Blog Tour: After by Anna Todd

First of all, I'd like to thank the girls at The Hot Bed, Simon and Schuster UK, for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review and inviting me to take part in the Blog Tour.

Title: After

Author: Anna Todd

Published: October 21st 2014

Blurb: Now newly revised and expanded, Anna Todd’s After fanfiction racked up 1 billion reads online and captivated readers across the globe. Experience the Internet’s most talked-about book for yourself!

There was the time before Tessa met Hardin, and then there’s everything AFTER… Life will never be the same. #Hessa

Tessa is a good girl with a sweet, reliable boyfriend back home. She’s got direction, ambition, and a mother who’s intent on keeping her that way.

But she’s barely moved into her freshman dorm when she runs into Hardin. With his tousled brown hair, cocky British accent, tattoos, and lip ring, Hardin is cute and different from what she’s used to.

But he’s also rude – to the point of cruelty, even. For all his attitude, Tessa should hate Hardin and she does– until she finds herself alone with him in his room. Something about his dark mood grabs her, and when they kiss it ignites within her a passion she’s never known before.

He’ll call her beautiful, then insist he isn’t the one for her and disappear again and again. Despite the reckless way he treats her, Tessa is compelled to dig deeper and find the real Hardin beneath all his lies. He pushes her away again and again, yet every time she pushes back, he only pulls her in deeper.

Tessa already has the perfect boyfriend. So why is she trying so hard to overcome her own hurt pride and Hardin’s prejudice about nice girls like her?

Unless…could this be love?

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Review: If I had not been told on twitter that this was fan fiction I would have never guessed it by reading the book. I am not a big fan of One Direction, I like some of their songs when I hear them on the radio but that is it. Anyway, the link between the band and the group is that the main male character, Hardin Scott, has the same initials and looks a lot like one of the members of this group. But it all ends here, Hardin is not in a band, he is just an English college student in America. I have read some criticism about it being fan fiction and how it might affect the group but I do not get why it would affect them. I think this a book and should be treated as such. 

After tells the first part of Tessa and Hardin's story, two opposites that attrack. Tessa is a good girl, always doing what her controlling mother tells her, until she meets her new roommate at college: a girl with tattoos and piercings that goes to crazy parties, stays out all night and has a lot of dangerous friends. One of her friends is Hardin, a rough boy full of hatred towards the world in general but Tessa in particular. They then start this hot and cold or love hate relationship and every encounter ends with Tessa crying. Somehow though, they can't stay away of each other.

I found the story very addictive at the beginning. Tessa got a bit on my nerves though, she always wanted to know it all and was really childish sometimes, but I guess that at 18 we are all a bit childish still. And then, there's Hardin, I hated him and some things he did but I loved him too. He is a really complex character and every new bit we learn about him makes us understand him a bit better. The story got a bit repetitive at some point, they fighting and making up all the time which was a bit frustating, but little by little the story developed with some unexpected twists and then boom! I did not expect at all that ending. All I can say is well played Anna, I am now dying to know how the story continues. 

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