After all is a funny and equally angsty read about giving your marriage another chance. The marriage that fell apart because both women wanted to be chosen in different ways that resulted in the other pulling back. This is the most interesting premise I've read in a long time and I can happily report that Oakley fulfilled every last bit of it.

I love her writing style, the characters, the plot, everything really. Both MC's personalities clashed perfectly. Gwen always composed while Maggie is a whirlwind. There were great descriptions with great emotional impact. The story is really well thought-out.

I appreciated that Oakley chose not to include flashbacks and that I could definitely feel they're love for one another, even though they mostly argued in the story.

I don't think I've ever read a book where I was this invested. I highlighted so many lines and argued with them in my annotations. For the longest part of the book I wasn't on anybody's side. It was all just so complicated and messy and both Gwen and Maggie were understandably hurt. But in the end, I did think one side was better off than the other and I didn't quite agree with who had to do the grand gesture and apologise. But I really want to know if people see that differently.

What really annoyed me was that multiple times the pov character described something she couldn't see. Like they were in the middle of a really heated conversation and it's like 'they are so engrossed that they didn't notice anything else, Pete dancing in the background, Danica doing something else...' She can't see that! But that was about the only thing I didn't like.

This is a sweet, slow and low angst story about two people learning to ask for what they want and falling in love. Unfortunately, it read like a diary entry of a 16 year old: kind of awkward.

In the beginning, there wasn't really anything happening, just introspection. But after the story set in and they dated for real, there was tension and I was immediately pulled in. I then loved the excitement in dating a woman for the first time and some lines were really well written, but there were also many cringy ones.

The biggest upside was how well researched the boat/ sailing stuff was. Also, the setting was beautiful.

The biggest downside was the prose in the first 50 % of the book. It started really slow, it lacked a certain flow and it was repetitive. There were just too many unimportant words flying around. Also info-dumping. It seemed too forced. Like it was partially funny but it tried too hard.

In the dialogue, the text was too long and too perfect, it didn't feel like someone saying it out loud in the moment. Irl the other person would've already interrupted.

Also, the book was just too long.

Since this is a debut, I don't want to be too harsh with the rating, but I was also very close to dnf-ing all the way up to 50 %.

This is a fairly angsty femme x butch romance about overcoming childhood trauma and finding love in your best friend of 16 years. And then making a relationship work.

I was so excited to read this because of the first book in the series but it couldn't really live up to my expectations. Since I love Clevenger's writing in general, it made up for a lot. I'd say her books are emotionally well thought-out.

I'd recommend reading the first book before this one. I feel like a lot of the character building was done there. I loved Mo here too, but I don't think I would've as much if we didn't know who she was before. Otherwise a lot of her character description probably feels like/ is tell.

I loved the difficult conversations they had (when they finally talked). There was a lot of subtext in the dialogue, so it was interesting to read about but, especially in the beginning with their atrocious communication, also annoying. There were lots of complicated emotions, which is probably very realistic, but rather anticlimactic to read about. Every up had an immediate down.

I wish we had more scenes with all of the friendgroup together. And I wish it would've been dual pov. Because it's so hard to imagine why Mo loves Kate if Kate's inner monologue is constant self-pity and insecurity and just an overall really bad self-perception. Kate's character arc was also a little too fast in the end imo.

I'm realising now that this sounds like a bad review. It's not, it is still a good book. But it had the potential to be a 5 star read for me and it's a little disappointing that it's not. Because I love friends to lovers, adults in their 30s, confident women and a complicated mess.

🎧 5/5 The audiobook was great, as usual with Abby Craden as the narrator. I just love her voice so much.