After Us (Before and After)

by Amber Hart

[whisperingchapters]

Read FULL review at GenGen's Book Blog

After Us features two character that I know readers wanted more of from Before You. I believe After Us is more on the emotional level than Before You (not like the ending of Before You…that’s a whole other level of emotions I won’t get into now or I will start crying).

Melissa is dealing with her own scars, visible scars. She hides them away from the world so no one but her family knows what has happened. She is trying to keep on living without her best friend Faith. It’s really hard for her because they were the best of friends and then Faith leaves to another country because she can’t deal with her boyfriend’s death.

Javier is Diego’s cousin. They treated each other as if they were brothers. When Diego died, all Javier wanted was revenge and the only way to do that is to look for the gang that killed Diego.

When these two character’s life crosses again, their feelings are still there and stronger than ever.

Melissa used to be such a free-spirited girl but tragedy happened and she changed. It hit me hard to see that change because I read about her in Before You and she used to be so much fun. Then in After Us, the readers find out something that shakes their world—it shook my world. I couldn’t believe it. It pains me to read that she doesn’t have anyone she can talk to about it. Faith is gone and she’s alone. She wants to share with Javier why she has scars but it is so difficult for her and that was hard to read. I missed my Melissa. But don’t get me wrong, she still jokes in this book and she still has fun.

Javier is mad sexy. Every time he calls Melissa “mami“, I melt. I hate that he made a bad choice and is now endangering his life but he really loved Diego as a brother and when he lost him, he was devastated. But obviously there are good times in this story. Most of the story was actually on a happy note and I enjoyed that because these two characters are very fun.

While reading a certain part of the book—almost at the end—I got so many emotions and once again, I was in class and I needed to let out my frustration so I went outside. I came back to class after a while and my friend asks me, “Why did you yell when you got out of the classroom?” So apparently I yelled and the professor heard…yeah…

I have to be honest and say I enjoyed Faith and Diego’s story more. You can read my review HERE. And if you don’t like deaths, I will only say there is more than meets the eye ;)