I first want to say that I hadn’t read any books in the Judge Me Not series or any by S.R. Grey. However, it was possible to read this book without reading the previous ones since it was based on a supporting character in the last one.

I’m very unsure about my rating for this book. I didn’t hate it, but I definitely didn’t love it. It just was sort of meh for me. On the scale, it either was a 2 star or 3 star.

I think the biggest issue that I had with it was the pacing of the plot. It just felt wrong. Everything happened too fast, and because of that I didn’t really have a sense of time. Also, I was constantly waiting for something to happen, but it never did. Will had made his choice pretty earlier on, and there wasn’t much else to the plot. There wasn’t really much of his “dream” incorporated in the plot.

The book had a very inspirational "follow your dreams " ending. I don’t have an issue with that, but in this particular book it felt out of place. The ending felt incomplete and a little cliché. I wasn’t left wanting more.

Characters

I didn’t hate any of the characters; I just didn’t have a good enough sense of who they were. Will was a nice guy. Emma was nice, as well. I liked that she was welcoming towards Lily.

I didn’t really believe Will and Emma’s love story. It felt very insta-love to me. I wish there was more build up and some angst. When they finally got together, it was sort of boring.

I didn’t really witness any huge character development. Will had a few minor changes.

I felt like Cassie’s story wasn’t finished. Early on, there was a chapter in her POV, so one would think that she would have a bigger role. The chapter felt random because that was the last we saw of her. I wish she would’ve played a bigger role in the story. If Cassie had been included more in the story, maybe there would have been more angst?

The small amount of drama that did occur could’ve easily been avoided if Will and Emma had communicated. Also, I expected to have more moments with Will and his daughter. However, the few that were provided were cute.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, The After of Us was a quick read, without any serious angst. The main problem I encountered was that the story developed fairly quickly which resulted in certain relationships and plots to feel rushed or out of place. All in all, the book wasn’t awful, it just was missing a little extra something and a few more pages to flesh out the story.