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Summer Reading Challenge: After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Chrissy’s review)
After I Dowritten by Taylor Jenkins Reid
published by Washington Square Press
find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Book Depository, Goodreads
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Did I enjoy this book: I did enjoy this book. It flew and I couldn’t wait to see how it ended.
Lauren and Ryan’s marriage is ending. They fight. They don’t want to spend time together. They are falling out of love. What are they going to do about it? You want to cheer for them. You want them to do their best. You want them to save their marriage. You want them to be happy. At least, I did. I was invested in Lauren and Ryan’s story.
One thing that I really liked about After I Do is that it isn’t the guy wanting to split. It isn’t the guy who wants to end the marriage. It isn’t the guy who makes the excuses. That was different for me. That was different from so many books that I have read.
I loved the unsent emails. I think that was my favorite part of the whole book. They had to have known on some level that the other one would read them. They had to have at least hoped that would happen. It was a great way to truly communicate how they felt without actually saying it to the other person.
The pacing of the book is fast, engaging, and keeps you reading. It is funny, sad, thought provoking.
Would I recommend it: Yes, I would recommend it.
About the book: When Lauren and Ryan’s marriage reaches the breaking point, they come up with an unconventional plan. They decide to take a year off in the hopes of finding a way to fall in love again. One year apart, and only one rule: they cannot contact each other. Aside from that, anything goes.
Lauren embarks on a journey of self-discovery, quickly finding that her friends and family have their own ideas about the meaning of marriage. These influences, as well as her own healing process and the challenges of living apart from Ryan, begin to change Lauren’s ideas about monogamy and marriage. She starts to question: When you can have romance without loyalty and commitment without marriage, when love and lust are no longer tied together, what do you value? What are you willing to fight for?
This is a love story about what happens when the love fades. It’s about staying in love, seizing love, forsaking love, and committing to love with everything you’ve got. And above all, After I Do is the story of a couple caught up in an old game—and searching for a new road to happily ever after.
About the author: Taylor Jenkins Reid is an author and essayist from Acton, Massachusetts. She graduated from Emerson College with a degree in Media Studies. Her first novel, Forever, Interrupted, was named one of the “11 Debuts We Love” by Kirkus Reviews. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Alex, and her dog, Rabbit. Her forthcoming novel, After I Do, will be published July 1, 2014.
