Review: After Us by Amber Hart

My rating: ★★★★★
Genre: young/new adult, romance, contemporary
Series: Before & After #2

Blurb from Goodreads:

Sometimes secrets kill. Maybe slowly, maybe painfully. Maybe all at once.

Melissa smiles. She flirts. She jokes. But she never shows her scars. Eight months after tragedy ripped her from her closest friend, Melissa is broken. Inside her grows a tumor, fed by grief, rage, and the painful memory of a single forbidden kiss.

Javier has scars of his own: a bullet wound, and the memory of a cousin shot in the heart. Life in the States was supposed to be a new beginning, but a boy obsessed by vengeance has no time for the American dream. To honor his familia, Javier joins the gang who set up his cousin's murder. The entrance price is blood. Death is the only escape.

These two broken souls could make each other whole again - or be shattered forever. Our time will come. And we'll be ready.

My review:

*ARC received in exchange of an honest review*

I could give this book a MILLION stars!! I loved it so much!!

This is my first book by Amber Hart and it certainly won’t be the last. Her writing is so good and it reads very smoothly. The dual POV is amazingly done. And the plot twists! Oh my god! I just can’t. This. Is. So. Perfect.

“What then?” I ask.

“Then,’ May says, a glint in her eye, “you make that boy remember what your lips feel like.”

This book was a roller coaster of feelings. It’s so intense, it grips you from the beginning and leaves you breathless in the end. All the characters are flawed and complex. You fall in love with them so quickly. Especially Javier. Hot body, tattoo and an Spanish accent and I’m completely in love. Also, I have the same name as the main character so whenever he said things like “Some things aren’t worth the trouble. But Melissa? She does something to me.” Or “I feel it in my bones. I know it like I know the curves of Melissa’s body.”, well then I’m basically melting in my chair…

“What I want is for you to want me like I want you!”

Melissa is such an amazing character. And so strong! An insane amount of things happened to her in such a short time and yet, she keeps her head up and goes on with her life. I love her so much and Javier is the perfect match for her.

“His lips, so full, so perfect, press into mine. I’m sitting on what I imagine to be the top of the world because nothing is better than this.”

The story is so complex and it never (ever!) bores you. There’s a lot of Spanish, but I didn’t mind at all because it gave the book a special touch. Also, everything that was said in Spanish was either explained or easy enough for you to understand on your own, so you are never clueless about what something means.

“Life gives you things you never asked for and takes away things you always dreamed of. I wonder where life gets the nerve.”

This book includes so many themes: cultural differences, health, family, revenge, death and so on. Add a hot romance in it and you have the perfect combination. Even with the serious subjects, you are never bored, because Amber combined it with an amazing romance.

“Is happiness what your mama says it it? Maybe it is for her. But what is happiness to you?”

Happiness is Melissa’s laugh. Finding Wink. Knowing that Diego is in a better place, though I miss him. Melissa’s touch and soccer and Cuban food.

Oh man, I just love this book so much!! I really really recommend this book.

This is the second book in the After & Before series, but it can be read as a stand-alone.  I haven’t read the first book yet, but now I certainly will! I’m very curious to find out more about Diego and Faith!