REVIEW OF AUDIOBOOK MAY 20 2013:4.5 STARS.This is just as riveting in audio as in print. Natalie Ross did an excellent job, IMO, and if an audiobook I'm interested in has her as the narrator, I'd have no hesitation buying. She makes an effort to insert different inflections, differentiate male from female voices and her own warm, sultry voice is easy on the ear.I read the print version many years ago in mass paperback but listening to the audiobook made me notice a couple of things that I didn't back when I read the book in 2008 (or maybe even earlier - it was pub. in 1995): First, the part where the 14 year-old Faith is frantically trying to pick up her family's scattered belongings, after Gray has the two sheriff's deputies literally throw them off his land, was so well-described that I knew (with a sick feeling in my stomach) what LH was aiming for before I even got to that part of the paragraph. LH was able to convey the allure of the young, about-to-ripen Faith who is the spitting image of her mother, The Whore of Prescott, and the disturbing effect she is having on Gray and the deputies.Even then, I thought it was just me and my perverted li'l mind but no, the 22 year-old Gray gets a hard-on watching the lithe, pubescent body of Faith through her thin, near-transparent night dress. The poor kid is rushing about, trying to salvage what she can while her drunk brothers and father look on uselessly. Gray only sees her slim thighs, her pert young breasts and nipples and as if that's not bad enough, the two deputies are mirroring the same thoughts as Gray's. Even though it's mentioned that the glare of the vehicle lights silhouetting Faith in the night makes Gray see only the mother, not the 14 year-old daughter, it doesn't work to dispel my icky reaction. Not when the two deputies are added to the mix and not when Gray's response that night is mentioned elsewhere in the book two more times.The second icky thing I failed to mention in my 2008 review is Monica and Alex. Alex is the family lawyer and Guy Rouillard's (Gray's father) best friend. Alex is in love with Gray's mother, Noelle, so when he's fucking Monica, he's thinking of her mother and calling out Noelle's name. Monica, who so loves her Daddy and has never gotten over his disappearance, thinks of...guess who...while she's fucking Alex. Reading this must be bad enough but listening to it, even as a bit of narrative, is really quite stomach-churning.As for Gray and Faith, he calls it fucking while she calls it making love but really, it's just semantics between these two - he actually wants to make love to her while what she really wants is a good ol' finger-lickin' Southern fried fuckin'. And they do go at it like a pair or minks or raccoons or alligators...whatever.After this book, I am so ready to tackle some good, clean, MM sex. Even Angelo fucking Cole! Yaay:pIf these classic 'contemporary bodice-rippers' (oh yes, Gray does rip Faith's 1995 bodice and fucks her standing up against the porch column "with all the grace and tenderness of a sailor just off a six-month cruise nailing a whore in an alley" ) are a secret, or otherwise, guilty pleasure and you haven't read After the Night or listened to the audiobook, you shouldn't miss it (icky bits and all). The audiobook is expensive ($20.99 for Audible members) but it was worth it:)-----------------------------------------------------------------------REVIEW OF PRINT VERSION; 2008:If Howard has written a more intense romance than After The Night, I'd like to read it. So far, After The Night is one of my favorite LH though I can't say I've read that many of her books. I read this book only in 2007, ten years after it was published.I loved this book because of the H & H's history together. I grew up with them, felt their struggles and pain and Gray is so romance material yet 'real'. Howard lets him be human by not white-washing him and though some readers may be upset by the thought of the heroine still desiring him after what he did to her family, it only made Gray real rather than pandering to a romance reader's perception of what a hero ought NOT to be. This also dated the book, perhaps. I don't see romance authors allowing their 21st century heroes do what Gray did and having the heroine still want him.The sensuality was right off the scale and Howard managed to set off fireworks every time Gray and Faith went near each other. When they do make love, it was everything I wanted it to be. Gray was everything I needed him to be and Faith was everything a heroine ought to be.These two characters are my favorite romance hero and heroine! The book is so well-written that no epilogue was needed but the prologue set the stage marvelously.It's a pity Linda Howard's recent works have lost that emotional intensity that characterized her romances pre-2000. She used to be an auto-buy for me back in the 90s when I began reading her but not anymore.
Written December 12, 20144.7 Stars - Stunning great - a heartwrencherAt last I started Linda Howard's good "oldie". I'd both the 12 hrs audiobook (narrated by Natalie Ross) in my ears and sometimes also the ebook in my other hand. OMG, this will be IS so very good! I was in a kind of dreamy 'book-love' in this romance already after a feew chapter... or minutes really. Completely enchanted and my tears was flowing. A keeper, an unforgettable epic romance story to remember. Simply GRAND!! ***********************************************************Prescott, LouisianaAfter the Night is the heartbreaking and stunning love-story about Faith Devlin the former mocked "white trash" girl and the 'larger-than-life' hero, Gray Rouillard, once the towns very lucky happy rich-mans boy. After the Night is also the story about the truth about that (by then 12 years old) devastating scandal surrounding Faith's mother and Gray's father elopement and shameless sex-affair. “Your whole family is trash. Your mother is a whore and your father is a thieving drunk. Get out of this parish and don’t ever come back.”That awful night, when she was 14 and he 22. The night that so mercilessly changed both their lives. One horrible night no one can ever forget! The hate, anger, and roughness of the gritty degradation is impossible to wash off....Or is it possible. What was the truth, what was the rumor, what really happened? ***********************************************************It makes no sense and does no difference that I write a thousand positive adjectives about this amazing 20 years old Howard romance. Most of you have probably already read it anyway. But a few short words...My only tiny whining is perhaps that this narrator made our hero's voice slightly dorky and that the passage of time (since it was written 1995) sometimes is noticeable. Otherwise a fantastic good "from childishly sweet swarming love to adult mature heat need" Romance.Best, for me, was (of course..) the first half.. The stunning first part that told the story of their childhood and the tentative teenage years. The first love, the first connection.OMG (again..) it was so d@mn hertbreaking emotional. There, in the beginning had After the Night really true classic 'grand sob novel' status. ~ That little innocent baby brother!! Sob &Sigh!!! My heart broke... ‘For a little while, he had been happy. That first Christmas after **** left had made him delirious with joy. He had sat for hours, too tired to play but content to stare at the twinkling lights on the Christmas tree.’The terrible shame, the for them all so ugly humiliation, the social injustice for these kids and all those emotions. My tear channels opened completely... — I didn't know who I wanted to yell most at.“.... Men are different from women; the more excited we are, the more like cavemen we sound. I could barely speak English with you, much less French. As I remember, my vocabulary deteriorated to a few short, explicit words, ‘fuck’ being the most prominent.”The second half was more of an ordinary steamy suspence romance. Still captivating interesting and a very good reading (listening). ~ Highly recommended!! Thank you dear Irina, who nudged me that this book is an absolute must-read CR. You are so right, sweetie.***********************************************************I LIKE - bull's-eye for a romantics who like to sob...
What do You think about After The Night (1997)?
I love Linda Howard, BUT! Ugh. The hero of this book is appalling. Gray is a complete and utter bastid, even to a sick young boy ((view spoiler)[who died in part because of Gray kicking them all out in the cold night, yet Faith forgave him easily (hide spoiler)]
—Kathleen
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and if you are a Linda Howard fan and have yet to read it you better make sure you do. This one was different than Cry No More (the only other LH book I’ve read) which was great because I am very curious about the different storylines she writes. In After the Night we get two very different main characters whose past and future are intertwined with hatred, lust, sadness and long awaited happiness. Faith Devlin’s didn’t have much in her life. She knew she had nothing of value whether it was the house she lived in or the clothes on her back. Her mother was nothing but a whore and her father was a drunk. But Faith knew she wasn’t trash like the rest of them. She dreamed of finding a way for her and her little brother Scottie to get out of the dirty world they lived in. Little did she know it would be at the hands of the man that she dreamed about. The one she had come to love. Grayson Rouillard ~ What a bastard he was. I hated the fact that I liked him, that I found him sexy and alluring. He was tall, dark and handsome. Had hair that reached the nape of his neck. His words and actions towards Faith were hateful but I had a sense that his anger toward her was misplaced. It has been 12 years since he drove Faith away. But Gray has never able to forget her. He was never able to let go of that desire he felt for her. Faith Devlin ~No one expected her to amount to much. She had been a fragile little girl within a family that everyone considered trash. But Faith was strong and knew differently. Life had thrown that final blow 12 years earlier, a blow that only strengthened her resolve to prove everyone wrong. She wasn’t looking for redemption. She just wanted to go home. Returning home would mean searching for answers to questions from her past and it also meant facing the one man that she has loved for as long as she can remember. Would she be strong enough to stand up to him and the people who rejected her? When Faith returns home to try and get answers to what happened so many years ago she is met with expected resistance and hostility. As she inches towards getting answers to things that happened that summer she is lead back to the Rouillard’s lake house. A place that brought back heated memories from the past and a place where more heated memories would be made. But someone was going to do whatever was needed to make sure Faith never got her answers. There was too much as risk and Faith needed to be stopped. When Gray and Faith could no longer resist each other, things get pretty intense between them. The sex scenes were written with such raw sensuality and were off the charts HOT. I have to say the sexual build up left you with no other choice but to FEEL everything within those scenes. Gray had to possess Faith in such a way that was dangerous yet necessary to his being. Faith had no choice but to surrender. This was such an amazing story and I loved every minute of it. Though certain things were a little predictable it didn’t bother me one bit. There was enough swirling around in the plot that kept me engaged and intrigued. Both Gray and Faith were wonderful characters but I give a little more love to Faith. She was that flower that would grow no matter what. Another highly recommended read!!
—♥Sharon♥
***3.5 stars***My first Linda Howard book and I'm in the middle of the road, liked it but didn't love it. With the exception of the first 20%, which was AMAZING, this book for me was a combination of and Alright, let's start at the beginning shall we. The first 20% of this book describing and setting up the history between the Devlins and Rouillards was fantastic! I could feel EVERY emotion, injustice and unfairness that Faith had to endure. Her infatuation, worship and love for Gray poured off the page. And then the big dramatic evening consisting of the heartbreaking eviction of the Devlins.....OH MY GOD! Ripped my heart out.Now fast forward to present day...and Faith has returned to Prescott to find out what the true story is of what happened on that fateful night....the night where her mother supposedly ran away with Gray's Dad. Somehow in the next 80% I lost the genuine emotion between Gray and Faith. I knew her history, but I couldn't connect to Gray's infatuation with Faith, at least not above and beyond the lust burning in his loins. Gray's inner ramblings and confession to Faith that he was attracted to her from when she was 14 (and he was 22) was not romantic or endearing in ANY way.....instead it was a whole big dose ofOnce they finally did come together, Ms. Howard glossed over the reconnection with a couple of paragraphs of "we talked all day and night, filling each other in on where we've been and what we've gone through. I would have liked to have read about that. To actually see Gray and Faith re-acquaint themselves as adults. I would have preferred this over the overly descriptive passages of things that were inconsequential. I don't really care about the lighting and landscaping of the courthouse. Overall, even though my first Linda Howard wasn't a huge success, I will definitely check out her other books. My feelings about the first 20% definitely take precedent over the rest and it appears that this particular book just wasn't the right fit for me.
—Mirjana ***Let's Sound It Out - - - Mary-On-A***
