Hello lovely people! This is honestly my first review ever and I wanted to start with "After" by Anna Todd since I recently just finished reading it. I hope you enjoy and I'll make sure to leave this review spoiler-free. It might turn out short and not quite detailed but hopefully I'll get better at this soon.

I honestly have no idea where to start. I've never been into fan fiction but I figured why not give this highly rated series a go. I do regret it though. I really don't want to come out too harsh but some things have to be said. Now about the book, it was a quick read. It started off okay I suppose but I kind of saw most, if not all the events coming. So in summary, it was predictable, like your typical bad boy good girl stories with some added drama here and sexual scenes there.

Moving on to the characters, Tessa is surely not the kind of girl I would have in my story. I understand she was supposed to portray a good innocent girl who's all about school and grades and establishing her future but that has gone too far. She shows signs of weakness more than strength. She seemed quite naive especially after meeting Hardin. She gave him several chances and forgave him for things I would consider as unforgivable crimes. She let go of Noah so easily and kind of treated him like trash in my opinion, though he was so loving, caring and forgiving. I mostly hated how Hardin easily got to her. He hurt her effortlessly and made her cry instantly yet had her forgive him so quickly. I would have literally had his head after the first few encounters, just saying. I do like the very very few scenes where Tessa stood up for herself and spoke what's on her mind. That is the kind of girl I would like to read stories about. I just hate how she allowed him to use her like that!

Hardin is honestly the most confusing and complicated character I've ever seen. He has way too many sides that I stopped counting. I definitely prefer the sweet and playful Hardin though, at least here he's trying. But honestly, I hated every other side he showed. He was such a jerk throughout most of the story. He seemed abusive, especially when he drank. He broke things and verbally hurt people, some even physically. I understand that he has a rough past but dwelling on it only makes him relive it over and over again, resulting in him hurting himself and the people around him, which was the case. I honestly saw that ghastly ending coming from when he started acting suspicious around Tessa. I honestly hate him so much for that. He deceived her way too easily with all the "I love you"s and the sweet talk and would snap at her when she wanted answers she clearly deserved. I heard that in book two she would quickly forgive him (shocker) and that made me even less interested in continuing the series. I honestly think that the other four books contain the same unnecessary drama, even though it could have all ended in one book, with her leaving him in the end, because let's face it, he deserved that at least.

Landon was probably my favorite character. He's such a great and supportive friend which I truly appreciate. The rest of Hardin's group turned out to be worse than I thought, even Steph and Tristan, though they were probably the only okay people. Zed still seemed better than Hardin. At least he was actually considerate of Tessa's feelings. I hated Tessa's mom. I know she was trying to look out for her child but come on, there are better ways to do that. She never tried to ask Tessa what she wanted or how she felt. She just forced things upon her. Noah was a sweet guy and I wish he didn't have to go through all this heartbreak. Ken and Karen were a sweet couple, regardless of Ken's past self. All in all, there was a variety of characters and personalities in this book which was actually nice until half of them ended up being jerks, but I guess that just kept the story going.

In summary, I don't HATE the book, but it's simply not my cup of tea. I think all the hype it received was because of the sexual scenes. But I don't see myself proceeding with the series anytime soon. I do want to watch the movie though so I can compare it with the book but I can already tell what content it will contain and I don't think it's any better than what was portrayed in the book.
I also really hope I did not offend any Afternators, that was truly not my intention. I just felt like I had to put my honest opinion out there for those who need it. Once again, I apologize if my review was not your favorite, but I do not regret a single word I wrote or critique I made.

Anyways, I really enjoyed writing my first review and it was actually easier than I expected. The second I started, everything just flowed easily. I hope this was helpful and I will try to write more reviews of maybe old books I read as practice.
Enjoy!