After the Moment

Maia Morland is pretty, only not pretty-pretty. She's smart. She's brave. She's also a self-proclaimed train wreck. Leigh Hunter is smart, popular, and extremely polite. He's also completely and forever in love with Maia Morland. Their young love starts off like a romance novel--full of hope, strength, and passion. But life is not a romance novel and theirs will never become a true romance. For when Maia needs him the most, Leigh betrays both her trust and her love. Told with compassion and true understanding, After the Moment is about what happens when a young man discovers that sometimes love fails us, and that, quite often, we fail love. The first chapter of this book opens with Leigh (the books narrator) seeing Maia at a dinner party a few years after they had initially met. His reaction upon seeing her tells us that he obviously still has feelings for her and that things were probably left unresolved. From there we go on to find out how Leigh and Maia met and about their heart wrenching love story. After a death in the family, Leigh leaves his single mother to spend his senior year in high school with his father, step-mother and step-sister, Millie. Amidst a tragedy, Leigh knows that his emotionally stunted father is usually not the best shoulder to lean on. Almost immediately upon arrival, Leigh is introduced to Maia, who he soon finds out is anorexic, has OCD and to top it off, depression issues (yes, wow). Despite these issues, Leigh feels an immediate connection to Maia which baffles him...after all, he's dating the perfect and popular, Astra Grein. But the more time Leigh and Maia spend together the more he finds himself falling in love with her. After Maia experiences a horrible tragedy, she feels betrayed by Leigh when he mistakenly betrays her trust out of his own anger and rage. They eventually part ways and don't meet again until the dinner party. I really enjoyed this book but it is a really difficult book to review because of its depth. Leigh is a complex and thoughtful main character. Unlike most teens he is almost hyper-aware of the world and people around him, whether it's his mother, his relationship with his father, his life after high school or the war going on Iraq, Leigh always seems engaged in critical thinking. Overall, a wonderful story about the complexity of family relationships today and the splendor and the heartache of first love. With the sexual situations and alcohol references, I think this book is best suited for 8th grade and above.

After the Moment is one of those books it's nearly impossible to write a review for. I've rewritten this countless times and I still don't think I can get it right. After Moment is a book I think everyone should read. It's heartbreaking and merry, unobtainable and realistic. It made me cry but also laugh out loud. The characters are so well-developed and original and perfect (in the sense that they're unperfect). The plot was original and unexpected. I never guessed what was coming and after that, nothing happened as I was expecting. The ending, like the rest of the book, was so unexpected and it left me wanting more. I realize this is a short review but I'm not sure what else to say. The book was amazing. You should buy it. End of story.

After The Moment is a story of love--love that is true but cannot hold strong through tough times. This book was a little more serious than I expected touching on subjects such as self-mutilation, death of a loved one, bullying, and many others. Even though it was a bit more serious it was truly an amazing story. Leigh Hunter is the golden boy: soccer star, straight-A student, and boyfriend to Astra Grein. At least, he is until his stepsister's father dies and he is asked to move to Washington to be there for her. Leigh and Astra decide that they would rather have a long distance relationship than break up but Leigh never expected to fall for Maia Morland, the train wreck. Maia has many different problems. Her stepfather that actually cares about her is in jail, her mother doesn't notice her, and she has her own issues such as self-mutilation, anorexia, and she had a tendency to act out sexually until her psychiatrist made her sign a contract. When Leigh meets Maia he never once thinks that he could love her. She is the exact opposite of Astra and yet he can't get her off his mind. Leigh begins to drive Maia to her prison visits and in the process, gets to know her. He doesn't realize that he loves her until being away from her to visit his mom in Maine. When he returns home he goes straight to Maia's and is surprised to find out that she feels the same way. They begin dating, even though Leigh still hasn't broken up with Astra. Finally, Leigh decides that he needs to end things once and for all with Astra and decides to go to New York and tell her in person. He never knew that his decision to stay in New York for one extra night would have such drastic consequences. When he returns to Washington nothing is the same and when he finds out why, he wishes he could change things but he can't. Unknowingly Leigh breaks Maia's trust and loses their relationship. He will always love her but they can never be together. And if you want to know why, you will just have to read the book. I wouldn't just give away the ending. ;]

Garret Freymann-Weyr's novels for young adults are inevitably distinct. Her teenagers seem serious beyond their years, deeply invested not only in their own lives but also in the often complicated lives of their adult family members. AFTER THE MOMENT is no exception, and its male protagonist further cements Freymann-Weyr's reputation as a risk-taking author unafraid of tackling topics, and taking perspectives, unusual in young adult literature. Leigh Hunter is a recent college graduate, ready to embark on a career as an international journalist, when a chance meeting at a dinner party casts his mind violently back to his senior year in high school, when he first knew both love and heartbreak intimately. The summer before his senior year is filled with a different kind of heartache: the news that his younger stepsister Maggie's father has been killed in a car crash. Leigh travels from his mom's home in New York City to Maryland to comfort her, and when she asks him to stay, he agrees to spend his senior year at her school. Leigh is adaptable and bright, and he treats the move as an adventure (especially when his school guidance counselor assures him that the transition might actually improve his college prospects). His only trepidation is being far away from Astra, his practically perfect, drop-dead gorgeous girlfriend. Astra is smart, confident, beautiful and self-assured. She assures Leigh that their relationship will survive even at a distance, but Leigh (who admits to himself, if not to her, that he doesn't really love her) isn't so sure, especially when he meets Maia Morland. Maia is, Leigh reflects, "Astra's opposite in almost every way. Astra did not walk --- she strode, allowing her height, her strength, and her thoughts to take up as much room as possible. Maia, it seemed to him, let her thoughts swarm thickly around her, creating a shield of protection." Maia battles eating disorders, germ phobia, the compulsion to harm herself --- but she also has a thirst for beauty, a love of knowledge, and a vulnerable way of looking at the world that draws Leigh to her. Leigh's mother is a romance novelist, a writer who crafts her stories to culminate with that magic moment when the male and female romantic leads finally connect. But what happens when that moment is only the beginning, when a love connection results in only more complications, violence, misunderstanding and heartbreak? In many ways, AFTER THE MOMENT is an anti-romantic novel, one that treats the mysteries of love and the agonies of loss as two sides of the same coin, one that recognizes that romance seldom ends with "happily ever after." As in her other books, Freymann-Weyr here explores families that have formed, re-formed, broken and blended, all without losing their essential identity or their capacity for love. Her characters --- especially Leigh --- come off as remarkably mature and resilient, perhaps because they are so closely tied to the adults in their lives, perhaps b

No one can forget their first love, and Leigh Hunter isn't any different. Leigh is as close to the perfect boy as a girl could ever hope for: attractive, athletic, smart, and selfless. His life is rolling along nicely, as he is looking forward to his senior year and what the future might hold for him beyond high school. Leigh's biggest worry is finding a summer job that would look good on his college applications, until something horrible happens and his sister, Millie, needs him. Not willing to let her down, Leigh packs up his things and moves a state away to be with Millie and help her begin to recover from her loss. While taking care of Millie is in his plan, falling for the sweet-if-not-a-bit-odd Maia Morland is not, especially since he still claims the hottest girl in his school back home as his girlfriend. But even the best laid plans have a way of changing, and the best intentions a way of crumbling. AFTER THE MOMENT is a story of first love, but it's so much more. It's a story of perseverance, strength and loyalty, but also of betrayal, pain, and disappointment. It's a story every reader who has loved and lost can relate to, which is the very reason it's not one to be missed. Reviewed by: Angie Fisher