of texting, chatter and quick emotional swings. The mood is swoony and turbulent: a sweet, frustrating will-they-won't-they romance with flirtation, jealousy and a constant push-pull between tenderness and cruelty. Its arc follows a sheltered, earnest young woman drawn toward a sullen, guarded man who keeps retreating and returning, so the pacing is fast, escalating and cliffhanger-driven, good for reading in one sitting. Sexual content is present and fairly explicit in places, with frequent kissing and heated scenes; violence is limited, but the emotional cruelty and manipulation are sharp and can sting. Best for readers who want a steamy, drama-heavy new-adult romance with a brooding bad-boy lead and lots of longing, rather than anything gentle or low-stakes.
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