After We Collided by Anna Todd
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction
Blurb (on back of book):
Book Two of the After series—now newly revised and expanded, Anna Todd’s After fan-fiction racked up 1 billion reads online and captivated readers across the globe. Experience the Internet’s most talked-about book for yourself!
Tessa has everything to lose. Hardin has nothing to lose…except her. AFTER WE COLLIDED…Life will never be the same.
After a tumultuous beginning to their relationship, Tessa and Hardin were on the path to making things work. Tessa knew Hardin could be cruel, but when a bombshell revelation is dropped about the origins of their relationship—and Hardin’s mysterious past—Tessa is beside herself.
Hardin will always be…Hardin. But is he really the deep, thoughtful guy Tessa fell madly in love with despite his angry exterior—or has he been a stranger all along? She wishes she could walk away. It’s just not that easy. Not with the memory of passionate nights spent in his arms. His electric touch. His hungry kisses.
Still, Tessa’s not sure she can endure one more broken promise. She put so much on hold for Hardin—school, friends, her mom, a relationship with a guy who really loved her, and now possibly even a promising new career. She needs to move forward with her life.
Hardin knows he made a mistake, possibly the biggest one of his life. He’s not going down without a fight. But can he change?Will he change…for love?
spoilers
MY OPINION: ****
Bonus Summer Reading Challenge #10: A sequel to a book that you liked
I know that this book is surrounded by a large amount of shall-we-day “controversy” but to be completely honest, I truly enjoyed it. There are some books that are so “bad” or “stupid” that they’re just good and this is one of them.
I found myself constantly laughing at Hardin and Tessa and shaking my head at their literal stupidity. I’m a fan of the movie, mainly because of the cast (I mean, just look at them), and the books are honestly even better.
These are all published versions of what used to be Harry Styles fan fiction on Wattpad, of all places. She got a billion views and she’s now published and has a second movie on the way. That is truly admirable but it’s also quite funny how this used to be One Direction fanfiction. I reread the first book on Wattpad (I spend too much time on the site—guilty pleasure) and couldn’t stop laughing everything I read “Harry” or “Zayn”.
This book was particularly enjoyable because we got Hardin’s perspective. He’s so complicated but at least from his perspective, we saw the honesty behind his actions, bad as they were.
It starts immediately from where the first book ended, with the bet. If you have a problem with spoilers, don’t read this review because you should have read the first book first. Shame on you.
Basically the bet in the first book was for Hardin or Zed to take Tessa’s virginity first. Hardin obviously won and even saved their evidence to show everybody which is absolutely disgusting. Tessa knows it’s unforgivable but really, did she HAVE TO RUN TO HER DISGUSTING MOTHER? I really hate her mother more than any fictional parent and I constantly screamed at her. Her mother pushes her to be with her ex-boyfriend Noah, and it’s honestly disgusting.
Oh yeah, so Tessa and Hardin got an apartment together but for obvious reasons she doesn’t want to live with him anymore so she stays in a motel, as well as Landon’s house, who is her best friend and Hardin’s stepbrother.
However, about 80 pages in, Tessa gets drunk in Seattle (I think that’s where it was) and I believe she calls Hardin but for whatever reason, he appears at her hotel room. They literally both take advantage of each other even though Hardin isn’t drunk and he uses the excuse of “I can’t say no to you.” Technically this is literal rape/sexual harassment but she forgives him.
And that’s the thing. Tessa constantly forgives Hardin. Two weeks after the bet, she forgives him. Then he does more unspeakable things and he tells her about his truly awful past mistakes, and she still forgives him. Then, when she kisses a guy because of a very long and complicated misunderstanding, he doesn’t want to forgive her and gets massively drunk, to which Tessa runs to Zed for comfort.
That’s another thing. In this book, we saw a budding relationship between Tessa and Zed (Zayn). She asks him for rides home and confides in him about her problems with Hardin. She constantly refers to him as “sweet” and everything that Hardin is not. But she still tells him that she always loved Hardin and that she can’t stay away from him. When Zed brings Tessa home to a drunk Hardin, Hardin is more than enraged and beats Zed up. Towards the end, he literally breaks his nose and gives him a concussion. To be fair, Zed does seem like he’s manipulating Tessa but Hardin made a promise to her not to hurt Zed and he blatantly disregarded that promise.
Hardin does so many other things that are just so wrong and yet Tessa keeps forgiving him. She goes through an endless cycle of “I can’t forgive him—I can’t stay away from him—I love you again—You effed up and now I can’t forgive you—“ again and again and again. She acknowledges this cycle but she keeps going back.
And I get it. They’re in love.
Sure.
But should love really be that toxic? He emotionally abuses her throughout the book and accidentally pushes her in his anger and yet she’s still willing to forgive him in the name of love.
On top of that, he doesn’t seem to want to spend forever with her because HE DOESN’T LIKE THE IDEA OF MARRIAGE. Tessa dreams of her very far off future wedding and she’s depressed that Hardin doesn’t share in her dreams. I really felt bad for her and hopefully they do get married in the future books which are taking way too fricken long in the library.
Ugh it was so bad but yet so addicting and now I need the third book before I die.
Also the writing is honestly considerably worse but that’s to be expected since it’s a Wattpad sequel type of thing and they never try as hard on the sequels. The editor needed some help as well because there were way more mistakes than normal.
I would recommend this book to readers looking for an addictive romance novel.
Main Character: Hardin, Tessa
Sidekick(s): Zed?, Steph, Landon, etc
Villain(s): Misunderstanding, lying, cheating, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: All of this book was very real to life.
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