Book Review ~ After All by Deborah Raney

Book 3 of the Hanover Falls series, finds Susan Marlowe finally starting to heal after the tragic fire that took the life of her firefighter husband. What made it even worse was that the fire was at the homeless shelter which she started and devoted her life to. Now after a lot of work the shelter is back up and running in a different location but now she has much opposition from certain people in town and they are spreading their opinions so much that giving has been way down. And in the midst of that pressure she makes a startling discovery about a secret her husband tried to hide. The fire investigator from the Grove Street shelter also hides a secret. Her firefighter friend also died in the shelter fire. She had such hopes that the friendship would become more but now that will never be. And she must grieve in private only because because her friend was also a married man. Firechief Peter Brennan is still recovering emotionally from that horrendous fire. He lost so many of his men that night and is still in the process of rebuilding the department. But when the two women enter his life he has a whole new set of problems he must contend with.

 After All is the third and final installment in the series and picks up on the story of the Grove Street Shelter founder and director Susan Marlowe's life 18 months after the shelter fire. It is a story that deals with betrayal, forgiveness and hope of moving on. There is a bit of mystery woven into the story that really kept the pages turning for me. A bit of love triangle provides tension throughout and my heart went out to Susan's young adult son who was introduced in this book. At 22, he has moved back into Susan's home and is still struggling to come to terms with his father's death. A twist in the story surprised me in the end, which is something I like. Once again Deborah Raney has written a story that totally drew me in and made me care about the characters.  Each book in this series stood strong on it's own.  Sometimes I find, when there is a three book series the stories start to fizzle out but this series did not.  It was a good story from beginning to end and the surprise twist wrapped the whole series up nicely.