4.5 stars. Beautiful novel. ( )

A Hearts On Fire Review

FOUR & A HALF STARS--This was such a delightful, comforting, funny, angsty, sad, yummy, quirky, sexy and simple read. Alex Kidwell's "After the End" is a tale of finding love after losing the love of your life. It's a story that hope can still reign supreme. I enjoyed all of the characters and the ease of this story. I even loved Winston Churchill the cat.

Quinn O'Malley lost the love of his life two years ago to cancer (they were together for a decade) and has been living a kind of half life. And after being set up by his best friend on a blind date, you kind of wonder what life would have in store the grieving man.

Well, life decided to gift him Mr. Brady Banner. Tall and blonde with the right words to say on the tip of his tongue (how I like 'em). These two couldn't be more different at first glance, Quinn's so reserved while Brady is not. You'd have thought disaster was imminent. But thankfully it wasn't. These two got along together like pie filling and pie crust. (read the story to get the meaning)

I enjoyed this story so much. I loved the patience of Brady and his understanding and guidance on helping Quinn grieve. Quinn was not annoying and though he missed his deceased partner, it did not saturate the entire story or detract from these two falling for one another. Their road to love was a bit bumpy but worth it. Major kudos to Quinn and Brady's friends Annabeth and Tracy...they were helpful but far from meddling.

My one little teeny, tiny, issue was the start of Quinn and Brady's love affair. At their first date, I felt like I was in Quinn's shoes and Brady was a little too close for comfort. He already started touching and kissing him and this was Quinn's first gallop back into the dating world. But after delving into the men's background and seeing how they were, it was almost forgotten. But it still niggled in the back of my mind. And they kind of fell into love kind of quick but if I had a hot boy like Brady, maybe I wouldn't mind so much. (And yes the sex scenes were pretty hot and believable)

The biggest conflict for the two was Quinn accepting his past lover is gone and understanding it is okay to find love again and not feel so guilty. So all in all, a lovely read and happy ending that left me with a huge smile on my face.

Don't you just love stories like that? I do.

Hope you will as well. ;)" ( )

One of the things psychologists tell widows and widowers is that people who were in happy marriages are prone to have happy second marriages. Quinn O’Malley, the protagonist of this book, really has his doubts when his partner of ten years dies of cancer. Quinn has been putting one foot in front of the other for two years, but can’t even imagine going out with someone else, much less finding another happy relationship.

Quinn’s best friend and his wife are determined to drag Quinn out of his doldrums and force him back into the world. To that purpose, they introduce him to a series of men they think Quinn will like. As Quinn sees it, each date is even more ludicrous than the last. That is until he meets blind date and party planner Brady Banner. Brady doesn’t hustle him, nor does he make any demands. He takes his time getting to know comic book store owner Quinn and subtly envelopes Quinn into his world of food and quiet outings.

Before he knows it, Quinn confesses to Brady that he used to be a successful painter, but he quit after his partner died, mainly because too many memories linger at his studio of his partner’s long drawn out death. With the same finesse that he used in getting Quinn out of his cocoon and back into the world, Brady steers Quinn past the ghosts in his studio and into painting the art he loves.

Read the rest of my review at AAR: http://www.likesbooks.com/cgi-bin/bookReview.pl?BookReviewId=9391 ( )

3 stars. Good story, but very sad for a long time. Quinn grieving was tough to read, I almost wished the story was about him and Aaron because he seemed like such an amazing character. Brady was great, though he definitely was to good to be true most of the time. ( )