After the Rain by Natalia Gomes Blog Tour

 Sometimes books take you by surprise, the blurb that you read turns into something more than you can ever have hoped for.

This is the exact thing I felt when I read After the Rain by Natalia Gomes.

'We’re alive. So let’s start living.'

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?

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

Two strangers collide.

Jack, who is sporty and popular, an athlete who is always looking for the next challenge. Then there's Alice, who unlike Jack keeps to herself, bookish, introverted.

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.

Friendship shines brightest in the darkest of places.

These two polar opposites begin to bond after their paths cross just before a tragic event occurs in Leicester Square one fateful day.

Their lives are changed 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 in the aftermath of an event that altered the path of many lives.

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.

Handled with care.

There is some tough subject matter covered and it was refreshing to see that it wasn't glossed over. We get to see the good, the bad and the extremely ugly.

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.

Life is precious and always worth living. There is always light after dark.

I'd love to see a second book that takes us on the next part of Jack and Alice's journeys. 

Like the sound of this book? Check out the rest of the blogs sharing their thoughts: