Review: After Hello by Lisa Mangum

After Hello by Lisa Mangum

Release Date: September 4^th, 2012

Number of Pages: 272

Publisher: Shadow Mountain

Source: ARC from BEA

What if the first day of your relationship was the only day you had?
 Seventeen-year-old Sara is a seeker. She’s always on the lookout for the perfect moment to capture with her ever-present, point-and-shoot camera, especially on her first trip to New York City.
 Sam is a finder. He has a knack for finding what other people can’t—a first-edition book or the last two tickets to a sold-out Broadway show. In New York, there is always something interesting to find.
 When Sam and Sara’s paths cross, neither one of them is prepared for what they will find out about each other—and about themselves when they form an unlikely partnership in search of a seemingly elusive work of art. They have one day to find the impossible. Fate brought their talents together, but what happens when time runs out? Will love be able to overcome fate? This new novel from award-winning author Lisa Mangum explores what happens after hello.

I jumped into After Hello without really knowing what to expect. I hadn’t read anything by Lisa Mangum, nor had I read anything about this book. It was one of those books I picked on a whim, just to see what it would be like. I have to say that I was nicely surprised to find a great contemporary, an interesting book that I read in a matter of hours. I thought maybe it would be a little like The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, since the only thing that really stood out on the back cover was the “What if the first day of your relationship was the only day you had?” quote. It is really different, that’s for sure.

This book really left me wandering what will happen next, which is mostly why I had trouble putting it down. Some books keep you on the edge of your seat, and that’s why you can’t seem to put it down. For After Hello, it’s the beauty of this growing relationship between Sam and Sara, which started with Sara taking the picture of a stranger in the streets of New York City. The beauty of this book is the story of those two strangers, both of whom have different past, different troubles. It is to see them grow in such a short period of time, to see them have such a big impact on each other.

This book did charm me. This book was a nice surprise, since I didn’t know what I was embarking on when I started it. Lisa Mangum’s writing really charmed me, and made me want to pick up more of her books. This book may not have made me fall in love with the story, but it did give me something worth the time I spent with it. After Hello will in my opinion charm many Contemporary lovers.