{Review} Hereafter by Tara Hudson

Can there truly be love after death?

Drifting in the dark waters of a mysterious river, the only thing Amelia knows for sure is that she's dead. With no recollection of her past life—or her actual death—she's trapped alone in a nightmarish existence. All of this changes when she tries to rescue a boy, Joshua, from drowning in her river. As a ghost, she can do nothing but will him to live. Yet in an unforgettable moment of connection, she helps him survive.

Amelia and Joshua grow ever closer as they begin to uncover the strange circumstances of her death and the secrets of the dark river that held her captive for so long. But even while they struggle to keep their bond hidden from the living world, a frightening spirit named Eli is doing everything in his power to destroy their newfound happiness and drag Amelia back into the ghost world . . . forever.

Thrilling and evocative, with moments of pure pleasure, Hereafter is a sensation you won't want to miss.

Title : Hereafter {Hereafter, book 1}

Author : Tara Hudson

Publication : 07th June 2011

Publisher : HarperCollins 

416 pages

This book is the first of a trilogy.

My review


As soon as I saw the cover of this book I wanted it, even without having read its summary. After I finished this novel I was absolutely not disappointed. On the contrary, I really loved Hereafter and I can't wait for the sequel. With this book, Tara Hudson offers us a brilliant debut.

She knows how to write and especially how to keep her readers' attention. I was really hooked from the first line to the last. The writing flows and is totally smooth. The story line is really good and I couldn't put down this book. Despite its 416 pages, I read it really fast, in only two evenings, and it's perhaps my one and only regret. I wanted to stay a bit longer with Joshua and Amelia.

I really loved the characters. At the beginning, Amelia is a bit lost, she can't remember a thing except her first name but her memories gradually come back. It was really interesting and I loved all the mysteries around her death. Joshua is full of promises and really sweet. His story and his family are far more complex than they appear at first.

It's true that it's sometimes a bit "easy" but I didn't care because I was so much into the story that I turned the pages frenetically to know what would happen next. The writing of Tara Hudson is kind of magical, she pulls the reader in and never lets him go.

Hereafter is a really cute and romantic book but it's also full of mysteries and suspense. The romance is a huge focus for this novel but Tara Hudson doesn't forget the other aspects of her story. The plot is fast-paced, full of mysteries and suspense. This book is also a quest for Amelia's identity and I really loved the scenes when Amelia's senses return. They are beautiful, touching and moving especially when she comes back to her house.

To sum up, I really loved Hereafter and now I'm really looking forward to reading Arise, the sequel. If you love sweet and cute love stories you should definitively check out this one. But Hereafter is not only a love story it's also a breathtaking novel, beautifully written and full of excitement and mysteries. 2012 won't come fast enough.