After I Do: A Novel

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, comes a breath taking novel about modern marriage, the depth of family ties, and the year that one remarkable heroine spends exploring both.

When Lauren and Ryan's marriage reaches the breaking point, they come up with an unconventional plan. They decide to take a year off in the hopes of finding a way to fall in love again. One year apart, and only one rule: they cannot contact each other. Aside from that, anything goes.

Lauren embarks on a journey of self-discovery, quickly finding that her friends and family have their own ideas about the meaning of marriage. These influences, as well as her own healing process and the challenges of living apart from Ryan, begin to change Lauren's ideas about monogamy and marriage. She starts to question: When you can have romance without loyalty and commitment without marriage, when love and lust are no longer tied together, what do you value? What are you willing to fight for?

This is a love story about what happens when the love fades. It's about staying in love, seizing love, forsaking love, and committing to love with everything you've got. And above all, After I Dois the story of a couple caught up in an old game-and searching for a new road to happily ever after.

• ISBN10: 1476712840
• ISBN13: 9781476712840
• Publish Date: 24 September 2015 (first published 1 July 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 7 February 2022
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[bookperson]

TJR writes unconventional romances, where not everything is rainbow and sunsine. And that's what I love about her. After One True Loves tear me apart I was scared to read another book from her. This one didn't disappoint!

[Ashley]

This is the best book I've read in a VERY long time! It completely blew me away! After I Do gave me so many thoughts and feels. I was constantly smiling, laughing, near-tears, or downright crying. It's un-put-downable and will completely rock your world!

[girlinthepages]

Initial Impressions, 2/23/17: Really, really enjoyed this! I was in a bit of a mini slump this week so TJR was a perfect pick me up! I love how marriage is explored in this book (and all of her books, really) and I have so many sticky notes peppered throughout this novel because it's so quotable. Full review to come!

[Leah]

I was very excited to be invited to take part in Taylor Jenkins Reid’s blog tour for After I Do! Taylor’s debut novel Forever, Interrupted was released to lots and lots of positive reviews last year, and I’m almost sure it’s sitting on my Kindle somewhere – story of my life that I can never keep up with the books I want to read! But it was quite exciting to get to read Taylor’s new book! I wanted to see if all the hype was worth it, if she was such an awesome author as everyone says she is and I was very intrigued with the synopsis of the novel – a lot of novels lead up to marriage, or deal with the demise of marriage, but not a lot have a trial separation that we get to see! I enjoyed the novel, Taylor is a very exciting author and I very much can see why everyone loved her debut novel!

After I Do opens with Lauren and Ryan leaving a Dodgers game – Lauren is sure they parked their car in Block C, but Ryan is having none of it, in just a short space of time, it tells us that Lauren and Ryan are perhaps struggling in their relationship. Little snide remarks, unkind smiles. We then spin back to the day they met and we unfurl their love story like a beautiful little flower, until it starts to wither and die the way a romance like theirs never should. From their beautiful beginnings at College, to almost thirty-somethings, it was kind of hard to see such a beautiful relationship collapse, because I was captivated with their relationship from the very start, and it came as something of a relief when they both realised this wasn’t working and that they were making each other miserable. It’s a brave step – a lot of couples would just carry on as they were, in stasis, but Lauren and Ryan were pro-active – they decided to pause their relationship for a year and come back 12 months later stronger and hopefully more in love with each other than they’ve ever been…

The novel asks a lot of questions – as I said, not many novels deal with a couple taking a break, because usually the break means its indefinite. That the couple will never get back together, as Lauren’s brother so aptly points out. But, actually, it was interesting to see how the break helped Lauren and Ryan, separately and together. One of my favourite parts of the novel were the emails they wrote to each other, but never sent. Perhaps it was a bit sneaky if you think about it too deeply, but I thought it was actually really sweet – that Lauren cared enough to sneak a peek into Ryan’s email account. I also loved that Lauren didn’t just focus on Ryan – she has the most amazing family! It was so lovely to see her interact with her siblings, and her mom, it was very much a family novel, and I LOVED it. I love novels where the family just get on… There are no issues, no dramas, they all love each other like a family should. It was super refreshing.

Jenkins Reid is such a clever writer. I loved Lauren’s narration, she was such a wonderful character and I loved her journey – she has a few, actually. There’s her journey with her family, her journey with Ryan, her journey as a newly (and unexpectedly)-single woman… She deals with it all with such grace, and I liked that she didn’t become a wailing banshee, as many a wife would perhaps consider. After I Do was a great look into modern marriage and since I’m a believer of making a marriage work – why make your vows if you aren’t going to bother to keep them (celebrities I AM LOOKING AT YOU) and just because you hit a rough patch doesn’t mean you ought to just give up and roll over and die. I absolutely loved the book – it made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me feel happy about love all over again, in all its many forms. I can’t wait to go back and read Forever, Interrupted. I lapped it all up, and I think Taylor is such a wonderful writer.