Book Review: After the Pain by Adrienne Thompson

Title: After the Pain | Author: Adrienne Thompson | Source: Purchased | Format: (eBook) | Published: January 11, 2016 | Genre: African American Romance | Available: BN | Goodreads | Amazon *Book cover and buy link is below

This book had me so in my emotions, I wanted to put the book down at times. Why? Because it reminded me of some bad times in my life and well, when it comes to bad times…who wants to remember them? Not me.

Anyhoo’s Adrienne Thompson throws a real life message in her book After the Pain. She pulls no punches and reading it makes you feel so many things, ugh…so many things.

Take LaVonda Ingram. Raised by her sister who turned out to be verbally abusive onto marrying her husband would turn out to be both verbally and emotionally abusive. For 40 plus years, all LaVonda experienced was abuse and that abuse lead to depression. This depression would lead to LaVonda making several attempts to take her life. After the death of her husband, LaVonda doesn’t cope very well and this ends up with her in the hospital. After getting out, she decides that she needs a change of scenery and takes off without telling her overbearing older sister. She ends up at a bed & breakfast that use to be a plantation. There she meets the owner and several other ladies that work there. The owner offers LaVonda a room and our story takes an interesting turn. She meets a man name August who works the property. The attraction between LaVonda and August is instant, the relationship turns into insta-love. But we find out that both August and LaVonda have their troubled issues.

What I took away from the story was this. Is it possible to find love after suffering so much unhappiness and pain? And should you find a new love, would said love make it when both parties have very big problems? LaVonda and August prove that yes, it is very much possible. LaVonda had to learn how to trust and so did August but in different ways.

I loved LaVonda’s strength even as she was suffering.  There were times throughout the story that I wanted her to fight harder but as a person who deals with depression, I know that shit is hard. Girl, when that water is above your head? whew jeezus! When it comes on you, it comes..here me? Also, even though I wasn’t a fan of the insta-love, I did enjoy the fact that August was there for LaVonda as she fought. Low key, I thought he also had some form of depression going on but his personality was stronger than LaVonda’s, so he was able to be the one in this newly formed relationship to be an anchor to her sinking boat. And also, let me just say how he didn’t want to run because I feel like when women deal with these type of situations, some men don’t want to be bothered.

After the Pain is a reality based read and is highly recommended. There is much packed in this novella but you won’t be starved from the story. I took many things away from this story and I’m glad I finally buckled down to read it (after being on my TBR list for a….minute). 

Grown ass woman, Mother, reader, drinker of the red wines, not so serious makeup enthusiast and finally...a habitual procrastinator. I read just about everything but I really do love my romances. HEA’s are optional because hell sometimes, Prince Charming really is just a frog. Don’t asked if I finished *that book* yet...because I didn’t.

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