After Hours

by Claire Kennedy

[whisperingchapters]

This review was first published on Latte Nights Reviews.

After Hours was a quick and fun read that I really enjoyed. It wasn't the best things I have read but I really liked it and I loved the concept of it. After Hours is about some teenagers that work at a cafe and late at night, at 3:00 AM, they play Tips, a game where they have to put a certain percent of their tips/check for a dare. If they accept and fulfill it, they get the whole money. This game had me thinking the dares would be amazing! The first dare was to kiss someone you didn't like...... That is so middle grade and hell, probably elementary. I mean, it involved making out but I find the idea of it childish... That's just me. Some were fun to read about for sure, especially the one that Finn did. I was smiling so big when I read that dare. The rest were okay. I think the story could have been a whole lot better if the game had been more fun.

This is a story that has multiple points of views but it is not overwhelming. I loved reading about each character and their hidden lives that they don't share about with their coworkers. It gets to a point where the story becomes suspenseful and I really wanted to keep on reading and then all of a sudden...it stops...it just ends. It left me hanging because I don't know if something was supposed to happen, if a second book is going to come out, if it really is the end... I don't know.

The characters: The story didn't wow nor the characters. Yes, their life and secrets were interesting to read about for sure but it didn't fully have an element of surprise. I kept waiting for something big to happen. There's Isa, the girl that has a secret that no one knows about until Finn finds out and uses it to blackmail her. Finn had his motives for using blackmail against her seeing as she blackmailed him first, threatening to expose his secret if she didn't get some money out of it. I really liked Isa in the beginning and then I just despised her a lot. Finn was the one that I loved. He was funny and kind of crazy. There's Peter who has been "in love" with his stepsister for a long time and Xavi who believes that falling for her stepbrother is beyond wrong. These two, I was waiting for something to happen and when it did... It was the usual cliche story that happens with these and I kept rolling my eyes. There are two other characters that pretty much were used to fill in since they didn't give much to the story. Then there's Rico, the guy who owns the cafe. From the beginning I didn't like him. There was something off about him and later on we find out why something feels different with this character. You guys know I love when I can relate to a character. With this story, it was rather difficult to do so. I really tried but couldn't feel a connection to the characters at all. I only liked Finn because he was funny for the most part.

Overall, each character was unique, each one with their own secret that slowly came to light and it is not pretty for them, but very interesting. I do recommend this book if you are looking for a quick, light-suspenseful story about teenagers with secrets and having a game of light dares.