After

After by Anna Todd             Audio Book:  16 hours, 49 minutes      Paperback book:  592 pages          

Argggggghhhhhhhh!   Another book in a series that I thought was a stand alone book.   I get that there is money to be made in series, but, honestly folks, could you identify books as being part of a series on the front cover or in the blurbs that give us a hint of what the story is about?   Really.  If I am going to be sucked into a series I would like to go from book 1 to the final book in order rather than jump in somewhere in the middle.   On this book I had seen the film first so I had a good idea of who was who and what was what, but, now after completing it and finding that the film either took license and went further with the story than did the book or does the book go even further than the film did because it tells the story in five novels?    So annoying.   However the story is good, and the characters described in such perfect detail that you come to know them as if they were tangible.   Knowing now that there is this wider universe of the story I am stuck deciding whether to go back then forward or just call it done.   Because it irritates me I will call it done with the caveat that the story is a good one and in recommending it I would let the reader know there are 5 sectors to get it all across but if you watch the film first - you will get enough of the gist of the story that like me, you might feel satiated with reading only AFTER and skip BEFORE, AFTER WE COLLIDED, AFTER WE FELL AND AFTER EVER HAPPY.   Yeah, I'm shaking my head, too.    Label the bloody series - publishers, if you please.   Good book nonetheless, and yes, I do recommend it.   The heroine is so guileless you will want to shake her at times, but, maybe that is because she goes ahead and does what the more jaded wouldn't.    Sexual content pretty hot for teens - adults might find it pretty steamy, too.   Well written, Anna Todd.

- Shirley J