ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – After the Fire by Charlotte Rixon
After the Fire by Charlotte Rixon is published by Aria and available now in paperback, eBook and audiobook. My thanks to the publishers for the review copy.
This is the story of girl meets boy.
And then everything goes wrong . . .
Ever since they first met at university, Beth and Nick have circled in and out of one another’s lives: supporting each other through grief, marriage, divorce, career crises and family dramas.
Fourteen years ago, when they were on the cusp of adulthood, they both survived a devastating fire that sent their lives in different directions. And they’ve been running ever since: from the pain, from the memories, and most devastatingly of all, from the guilt.
But no matter how hard they try, there’s something else they can’t run from. The inescapable, terrifying truth: they’re in love with each other.
But how can they move forward, when neither of them can stop looking back?
After the Fire follows Beth and Nick over the course of fifteen years. From their very first meeting at university there is a strong connection between them, but a tragic fire in their accommodation block tears them apart before they even get started. Although they remain friends, anything more always seems to be just out of reach somehow. They live their separate lives with careers and other relationships, meeting up through the years, and the story shows the trajectory their lives take and how what happened ripples down, continually taking its toll on them.
Charlotte Rixon’s first book, The One That Got Away, had a similar theme, that of two people who had an unbreakable bond but who seemed destined to be apart. It’s a theme that she excels at and one that I find particularly appealing. There are definite One Day vibes going on in this book, with the story being told from both perspectives over a varying number of years from the fire.
I found After the Fire to be a compelling and moving story. It considers the effects of survivor’s guilt and mental health, loss, the price of success, domestic abuse and of course, love. One of my favourite tropes is ‘love against the odds’ and I was hoping that Beth and Nick’s love would triumph against all the odds. Rixon is a fantastic writer, creating characters that I cared about and who felt real. I enjoyed this book very much.
Charlotte Rixon is the pen name of Charlotte Duckworth, USA Today-bestselling author of suspense fiction published by Quercus. Charlotte studied Classics at Leeds University and went on to gain a PGDip in Screenwriting. She worked for many years as a magazine journalist, and is a graduate of the Faber Academy ‘Writing A Novel’ course.
