Blurb:
There was a time before Tessa met Hardin, and there’s everything after.
Life will never be the same.
Tessa is a good girl with a sweet, reliable boyfriend back home. She’s got direction, ambition, and a mother who’s intent on keeping her that way. But she’s barely moved into her freshman dorm when she runs into Hardin. With his tousled brown hair, cocky British accent, tattoos and lip ring, Hardin is cute and different from what she’s used to.
But he’s also rude – to the point of cruelty, even. For all his attitude, Tessa should hate Hardin. And she does – until she finds herself alone with him in his room. Something about his dark mood grabs her, and when they kiss, it ignites within her a passion she’s never known before.
He’ll call her beautiful, then insist he isn’t the one for her and disappear without a word. Despite the reckless way he treats her, Tessa is compelled to dig deeper and find the real Hardin beneath all his lies. He pushes her away again and again, and yet every time she pushes back, he only pulls her in deeper. Tessa already has the perfect boyfriend. So why is she trying so hard to overcome her own hurt pride and Hardin’s prejudice about nice girls like her?
Unless… could this be love?
Rating: 3/5 stars
Side Notes:
- Genres: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary Romance
- 1st book in the After series
- Highly recommend for 16 years and above
- TW: explicit language, abusive behaviour, references to drug/alcohol/substance misuse, sexually graphic scenes
- Romance Tropes: Strangers to lovers, good girl bad boy, toxic romance
Book Quotes:
- “Just because he can’t love you the way you want him to doesn’t mean he does’t love you with everything he has.’ Liam says.”
- “I can’t help but think of the phrase ” sometimes it is better to be kept in the dark than be blinded by the light.”
- “My life was much more simple before I met Hardin, and now after… it is complicated and stressful, and I am either extremely happy or there is this burning in my chest when I think of him with Molly.”
- “I feel as though I am ice and he is fire. We are so completely different, yet the same.”
- “You aren’t my type, just the way that I am not yours. But that’s why we are good for each other—we are so different, yet we’re the same. You told me once that I bring out the worst in you. Well, you bring out the best in me. I know you feel it, too, Tessa. And yes, I didn’t date, until you. You make me want to date, you make me want to be better. I want you to think I am worthy of you; I want you to want me the way I do you. I want to fight with you, even scream at each other until one of us admits we are wrong. I want to make you laugh, and listen to you ramble about classic novels. I just . . . I need you. I know I am cruel at times . . . well, all the time, but that’s only because I don’t know how else to be.” His voice becomes a half whisper, his eyes wild. “This has been me for so long, I have never wanted to be any other way. Until now, until you.” – Hardin”
- “I am a moth to his flame, and he never hesitates to burn me.”
- “I love you too.” “Don’t say too, it sounds like you’re just agreeing with me.”
- “Whatever the hell our souls are made of hers and mine are the same.”
- “Hardin is like a drug; each time I take the tiniest bit of him, I crave more and more. He consumes my thoughts and invades my dreams.”
- “Do you remember when you asked me who I loved the most in the world? It’s you. You’re the person that I love most in the world.”
- “I think back to what Landon said about heartbreak, that if you don’t love the person, they can’t break your heart. Hardin repeatedly breaks my heart, even when I don’t think there are any more pieces to break. And I love him. I love Hardin.”
- “I know this happiness that I feel isn’t going to last, and I feel like Cinderella, waiting for the clock to strike and end my blissful night.”
- “I bring out the worst in you and you bring out the best in me.”
- “You took something from me that wasn’t yours, Hardin. That was meant for someone who loved me, loved me truthfully. It was his, whoever he is, and you took that…”
- “You make me want to be good for you…I want to be good for you, Tess”
- “My thoughts are all over the place as I fall asleep, and images of clouded roses and angry green eyes flow through my dreams.”
- “You told me once that I bring out the worst in you. Well, you bring out the best in me.”
- “- Are you mine? Yes, always. I don’t have a choice. I haven’t since the day I met you.”
- “I somehow know it is the calm before the storm, but right now Hardin is my anchor. I just pray that he doesn’t pull me under.”
- “She took my hand and led me out of the darkness and showed me that whatever our souls are made of, hers and mine are the same.”
- “I have my whole future planned. ‘Had’, my subconscious reminds me. I ‘had’ everything planned until I met Hardin and now my future is constantly changing and shifting.”
- “But the look on his face as we drove away, he looked heartbroken. And you can’t be heartbroken if you aren’t in love.”
- “I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.”
- “I love him, every part of him. All versions of him. Mostly, I like who I have become with him.”
- “sometimes its better to stay in the dark then to be blinded by the light”
- “My first instinct when I get angry is to come back even harder, to hurt the other person as much as I can. But I don’t want you to leave, and I’m sorry for scaring you by beating the shit out of Dan. I am trying to change, change for you . . . to be what you deserve, but it’s hard for me. Especially when you do things to purposely piss me off,” he says. He brings his hand to my cheek and wipes the drying tears left there. “I wasn’t scared of you,” I say.”
- “I felt like I was supposed to love him but I really didn’t, not in the way I love you at least. It wasn’t until I realized I loved you that I saw how different love was from what I thought it was”
- “I’m just saying, just because we fight doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be together. Everyone fights.” He smiles. “We just fight more than normal people. You and I are very different people, so we’ll just have to figure out how to navigate one another. It will get easier,” he assures me.”
- “You once asked who I love most in this world. It’s you.”
- “…For someone who tries too hard to stand out and be different, you sure are judgmental about people who are different from you!”
- “Who do you love the most in the world?” Why would I ask him that? I want to know more specific things, like why is he a jerk? Why is he in America? He looks at me suspiciously, as if he is confused by my question. “Myself,”