3-1/2 stars

Enjoyable women's fiction leaning towards romance. Story of a woman who had grown up in the foster system with a mother who continually came and took her out again but could never straighten her life up. The daughter is now grown but is living a rootless life as a freelance photographer who wanders into a small town in Georgia and gets mixed up with all the people there. She falls in love with a widower who has six children. The story is at its strongest when showing the relationship of the hero with his children. Very clear and vivid imagery. The ending was a bit simplistic and hokey but all in all I enjoyed it enough that I will more than likely look up more by this author. ( )

I loved this Nook book! As usual Karen never disappoints! After reading Falling Home, set in Walton, GA with some special characters, could not wait to return to catch up with the small town cast (Cassie and more). After the rain is also set in Walton, GA with the main character of Suzanne, a photographer from Chicago is passing thru Georgia and lands in Walton on the bus. Suzanne is running away from her past and secrets. She thinks she will be able to hideout her; however, anything but as this town embraces her.

Needing a mother of her own, she meets all sorts of mother figures and some she can be a mother to as well. Of course, she meets Joe, a mayor and a school teacher whose wife died 3 yrs ago and raising six children with an eccentric aunt (loved this character). As Suzanne only anticipates staying for a short visit, falls in love and finally learns the meaning of home. She befriends Maddie, Joe’s teenage daughter; however, in the process some secrets come out which can cause all sorts of issues for everyone. The book was well-written, funny, loveable, and true to life….makes you want to go back to small town living!

Looking forward to reading Karen’s next book – “The Time Between” June 2013.
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This was a light entertaining read. Full of hope, promise, chaos and family. A wonderful feel good story about a community and how they rally around each other kind of like one big family. It makes you feel that it would be a wonderful place to call home. The plot entwines the lives of these people in an engaging way and left me wishing that I knew more about what was happening in their future. A sign of a good book is you hate to see it end and that is how I felt about After The Rain ( )

After the Rain by Karen White is a republished and remastered novel that is full of twists and turns, touches lightly on the desolation of a broken family life and the darkness people can fall into as a result, and the hope that just might be around the corner. Suzanne Paris is on a bus to Atlanta when she decides on a whim to get off in Walton, Ga., where she meets a large family and finds the home she’s been looking for all of her life. But with the sun comes rain. And there is a deluge of it in this book.

Suzanne has a past that is not far behind her, even as her freelance photography job takes her to many places. She’s running from a life and for her life, and White has created a character who is both likeable and unlikeable. She keeps secrets even from those know care for her, and her ability to trust others is very tenuous and easily broken by the wrong word or action, which White captures easily in her imagery. From how she’s described by the muscular, hot mayor Joe Warner — who also teaches at the high school and coaches football — to how Suzanne pauses before answering questions about her past, readers will find a character who is taken in slowly by the small town and its residents but frightened of how her own past could harm them.

Read the full review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2013/01/after-the-rain-by-karen-white.html ( )

Suzanne is simultaneously running from and towards her past when she impulsively gets off a bus in tiny Walton, Georgia. An old locket of her mother's is engraved with a jeweler in Walton's name and it is this that determines her to stay put, at least for a while, in this town so small there's not even a hotel where she can rent a room anonymously. Instead, she ends up renting an old Victorian house and sliding into the life of the town and the people in it. Mayor Joe Warner is a widower with six children whose first impression of Suzanne is not a good one. She doesn't seem to like dogs or children. But despite their rocky start and the fear (Suzanne) and sadness (Joe) in their pasts, they start to forge a connection that even Joe's kids are okay with. Add Joe's re-election campaign and the underhanded dirt bag he's running against, the mystery of Suzanne's mother's locket, and Suzanne's abusive ex to the plot lines and you've rounded out the book.

This is apparently the second book about Walton, Georgia but it stands alone just fine (and I should know, not having read the first). I generally shy away from romances with children in them because the kids take up too much of the storyline and while that wasn't entirely the case here, it did intrude as Suzanne had to develop relationships with at least a couple of Joe's children. I also find that the presence of children in romances tends to cut the sexual tension and that again seems to be the case here. It may be "real world" in its portrayal but since I look to romances for escapism, that doesn't make me a happy reader. While I was reading, the book was fine but in all honesty, I didn't remember much about it once I'd closed the last page. Mostly this is a gentle sort of romance and people who like their stories on the sweet side will appreciate this one more than those who like their stories on the sexy side. ( )