Book Review: “After I do” by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Title: After I Do
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Genre: Contemporary Fiction (audio)
Time to read (listen): 8 days
When Lauren and Ryan’s marriage reaches breaking point, they come up with an unconventional plan. They decide to take a year off in the hopes of finding a way to fall in love again. One year apart, and only one rule: they cannot contact each other. Aside from that, anything goes.. ~ From the book blurb
I have to say that Taylor Jenkins Reid is one of my favourite authors of all time. If you haven’t ready Daisy Jones and the Six, Malibu Rising or Carrie Soto is Back, then stop reading this review and go and get these books. They are great!
Since reading Taylor’s more recent work I decided to delve into her back catalogue but unfortunately I wasn’t able to get any of her titles in book form, only audio book. I love having an audio book on the go so that didn’t bother me to begin with. However, this particular audio book’s voice actor really grated on me. Sometimes it sounded like an automated voice, a bit robotic. But the story was so great I was able to get over that and keep listening, although every time I’d start listening again I would have to get over how much I didn’t like the voice.
Annnywaaay…
The premise of the book is really great. It is realistic for a couple that gets married after being together since college to have some problems. Lauren and Ryan felt really relatable and like they could be real people. Their first few scenes together were quite rough, meaning they were rough on each other and it was almost a relief when they broke up. Being a dog lover, I found the scenes where they talk about who gets the dog very poignant.
After they started taking a break from each other, the book is told solely from Lauren’s point of view (although we keep up with Ryan in a very novel and more than slightly dodgy way). I really liked Lauren’s life as a single person. She was very close to her family, she’s supportive of her sister Rachel’s life goals and she even goes on a blind date set up by her friend from work.
I especially enjoyed the character of Rachel and I hope that the author has already written or one day writes about her as the main character of a story. Taylor Jenkins Reid often does this - makes a main character out of a side character of a previous. She does it in Carrie Soto is Back, her latest.
I’m not going to give away the ending but it was satisfying.
I enjoyed the book but really wish I had read it rather than listened. I’m making a promise to myself right now that if I don’t like the next TJR voice actor (I have a few more of her books in audio reserved at the library), I will switch it off and somehow get my hands on the book.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐