Review: After All by Karina Halle

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I have conflicting thoughts about this book. Some things I really enjoyed and others things were completely unnecessary- especially, the climax and the ending. The turning point and the main conflict felt forced. The story didn’t need it. There are other ways to keep the main characters apart- especially since one is famous and the other is not.

The book is in essence a book of tropes. There’s the famous person/normal person dating trope, huge age difference trope, enemies-to-lovers trope, and the fake dating trope. There are more in the book but this these are the most prominent ones. I never felt overwhelmed with the tropes. At times they did feel a little cliché, but never overly annoying.

Characters

I liked Alyssa. She was funny and took absolutely no nonsense. However, Alyssa’s actions were a little unclear. For example, why did she want to be an actress and why did she leave at the end of the book? Also, it was a little sadden that she always commented on her size and put herself down.

I think Alyssa described Emmett best in the book when she said, “…you’re no different from the vapid dirty-talking alphas I read.” I was put off by his “dirty talk”; it made me a little uncomfortable because it always felt random. But, I must say I really enjoyed him and Jimmy’s relationship. I wish that had been explored more because it was emotional and made Emmett likeable. I wish that side of him was shown more.

I found it interesting that he was an actor on Degrassi and that his current acting job is on a CW superhero show. I used to watch Degrassi and current watch superhero shows on that channel.

I genuinely love the enemies to lover stories. The banter is always hilarious and it’s interesting to see two characters who hate each other start to fall for each other.  Emmett and Alyssa did have banter, and you could really see the connection between them. My favorite moments between them is when they would have heart-to-heart conversations. The banter happened a little less than I would have wanted.

Final Analysis

After All attempts to incorporate all of the most popular and interesting tropes into one story. Although interesting and heart wrenching in some parts, in others it begins to feel unnecessary and plain.