Book Review: After Him

After Him by Kelly Finley
Part 1 of the All For You duet
Available now on KU!

OK, so a quick disclaimer before I begin this review. I was part of the beta team for this book, and I want to tell you that even in its early forms, the story that Finley tells in After Him was brilliant. Now, in its finished form? Sheer perfection.

(also – Bucket List Item: be mentioned in the acknowledgements of a book – CHECK! 😊)

After Him is the first book in a duet, which is a format I love. We are in the same world as Finley’s Come for Me series, which made me very happy because she did such a tremendous job of creating that world in her previous books. This time we are introduced to Redix and Cade. These two were childhood friends, high school sweethearts, soulmates, each completing the other. Then in one horrible night, it all went wrong.

Now, a decade later, they grudgingly find themselves back in each other’s lives. Each are battling their own demons and dealing with past traumas in their own way. What happened to tear them apart? And will they be able to overcome all that history and find a way forward together?

With After Him, Finley once again proves that she is a brilliant storyteller. I have read all of her books and each one is better and stronger than the last. She can craft the most powerful, vulnerable, and exceptionally strong women who are taking charge of their lives and taking no shit in the process. And she writes men with so much more depth than your typical romance novel leading man. With her words she will take you through all of the emotions, and will wring everything out of you before finally putting you back together again. She writes steamy scenes like none I’ve ever read before, and after this you will never look at Lemonheads the same way again. Told in a dual POV, this second chance romance is led mostly by Cade, and we hear Redix’s voice through a series of journal entries that are all letters to Cade. I am a sucker for an epistolary format, so I was delighted to discover this device being used in this unique way.

I mentioned that this is the first book in a duet. One thing I really appreciated about the end of this book is that it does not leave you dangling off a cliff, like Wile E Coyote before he plummets to the bottom of the chasm. Instead, Finley leaves us at a perfect moment, waiting to cross the bridge to book two. And you won’t have to wait forever for the conclusion, because With Him releases in just two weeks!
If you’ve never read one of Kelly Finley’s books before, I cannot recommend them highly enough. Definitely check out her Come for Me series in addition to this duet. You can thank me later.🙂