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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Funy and moving, 27 Aug 2003
By A Customer
I really enjoyed Rowan Coleman's first book Growing Up Twice and so was looking forward to this follow up. I was not dissapointed! It's the story of a woman who married after a whirlwind romance, moves to the country and has a baby all very quickly. It's very funny in places and also had a few twists and turns that keep you turning pages. I don't want to spoil it for other readers but it handles some difficult issues really well. A great read!
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My truth is no good to me now...it's just a reminder of everything I have lost, 3 Oct 2007
Rowan Coleman's "After Ever After" is ironic. Ironic, in the sense that it is the last of Rowan's collection that I have read, despite being the second book that she published (I have, chronologically, read all of her books in reverse), and ironic, because it is one of the earlier books that she has published which has somewhat "bucked the trend" in terms of her writing style - an atypicality that leaves my association with Rowan ending on a positive note.
Briefly, "Kitty Simpson is a firm believer in fairy tales. So when Fergus Kelly kisses her under a shooting star (or perhaps a banking aeroplane), she simply knows that he must be The One. But eighteen months, a storybook wedding and an adorable but accidental baby later, Kitty's life isn't the perfect idyll she'd thought it would be. She has her Prince Charming, her lady-of-leisure lifestyle and her longed for escape from city life, but Fergus spends most of his time commuting, looking after Ella is surprisingly exhausting, and a quiet life in the country has her pining for London. Suddenly the confident, self-assured Kitty isn't sure who she is anymore. Cracks are appearing in her fairy tale. And when they're compounded by her unexpected attraction to another man, happily ever after seems a long way off..."
If I am being honest, I never thought I would see the day where I would give any of Rowan's books a five-star rating again, believing that her predictable writing style would forever earn her four stars, and no more. Having read most of the works from her oeuvre (and having reviewed the vast majority of them here), I have began to realise that the majority of her books mimic the story of the "Hungry Caterpillar" that we all read when we were younger - the one that turned into a beautiful butterfly having (literally) eaten away at all of the pages in the book. A large proportion of Rowan's books start with her throwing an imperfect, and often unlikeable, leading character into a situation in which they are largely unfamiliar with. For the remainder of the book, the aforementioned character suffers a series of trials and tribulations which they eventually overcome, thereby making them a "better" person. Whilst the "caterpillar-turns-into-a-butterfly" theme means that the climax of the book leaves you feeling satisfied, if used too often, it can actually lead to the book being just far too predictable. What, therefore, makes the aptly-named "After Ever After" so brilliant is that it is the exact reverse of all of Rowan's other stories. In this instance, we have the (largely) perfect and likeable Kitty (the butterfly), who systematically dismantles her idyllic lifestyle (through a series of decisions that she does or does not make), leading to a truly horrifying climax (effectively turning her into the caterpillar). I actually enjoyed the fact that I couldn't predict how the story was going to end (despite a delve into the last fifty pages when I was only half-way through the book!), I actually enjoyed the fact that the finale of the book ended on a note of uncertainty, rather than attempting to tie up all of the loose ends and, what I think I enjoyed the most, was the fact that Rowan seemed to have an epiphany when writing this book, learning that life is not a series of endings, only a series of beginnings (a lesson that she, unfortunately, seemed to un-learn throughout the course of the rest of her books!).
I am not suggesting that the book is perfect by any stretch of the imagination - the poor editing leaves a lot to be desired (look out for the missing question mark on page 129 and "prefect", instead of "perfect" on page 376) as does the way in which the book is actually printed (preventing the reader from truly appreciating when the writer is starting a new paragraph, as opposed to just starting a new page). Yet there was something about this book that made it the inevitable climax to my association with Rowan - an association that hopefully, one day, I will renew again.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Read it!, 25 May 2009
I can only recommend this book. don't judge it by its cover, it's not a cheesy/holiday read, even though it reads easily.
I was moved and loved the main character's self analysis, which gets you to often smile and sometimes shout "me too!". it was moving, touching, funny and captivating.
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