The initial drama is a rather terrifying hurricane, which causes rampant destruction, forcing gay-best-friend David and his husband to move in with Syd and Maddie, creating a giant happy family (.more or less!), of adoptive parents around Henry. Nobody important dies, people bond and grow up, and there are descriptions of food. We know everything's going to work out, and it's fairly easy to see how, most of the time. It's a slightly more erratic book, without a real storyline, just a timeline. Henry is the little boy that Syd and Maddie, our lesbian main character couple from Jericho, sort of adopted, while his father was in Afghanistan. The main stories are the gradual rebuilding after the hurricane, the progression of Syd's divorce and the inevitable return of Henry's father. Basically, it's not nearly as good as Jericho, but if you enjoyed that book, then you'll find Aftermath a very worthwhile followup. It follows up with the main people we met in Jericho, showing us their lives a couple of years later, and giving us a chance to enjoy the status quo that they spent all of Jericho getting to. I don't actually know what genre I'd call it I guess I'm just going to describe it as 'general fiction'. It's a safe, entertaining read, where you get to just relax with old friends. While Jericho was a romance, this is more of a ramble through local gossip, family, and the events in the area.

Jericho was the great literary classic for the ages, this is the lighter, shorter, tale of gossip, rural legends and wine, in which we get to stay in touch with the people and township of the original story.

Jericho is a fantastic book, though it won't appeal to everyone, and Aftermath is more of the same: wine, background histories all over the place for everything from bleachers to cars to people, lots of words, easy companionship and a great deal of banter. You may remember Jericho as the romance novel I raved about back in January 2012. Aftermath by Ann McMan is the follow up story to Jericho.

Aftermath ann mcman