My Review: “After” by Anna Todd

After Series Book 1

Tessa Young is the ultimate good girl who studies hard and follows the rules. She is also a control freak with a conservative outlook on life. Her relationship with her controlling mum is strained, but college and her new friends open her eyes to different ways of doing things and encourages her to break the rules.

She’s got an equally conservative a boyfriend and they’ve already planned out their life together, complete with the white picket fence. That is until she comes across tattooed and foul-mouthed, Hardin Scott.

Hardin is the ultimate bad boy. He’s rude to her and everyone in general. Of course, she couldn’t resist him. She lets him get away with a lot of stuff and it made me want to hit her over the head sometimes, but then I remembered, she’s only 18 making, her first steps into adulthood. She has a lot to learn, and guess who’s willing to teach her.

Hardin’s behaviour was hard to stomach though. I couldn’t help but feel he had ulterior motives, trying to corrupt the good girl for a bet or something. She’s so innocent and couldn’t understand why he’s full of self-loathing. Of course, she wanted to break through because underneath the tattoos there is a sweet guy hiding that only she can release.

Despite my personal grievances regarding the characters, I was draw in by the tension between them. I wanted her to break free from her conservative outlook and live a little. I also wanted to know why he behaves like a jerk, just a much as she did.

I knew it would fall apart though, and she would end up broken hearted. I just read along waiting for it to happen.

There were few little niggles that chipped away at my enjoyment: little details that were incorrect or overlooked, plot and character inconsistencies that jarred a bit. Anyway, I managed to ignore them because the characters sucked me in. The angst between them was just gut wrenching at times and difficult to read. Then there’s the heat which was equally intoxicating. It all combined to make me want to read more.