After I Do: A Novel

I was deeply affected by this book. It was heart-wrenching and thought-provoking. I don’t know that this is something I could read again and again, but this will remain one of my favorite reads for some time. I don’t know that I’ll ever stop thinking about it.I’ve had After I Do on my TBR for years, but I was hesitant to ever actually pull the trigger on reading it. I was worried about how I’d handle it. There was a point I didn’t know if I could continue. I was just almost overwhelmed with emotion. It’s incredibly relatable. It’s not about billionaires or mafia or rockstars or professional athletes. It’s just normal people with normal problems. It made it easy to picture myself in Lauren’s position, and imagining going through something like this with my husband was gut-wrenching. It hurt to look, but I couldn’t look away.The resentment over trivial issues. The fighting over such mundane things. It’s real.I love all the different displays of what a relationship is. They don’t all have to look the same. Charlie wants it to work, so he’s just jumping in. The mom just wants romance, and when that’s gone, she’s fine moving on. Rachel wants love, but she’s in no rush to find it, and she doesn’t want kids. Grandma says happiness isn’t the most important thing in a marriage.It challenges the status quo. Like David. He didn’t stay with his wife because he wasn’t “supposed” to after she cheated. But who is to say leaving is always the answer?I love their family dynamic. The bad jokes, the ribbing, the arguing. It’s genuine.I love the ebbs and flows of Lauren’s feelings for/toward Ryan. It feels like such a fluid, natural progression. From meeting to dating to falling in love to marrying. Their love building. Then we see their marriage as it begins to slowly crumble. Their love breaking. The separation, where she’s miserable, then she’s okay. She thinks she wants to move on. Then she begins remembering the good. Finding the love again.I’ve never had so many highlights in one book. I laughed. I cried. I cried some more. I stopped, and really considered some aspects. I talked to my husband. There was just so much I loved about it.

This is an easy read. I prefer books with good narrative and less description which this book provides. This book also draws you in. I found myself getting mad at Lauren for cheating on Ryan and then being deeply disappointed in Ryan for doing the same. I thought David or Dennis or whoever he was, was a big hypocrite for being mad at his wife and then doing the same thing. All of this is why I think it is a great book written by a great writer. It drew me in and I wanted to cheer or chastise the characters. It is a good story instead of a great story because no one championed fidelity. I was hoping Ryan would remain faithful and still take Lauren back

What happens when the person you’ve married and vowed to spend the rest of your life with, is the one person that you can no longer stand to be in the same room?Lauren Spencer goes off to UCLA and during her second year, meets Ryan Cooper. They’ve both noticed each other in their “normal places” when Ryan waits for Lauren in the dining hall stating “Are you following me or what?” They joke with each other over dinner that night, go out with each other the next, and become a couple – young, happy, and inseparable. They meet each other's families, and two years after graduation, they marry. The author tells the story starting with an event that occurs in present day, then goes back to retell of their meeting, courtship, and early years in marriage. By the time you get to the present, you can feel the tension and the impending doom of their relationship.“We can’t drop it. I’m not going to drop it. We’ve been dropping it for months now”Constant bickering, resentment, a lack of communication, and the stress of realizing that they are no longer in love with each other has caused them to collapse.“We aren’t fighting about the hot water or the Dodger Stadium parking lot. We aren’t fighting bout money or jealousy or communication skills. We are fighting because we don’t know how to be happy. We are fighting because we no longer make each other happy.”They realize that they need to do something. They decide to live apart for one year, and during that time, try to move forward and see where they go. They agree that they can both date other people, but should keep contact between them minimal. After custody of the house and dog are decided, Ryan moves out.Lauren realizes two things immediately – she’s incredibly lonely, and she doesn’t know how to be an individual without Ryan. The story really follows Lauren throughout the year, reconnecting with her sister, her mother, her brother, and other friends from work. She is forced to grow and learn how to survive on her own. While she understands that she can live on her own, the question is, does she want to? While I don’t want to go too far into the rest of the story line, I can tell you that there is a resolution at the end of the year.The underlying message of this book is a good one: you need to communicate with your partner. You need to be an individual and learn to be independent in order to be happy in a relationship. You need to ask for what you want and need, and compromise on what the other person wants and needs. Through the story, you hear wisdom and bits of insight into how others make it work.“Raising kids is hard. Taking care of a family is hard. And I think sometimes it gets to one or the other of us. Right now, it’s getting to both of us at the same time, which is not good”“What are you going to do?”“I’m going to get over it, that’s what I’m going to do…I’m going to find a way to be nice to my partner, and I’m going to bed. That’s what I’m going to do.”Sometimes, you just need to get to the end of the day, and get over it. Period.Grandma's presence in the book is amazing, and has some sage advice:“Marriage is about commitment. It’s about loyalty. It’s not always about happiness. Happiness is secondary.”And this:“If you had a cocktail party, and you had left him to his own devices, and you had flirted with other men and he’s seen it, or he had flirted with other women and you’d see it, if you had spent a few weekends apart from each other sometimes, given each other some space now and then, maybe you wouldn’t need a whole year apart now. That’s all I’m saying.”Gramma’s always have the best words of wisdom, don’t they?Having just been married, I can tell you – all of the underlying messages are true. We’ve had our “bumps” because we lived sin for eternity before finally getting hitched. What really works? Being an individual while being a couple. Talking. Fighting. Making-up. Sticking with it. Always. Remembering why you fell in love with the first place, and not the irritating things that make you want to scream. Compromise.This is the second book I’ve ready by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and let me tell you, she can tell a good relationship story. They’re not the things that fairytales are made of – they’re real, honest, sometimes painful, and yet, endearing. Whether you’re in a relationship or not, married or single, go read this book. It’s worth it.

While it is a sweet story that looks closely at marriage, separation, and loss, I did not love it—too much focus on the same moral of the story, too little on developing the characters. Barely 3 stars.

I liked this book. The premise interested me and I was invested as to what was going to happen. Some parts were hard to read because I wanted to the end to come faster so I would know what the outcome was. Would recommend

Great book. Could not put it down.

Easy read, engaging characters and story ark. As with my experience of this author, quick, feel good enjoyable story

As I said the story line is predictable, but written so beautifully that one keeps reading and reading.The challenges of married couples are dealt with in a very sophisticated manner Just go for it

Não tenho nada a reclamar do livro e da história, porém a entrega deixou a desejar. O coitado bastante amassado

El libro tenía la tapa may y paginas huecas