After All by Deborah Raney Book Review

After All: A Hanover Falls Novel (Hanover Falls Novels) by Deborah Raney tells the story behind the tragic fire that claimed Susan Marlowe's firefighting husband and 4 others at the shelter she ran 18 months prior.  Susan is finally beginning to heal from the loss of her husband, and has put her full attention to running the rebuilt shelter which the community is not overly fond of.  Meanwhile, she begins to interact with the fire chief, Pete Brennan who is divorced and  ready to look for attention from any female.  He and Susan do not hit it off at first, but eventually get each other laughing and start a comfortable friendship.  But strange things begin happening when Susan meets the fire inspector, Andrea Morley, who also was at David's funeral.  Susan is confused as to why Andrea is constantly at the fire station and also trying to get Pete's attention.  Things get even more fuzzy when a former shelter resident comes looking for Susan and a fire is discovered in her own backyard.  Secrets are revealed and the county finally is made aware of the true circumstances surrounding the original shelter fire.  Will Susan be able to trust Pete with her heart and will she be able to forgive the past?

This was my first novel from Deborah Raney and I really enjoyed the mystery and romance.  I was somewhat confused at the beginning when Pete was vacillating between two women and I didn't truly get into the romance between him and Susan until the very end.  There was a very fine line between the professional relationship between Pete and Andrea and their "friendship"  that was hard to distinguish.  But I thought that Susan was very level-headed and made wise choices in how she handled herself.  I also enjoyed the little teaser sentence at the beginning of every chapter that I looked for within the chapter.  If you like romance and mystery, this is a great book to read.


*This book was provided to me free of charge by Glass Road Media for purpose of this review. This is my honest opinion of this book and no monetary compensation was received for my opinion.*