The third and final book in the Black Springs Ranch series, After the Rain by Amber Palmer is a deeply touching and emotional second-chance, cowboy adjacent romance. It can be read as a standalone, and this is a story that will inspire all the feelings.
Cleo Hayes is back in her small home town after a painful marriage and much needed divorce. As she’s trying to piece herself back together and learn how to recognize herself again, her entire world turns upside down all over again.
Twelve years after their heart-wrenching break-up, Grady Wilde is back in town. He was her first love, her first everything, until it all fell apart, leaving both of them completely broken.
Now she can’t avoid him. With his six-year-old daughter attending her summer camp on the ranch, Cleo has no choice but to talk to him, and Grady has no intention of letting her get away this time.
The emotional pain in this story is palpable. There’s not a dramatic, dark romance sort of trauma, but a more grounded, recognizable, and familiar kind.
I relate to Cleo much more than I did to Lennox, her sister and the main character of the second book in the series, Through the Dust, but that’s just because I am also an anxious eldest daughter. The characters are the strength of this book. I want to give them all a hug, and I am decidedly not a hugger, so that is really saying something.
After the Rain, like any great rom-com, is filled with misunderstandings and hurt feelings. Of all the tropes I read, second-chance always hits me in the soft parts of my heart, thanks to my own love story, but for any reader, this story is easy to read and easy to get drawn into.
The romance is a slow burn as Cleo and Grady work to get away from all the obstacles their past brings, but it is utterly worth the wait. This relationship is so filled with love, and it is a pure joy to read.
By the end of After the Rain, I was smiling so hard that my cheeks hurt. This book is sweet, heartfelt, and so filled with tender emotion without feeling cheesy. It’s the perfect book to read when you need some sunshine after a storm.
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