After I Do

I just finished After I Do and just loved it so much. Often the books I read are about how people get in the relationships. While it has its moments, I often want to see what happens next. What is going on after the epilogue?

This book was one of the most perfect answers I could've only imagine. I'm so happy that I found this book in the right time to be fully immersed in it.

At this point, I think Taylor Jenkins Reid can do no wrong. I've started working my way through her back catalog and they're all turning into 5⭐️ reads. I went back and forth on what I thought would happen. The big reason it resonated with me though, was I identified with Lauren's feelings and wondered what I myself would do in the situation.

Highly highly recommend

“The sun will rise no matter what pain we encounter. No matter how much we believe the world to be over, the sun will rise.”

This has to be one of my favourite books from TJR at the moment. There's something about second-chance romance that I can't help but love.

While reading romances where they are always happy and have fantastic intimacy and communication is great, it's also nice to see books where it portrays the reality that romance isn't always rainbows and sunshine.

Lauren and Ryan were great characters in the way where they were flawed, sometimes (most times at times) infuriating and human. I loved reading about them both learning to rediscover themselves separately as they try find out whether that can be together anymore.

This was so easy to read and I found myself on the last chapters without even realising it.

I've heard A LOT about this book and finally decided to take the plunge and read it. The writing was fantastic, the beginning was very good but it lost me by the end. While I do agree with the conclusions and “morals” of this book I don't see how they needed an entire year to learn it. I did like her family though and really enjoyed that aspect of it.

Yes, for me this is a 5 stars book, without questions or hesitations, even though I consider the ending a bit movie like and would love to see a more realistic one.
Its full with truths, raw emotions, thoughts that we all make and secret wishes. I ve read a lot of people that hated aspects of the characters, found some of Ryan's letters rude or some of Lauren's expectations non logical. However, we seem to forget, that those were their inner thoughts, their ugly truths. When you have a fight with your partner your thoughts are guided, aren't calm, they are a storm that try to guide you and its up to your logic and your heart to calm them down and find a way to discuss and find the golden middle.
And this book is all that! And so much more.
And to be honest, I would love to read Ryan's POV at some point...

I always emotionally connect to every single TJR book. It's like she's speaking to me through her book and no matter the context or plot in any of her books, I always have something to take from every single one of them.

Maybe needing someone isn't about you not being able to do it without them. Maybe needing someone is about it being easier if they are by your side.

This Taylor Jenkins Reid book started slow for me. I wasn't sure I'd like it. I couldn't decide if I liked Lauren. I couldn't decide how I felt about the year off from marriage.

As I got further along in the story, I grew to like the book more. A lot of the lessons Lauren and Ryan learn about marriage during their time apart resonate with me as a married woman. I think Reid understands marriage and it's complications and writes about it well.

Do I agree with the idea of couples taking a year apart, even dating and sleeping with other people? No. But I agree with everything Reid reveals about marriage in this book.

Overall, I ended up liking this story. It made me value my marriage and all its layers.

“Falling in love is the easy part” Man, this was a great book. It pulled at all the heartstrings and really allowed me to reflect on my own past love.  It was actually a bit triggering for me in the beginning, as I - at one point - was on a break with someone that I loved and didn't know how it would end. The fear of the unknown set in and the heartache was so real.  I truly felt for Lauren and Ryan as they navigated a year apart; how they discovered the important of making a marriage work.  I enjoyed how Reid really captured the emotions that come with love. That come with separating from the one you love. That come with finding yourself.  I also love how Lauren re-discovered the importance of her family, and the relationships she strengthened with her mother, Rachel, Charlie, and her grandmother.  This was such a heartfelt book and definitely had me in my feeeeeeels.  It was also a great reminder, with love, to “give it everything you got”. ♥️

This book is about a couple who fall out of love after 10 years of being together. Nothing crazy happens. Nobody cheats. No one Is physically abusing the other.

They start to resent each other for the little things. Not agreeing where to eat, doing things the other doesn't want to do in order to please their partner, expectations that aren't met, chores that aren't divided equally and so on.

They attempt to fix their marriage, but it's a long hard journey.

As much as I love reading about heroes and powerful main characters, I also love books like this that are closer to real life. It shows you a perspective of what's it like to be in the main character's shoes in a realistic setting. Let's face it, the chances of me being a dragon-riding demon-fighting fairy saving the world are zero.

I like this book because I can relate to it. I've been that person who started to build resentment because I wanted people to know what I wanted from them without having to tell them. I've been that person who felt unimportant, and instead of speaking up, I chose to hide my “ridiculous feelings” and get over it. I did not get over it.

What would have happened if I kept doing that and broke my relationship? In this book, I can see one possibility of how it can play out.

I learned that it's important to appreciate the people in your life while you still have them. You don't have to wait to lose them.

A happy family and a complete family aren't mutually exclusive.

“If you stay married for a number of years and you have a happy time together and then you decide you don't want to be married anymore and you choose to go be happy with someone else or doing something else, that's not a failure.”

We don't know what the future holds, so it's important to enjoy the present. Not everything you do today has to be the thing that you do for the rest of your life. Be it your partner, your friends, your career.

This obsession with finding “the one” and finding your “calling” gives me anxiety. How can I know what I want for the rest of my life? I change all the time. Letting this expectation go is freeing.

I can just be where I am now, and if I change my mind or things don't work out, then I will go and do the next thing.

This was a really really great story. It was quite gut wrenching at times.. mostly because it felt so real. The emotions are so genuine.. everything is so well-connected. It's easy to imagine this happening to myself or a friend. Even though it's something I wouldn't want to go through, it still hooked me. This felt like real life.

This book is about a married couple who can't agree on where to go to dinner and how often to have sex, so they split up and have dinner and sex with other people for a year.

You know they're super smart and totally meant for each other when you learn that their first fight happened on their honeymoon because they took a road trip and neglected to bring a jack, which they admit wouldn't have mattered because neither of these automobile-owning, full-grown adults knows how to change a tire.

If you are over the age of 25, don't read this book. You're too smart for it.