"After the Rain" by Renée Carlino

After the Rain by Renée Carlino has made me smile, sob, and... miss my stop.
Twice.
In retrospect, that wasn't so bad as it gave me more time to read, and at least it was on my way home from work and not to it. But back to the smiling and the shedding tears, 'cause none of you are here to hear about my public transport adventures caused by great books, are you?! (;

After the Rain is both beautifully tragic, as well as tragically beautiful. When you first pick it up, you might think you're in for a great cowboy love story, but before you know it, storm clouds start pulling in and tragedy hits Avelina, the female protagonist, harder than the first pages of the novel would have ever let you foresee. Fate shows her the pages of a book no one her age should even come close to seeing, and her heart gets shattered into so many pieces, it's easy to understand why she doesn't plan on letting anyone get close ever again.

Avelina, however, isn't the only one going through tough times in her life. Nate - who ironically is a heart surgeon - is going through heartbreak of a completely different nature, having recently lost a young patient during a routine surgery. Soon enough, he will have to learn that not all matters of the heart are fixable by science...

When their paths cross and intertwine, they both learn how important to let go when the time is right, and, on the other hand, when the time is right to hold on. Both of them get taught great lessons about life, loss, and love.
In After the Rain, Renée Carlino perfectly outlines how two broken hearts can mend one another, and how important it is to not just surround yourself with people, but to surround yourself with the right people, and to never loose focus of what matters to you.

This novel is an emotional whirlwind that will leave you breathless at the same time as it is emotionally healing; it will be patching up holes in your heart that you might not even be aware of.
Amazingly written, it will take you on a ride to remember.

4,5/5

[as mentioned before, my internet access is very limited at the moment... blurb, author info, links as well as graphics to follow once I'm back to being better connected, I just don't want to be on a super hiatus <3]