After All by Karina Halle
Series: Standalone
Published: July 2nd, 2017
Publisher: Metal Blonde Books
310 pages (ebook)
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Acquired this book: Bought
Rating: 4 stars
Warning: May contain spoilers
Emmett Hill is a perfect gentleman.
At least that's what his PR team wants the world to think.
Tall, handsome, and wickedly charming, Emmett is in the midst of a career comeback, having landed the role of a villain in a popular TV show. The only problem is, Emmett has come a long way from the "nice guy" characters he used to play and his old squeaky clean image is quickly being tarnished by bar fights, womanizing and bad boy behaviour. Considering he's two years shy of forty, it's an act he needs to drop. And fast.
Enter Alyssa Martin.
At twenty-eight, Alyssa is tired and ready for a change. Her job as office manager has grown stagnant and unfulfilling, while she's become continuously frustrated with Vancouver's lackluster dating scene, always searching for Mr. Right in a city of Mr. Wrongs.
When Emmett and Alyssa's paths cross at a mutual friend's wedding, their chemistry is off-the-charts hot, culminating in a steamy one-night stand.
What neither expected was for the media catch wind of their coupling - and run with it.
Now Emmett has to convince Alyssa to date him for the sake of his image. Her curvy, cute and "normal" persona is just the ticket to smoothing out his reputation, while Emmett provides Alyssa with the excitement and change her life has been lacking.
The only problem is, the two fight like cats and dogs outside of the bedroom.
And considering their arrangement is just for show, they shouldn't be in the bedroom with each other anyway.
Right?
Try telling them that.
After All is written by a Canadian, set in Canada, and features Canadian characters. Hallelujah! This is way too rare. Around Canada Day, I saw Karina Halle mention on Twitter that After All (and possibly her next few book?) was set in Canada, and honestly that’s what made me buy this one. I’d also just read and enjoyed Racing the Sun, which helped, but without even reading the synopsis, I bought After All the day it came out solely because I knew it was set in Canada.
After All features a sexy, dirty-talking TV star, Emmett Hill, and a sassy, prickly, independent ‘regular’ girl, Alyssa Martin. Both Emmett and Alyssa were well fleshed-out, and I appreciated that we got to learn about their backgrounds because it helped explain their motives for a lot of things. Their sexual chemistry was off the charts, and their banter was a lot of fun to read. Things were never easy for them, but because they were so obviously right for each other, it was easy to root for them. I also appreciated that while there was a bit of drama and some misunderstandings, the story was overall fairly low on the angst. These are the types of books I’m drawn to lately - light, funny, and sexy.
With several familiar and fun tropes at play, complex characters, and a great blend of humour, emotion, and romance, After All is a quick and enjoyable contemporary romance.
Have you read After All? What did you think? If you haven't read it, do you plan to? Have you read any of Halle's other books?
I have read and really liked, Halle's McGregor books. You have totally pulled me in for this one by telling me it is low on angst and funny. Those are my faves. Great review!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sam! I'm definitely all about the funny, low angst books lately. I'll have to check out her McGregor books!
DeleteI also like the idea that this romance is both Canadian & low on angst ;) Thanks for reviewing, I wasn't familiar with this author but she sounds really good!
ReplyDeleteI'm always happy to introduce someone to a new author, especially a Canadian one! :-)
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