Release Day Review: After All by Karina Halle
After All is a STANDALONE lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers contemporary romance from the NYT and USA Today bestselling author of The Pact and Before I Ever Met You.
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Emmett Hill is the perfect gentleman.
At least that’s what his PR team wants the world to think.
Tall, handsome, and wickedly charming, Emmett is in the midst of a career comeback, having landed the role of a villain in a popular TV show. The only problem is, Emmett has come a long way from the “nice guy” characters he used to play and his old squeaky clean image is quickly being tarnished by bar fights, womanizing and bad boy behaviour. Considering he’s two years shy of forty, it’s an act he needs to drop. And fast.
Enter Alyssa Martin.
At twenty-eight, Alyssa is tired and ready for a change. Her job as office manager has grown stagnant and unfulfilling, while she’s become continuously frustrated with Vancouver’s lackluster dating scene, always searching for Mr. Right in a city of Mr. Wrongs.
When Emmett and Alyssa’s paths cross at a mutual friend’s wedding, their chemistry is off-the-charts hot, culminating in a steamy one-night stand.
What neither expected was for the media catch wind of their coupling – and run with it.
Now Emmett has to convince Alyssa to date him for the sake of his image. Her curvy, cute and “normal” persona is just the ticket to smoothing out his reputation, while Emmett provides Alyssa with the excitement and change her life has been lacking.
The only problem is, the two fight like cats and dogs outside of the bedroom.
And considering their arrangement is just for show, they shouldn’t be in the bedroom with each other anyway.
Right?
Try telling them that.
**ARC provided in exchange for an honest review**
"She's my first act and she'll be my last. There will never be anyone else for me."
Karina Halle is now officially number 2 on my list of Most Read Authors with 24 books. What I love most about her writing is that she can do it all. She has written books in so many different genres and I have enjoyed them all. So I am always up for a new book by her. Normally, the fake relationship trope doesn't do it for me that much. However, I really enjoyed it in this book. I think the biggest reason for that, was because of the very interesting characters. I was hooked on Emmett right away, and he got me all hot and bothered. I loved how they first met, and I really liked that Alyssa didn't fall all over him right away. However, the chemistry between them was incredible. I loved their banter and their sexy foreplay. Emmett definitely found a woman who could stand up to him. She said what was on her mind without a filter, and that really made me appreciate her. However, you shouldn't always judge a book by its cover. Alyssa made some assumptions about Emmett that weren't completely true, and it sometimes resulted into emotional scenes.
I really loved how they interacted, and enjoyed the character development for both of them as individuals and as a couple. It had a very organic growth and nice flow. The writing was great as always and easy to read. This book had some very funny moments that made me laugh, but also sad ones that had me tearing up. One thing I didn't like was the drama at the end, it felt a bit forced and could've definitely been left out in my opinion. It did trigger something in the characters but it felt a bit cliche and unnecessary. Overall After All was a great stand-alone contemporary romance with awesome characters. I also loved catching up with Will and Jackie (from Before I Ever Met You), and wouldn't mind other characters from this book getting their own story.
Karina Halle is a former travel writer and music journalist and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of The Pact, Racing the Sun, Sins & Needles and over 25 other wild and romantic reads. She lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails and devours a lot of books.
Halle is represented by the Waxman Leavell Agency and is both self-published and published by Simon & Schuster and Hachette in North America and in the UK.
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