Today I’m going to be talking to you about the After book series by Anna Todd. This is a romance novel with 4 books; After, After We Collided, After We Fell, and After Ever Happy. Keep reading for my After book series review including my thoughts and opinions without spoilers.
Disclosure: this post may contain affiliate links. That means if you click that link and make a purchase I may receive a commission at no cost to you.
Author
The author of the After book series is Anna Todd. Anna Todd was born in Ohio and later moved to Texas with her husband. Anna Todd started the After series as a fan fiction and used Harry Styles as a model for the character Hardin Scott. She wrote the first three books on Wattpad and released them by chapter before releasing them as books. Her first book after was released as a movie in April of 2019 and the second movie was released in late 2020.
Plot
The After series books follow Tessa Young and Hardin Scott. The first book is all from Tessa’s point of view and the next three are from both Tessa and Hardin’s point of view. I would characterize these books as romance but also as enemy’s to lovers. Some people have also made comparison’s to 50 Shades Of Gray.
The fist book starts out with Tessa going to her first year of college in Washington. Tessa is a great student and is excited to work hard at her classes and get a job. Things get a little away from her vision when she finds out her roommate Steph is covered in tattoos and barely wears any clothes. This is a very different type of person than Tessa is used to and all of Steph’s friends; including an angry rude boy named Hardin are all covered in tattoos as well.
Tessa starts to get settled in college and becomes interested in this rude boy named Hardin who seems to always be around. As you’ll find out throughout the books Hardin has an interesting background and childhood and there’s a reason he is the way he is. You may think you have an idea but there is so much that gets uncovered about Hardin’s life and Tessa’s as well.
I wasn’t sure if there would be enough going on that there could be four long books made of this series but by the time I finished the books I found myself wanting to read more. That’s why I decided to read Before which is Hardin’s point of view at the beginning of his relationship with Tessa.
Movies
When making movies from books it’s really hard to get the across the story and the characters. You get so much information in books including the thoughts of the characters so it’s hard to portray that in less than 2 hours in a movie. These books happen to actually be some really long books so there was quite a bit that has been left of the first two movies that are out just because that’s the only option. However, I think they did a good job at deciding what to include in the After movies and what to cut out.
If you decide to only watch the movies they are still very enjoyable and a great series to watch. However, I personally like to read the books first. This way you can really get to know the characters and what they were thinking in the moments you watch on the screen.
So far only the first two after movies are out but the third will be out in 2021 and they have already filmed the forth as well. Hero Fiennes Tiffin did a great job at playing Hardin Scott. Hardin is a difficult character to portray so I was very happy with this casting. I was also very impressed with Josephine Langford as Tessa Young. You could really tell that she was that shy girl who cared so much about her school work. The evolution of this character was also seamless into becoming who Tessa is as a person and seeing her grow up and be herself.
Quotes
These books have a lot of memorable quotes that I want to share with you to give you some insights and get you exited about reading the After book series.
“My life before him was so simple and decided, now after him…It’s just…After.”
“Whatever the hell our souls are made of hers and mine are the same.”
“Just because he doesn’t love you the way you want him to doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you with all he has.”
“That girl is long gone, though. She took a ticket straight to hell, and here she sits, silently burning.”
“I feel as though I am ice and he is fire. We are so completely different, yet the same.”
“I am a moth to his flame, and he never hesitates to burn me.”
“Hardin is like a drug; each time I take the tiniest bit of him, I crave more and more. He consumes my thoughts and invades my dreams.”
“I know this happiness that I feel isn’t going to last, and I feel like Cinderella, waiting for the clock to strike and end my blissful night.”
“Do you remember when you asked me who I loved most in the world? It’s you. You’re the person that I love most in the world.”
“I bring out the worst in you and you bring out the best in me.”
And that is my After book series review. I could not recommend this book series anymore. These are long books but I read the entire series in just a couple weeks. This is a series I can see myself rereading in the future because of how great it was and how great the characters were written. Before buying this book series I looked all over for the cheapest option to buy and the cheapest I found was the After series box set on Amazon. So if you’re planning on reading it I would suggest getting the box save to save yourself some money. I hope you enjoyed this After book series review and it got you excited about the books.
If you’re interested in some other books I’ve read here are some other book reviews: One of us is lying, The kissing booth, To all the boys I’ve loved before book series, The Hating Game, You’ll Be The Death Of Me, and Everything, everything.
