I was refreshingly surprised by After the Rain, looking at how a tragic event can affect someone physically and mentally, pushing people apart and pulling them together.

The story follows Jack and Alice who are caught up in a bombing of Leicester Square. Jack is left with physical injuries and Alice with mental/psychological.

We see how two young people, who are nothing alike and would never normally be friends, end up depending on each other due to the shared experiences and circumstances they were subjected to.

I felt the mental health aspects (PTSD, anxiety, depression) were handled well, openly, and honestly as experiences that can, and do, occur in life. This is a great book for young people to think about empathy and how events can change and shape their perspective and outlook on life.

I enjoyed watching Jack and Alice’s friendship build and grow, I have to admit I am so used to YA novels being about romance (or unrequited love), so I was expecting this to happen all the way throughout and was a little disappointed it didn’t happen. However, it didn’t need to for the plot! In fact, it is more poignant without the background fuss that a romance could create. Young people can be friends and care for each other without romance getting in the way!

This was a thoroughly enjoyable, page-turner of a YA book.

Thank you to Netgalley and HQ Young Adult for the e-arc to review.

**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this title in exchange for a fair and honest review**

2 people bump into each other on the street just as a bomb explodes nearby. Their lives will never be the same again.

A quietly charming book with very relatable characters. It gently explores the physical and psychological healing that the 2 main characters experience as they slowly come to terms with what has happened to them. I also liked the wider cast of characters, showing that this kind of event has far-reading consequences.

(It was also very refreshing to read a YA title without "insta-love")

After The Rain, this novel begins after two people who have a vague recognition of each other bump into one another in Leicester Square. Where two bombs then go off killing 22 people and leaving 40 injured. Both main characters wake up to find their lives have changed forever but in very different ways. Jack's has a physical injury and Alice has a physiology one.

I like the way each chapter is told from a different characters point of view. Alice tries to reach out to Jack after the explosion and at first he rejects her but encouraged by his mother "I'm not asking you to. Be best friends with her, I'm just asking you not to turn her away".Months pass and after regular visits from Alice, Jack is discharged from hospital. Alice is scared that she will never here from him again. But this doesn't happen, Jack's friends drift away and Alice becomes his closes friend. 


Jack is now discovering what his injuries mean to his life. Does disabled mean he is physically unable, not regular, not normal so therefore irregular - the authors words not mine! But it is how the character is feeling during his adjustment period. And Alice discovers different copping strategies to help with her PTSD.

The one slight problem with this novel is it fast towards quite a lot. For example during Jack's recovery one minute he is using his wheelchair then it jumps to when he is walking with sticks. But apart from this I think this was a great novel especially with a lead disabled character.

Thanks to Netgallery and the publishers for giving me a digital copy of this book for a honest review of this book.

I don't know what I was expecting from this book but it wasn't this, for sure. I was quite surprised. I thought it was a teenage romance kinda book and, if that is what you are looking for, this is not the case!

This story how two people go through the same traumatic event and how different they can react to trauma. It is a book about friendship and how two teenagers deal with the struggles attached to that event. An unlikely friendship that both needed to continue living.

One thing to take from this book is that dreams do not have to stop because the path you envisaged changes. You can adapt yourself to create a new path and achieve those dreams, just in a different way.

The ending felt a bit rushed to me but maybe that was the intention?

It covers anxiety, panic attacks, depression, PSTD... so proceed with caution.

“We’re alive. So let’s start living.”

Thank you to NetGalley and HQ Young Adult for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Two strangers. Jack was sporty and outgoing. Alice was bookish and introverted. Their lives were on completely different paths. One life-changing tragedy. That is before the day they were in the wrong place at the wrong time: before the day their lives were torn apart in a bombing. A hopeful new friendship. Struggling to cope with their new worlds, their unlikely new friendship helps them find hope. But can they help each other rebuild their lives and start again?

Jack is an athlete. Alice is a bookworm. Polar opposites, strangers, and yet they bond over this tragic event. I liked that each of their POVs were theirs. We got to see different sides to the aftermath, with different injuries. Jack’s injuries are mainly physical, with a mental impact. Alice’s physical injuries are minor, but the emotional and mental impact on her is profound. Both were written realistically, facing struggles with the tiniest triggers. Such an event is something you read or hear about, and never expect to happen to you, which makes it all the more daunting when it happens. The PTSD both Jack and Alice were experiencing felt real, and I felt a connection to both characters on different levels.

Gomes really handled the subject matter with care, but gave us a raw insight into the potential after effects for those who have gone through such a heartless attack. I liked that we got to see the panic attacks and the self-loathing, the questions, the frustration and the utter fear of normality. The chapters were short, maybe a little too short for one or two of them but I did feel it helped keep up a faster pace, allowing us to see more of Jack and Alice’s journeys. I must say I was a bit disappointed by the ending. My guess it has been left to interpretation, which is fine, but it is incredibly abrupt. I wish there had been a little more to it.

Overall, After the Rain is a heart-warming book that reminds you that there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Thank you again to NetGalley and HQ Young Adult for an advanced copy of this book.

I was intrigued by the blurb, I fell in love with the characters and the story simply consumed me.

If you're expecting a romance then I'll tell you now, this isn't that.

It isn't your typical trope of geek meets jock and falls in love.

After the Rain is so much more special than that.

In this book we meet Alice (who is American) and Jack . Strangers until one fateful day in Leicester Square where their paths happen to cross in the most awful circumstances.

Something tragic changes both of these young lives forever.

But as they both struggle with their own demons, what comes from this is something quite beautiful hopeful.

Friendship.

Unlikely, perhaps improbable but absolutely necessary.

With alternating chapters, this is a short but meaningful tale that lets us see differing perspectives.

How can we move on from life altering events? Whether physical of mental damage - are either any less hurtful, how can we measure someone else's pain?

This was an emotional read.

What I took from it is that our dreams don't have to stop when the path we were going down suddenly veers off in a different direction.

We just have to be brave, adapt and make the best of any situation.

Because life is precious and always worth living. There is always light after dark.

This was not at all what I was expecting, but in a good way. I expected some cheesy encounter, slushy, teenage crushes, awkwardness and living happily ever after.

A chance encounter where Jack and Alice just happen to bump into each other in Leicester Square and both are affected by a bomb. Both try to heal emotionally and physically and both take a very different turn in how they respond. Jack more physical and Alice more phycological.

This tackles those difficult issues of mental health, PTSD, recovering from trauma and how different people can react so differently to a trauma. Jack and Alice face their own battles but link up to try and support each other where they can. It sweet, emotional, poignant and ever so poetic (enhanced further with Alice's actual poems.)

The ending felt like it wasn't a clear enough ending for me, but maybe that was deliberate, I suspect so.

I absolutely loved reading After the Rain and since finishing it have often found myself thinking about Alice and Jack and wondering how they are both doing now.

Alice and Jack were strangers to one another until their paths crossed on one fateful day in Leicester Square, London and they were both involved in a life-changing tragedy; a terrorist attack and bombing which killed and severely injured so many there that day. As they both struggled to cope following the attack, they formed an unlikely new friendship and found a sense of hope that they could somehow each help the other to start to rebuild their lives again.

I really liked the alternating chapter perspectives of Alice and Jack in the first person and felt so connected to them both as I was reading. The short chapters had me constantly going ‘just one more’ as I wanted to get back to the other character again. I thought it was really clever to explore the emotional side of trauma primarily through Alice as whilst she had only minor physical injuries following the attack, mentally she was really struggling to cope with day to day life, experiencing awful panic attacks. The physical side of trauma was then explored through Jack as he suffered life changing injuries becoming a double above knee amputee. This would of course be devastating for anyone, but for Jack he perhaps was struggling even more as before the accident he loved running, trekking, skiing, mountain climbing and this was a real passion he shared with his Dad and also his friends. At only 17 years old, his whole life and plans for the future changed in an instant.

I found Alice and Jack to be such incredible characters with so much warmth and depth to them. I could really feel their emotions and cannot even begin to imagine what they must have been going through trying to come to terms with the horrific terrorist attack they were both caught up in that day. Despite the heartbreaking nature of how these two people ended up being connected, this story is ultimately full of hope and I found myself routing for Alice and Jack in their respective journeys of recovery. I really enjoyed getting to see them grow and evolve in their recoveries and in their friendship. They were really there for each other as they tried to navigate their new lives and deal with the rollercoaster of emotions they were experiencing.

I enjoyed this beautiful story so much and the ending really made me smile. I am so grateful to have been able to see Alice and Jack’s journeys.

This book was not at all what I expected it to be. Just going off the brief description I assumed this was going to follow a typical American high school YA trope- nerdy bookworm girl and popular jock guy don’t know each other exist until a terrible tragedy brings them together, romance ensues- I could not have been more wrong!

After The Rain follows our main characters Alice and Jack. A chance encounter in a park near Leicester Square changes everything for the pair, when they’re caught in the midst of a terrorist attack. Throughout the book, we see their friendship develop and grow as they try to come to terms with the physical and emotional trauma long after the attack.

It’s a very well written story, I particularly appreciated how well Gomes portrayed the after effects (including PTSD, panic attacks, anxiety and depression) of such a traumatic event and the rollercoaster the characters went through.

I’m a sucker for romance so I was slightly disappointed there was none in this book, however that’s just my personal preference and I did still enjoy the book without it. The only other negative for me was the ending, it felt very rushed which made it slightly unrealistic in my opinion. Just a few more chapters seeing Jack work his way out of that depression would have made all the difference to the ending.

3 stars


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a look into what could happen when one moment changes your life. I wish the book went more in-depth into how the event changed the characters emotional and physical lives the story felt superficial in places.