After All Is Said And Done: A Novel of Infidelity, Healing & Forgiveness

I love reading a book that is well written and draws you in. I found this book to be very heart felt and loved how its about overcoming adversity and finding away to survive abuse . Sometimes all we need is someone to weather the storm with you and be our anchor. Thats what Sarah did for Ethan, she never gave up on him.

Excellent book. The story kept my interest and I throughly enjoyed it.

Two couples as much thrown together as they are torn apart by infidelity, this book drew me in from the start as I eagerly continued to discover what would happen next? Descriptive & well planned, the realism had me believing that the main characters within After All Is Said & Done were my colleagues. Men act like men as the women do what women do best in this moral wrenching take on professional life & what goes on behind closed office doors. I am happy to recommend After All Is Said & Done to all who enjoy this genre & hope that others in search of something new will give this new author a chance as I look forward to much more & a second glance.

After reading Seasons Of Darkness, I couldnt wait to pick up the next book about doctor Ethan Harringtons life. After All Is Said And Done is an emotional, engaging, novel of twists and turns. I could not put it down and the ending wraps everything up perfectly. I highly recommend it. If you havent read anything by Belinda G. Buchanan, you need to. She weaves a very intimate tapestry of life, love, emotion and the human condition.

The story is a little unbelievable: that a man (Ethan), would want so much to stay with an unfaithful wife (Jessica) who bore the child (Ryan) of another man (Gavin). Ethan seems to be more condemned for his reaction to the deceit and betrayal than Jessica and Gavin are for having the affair. Ethan is taunted and belittled at work by Jessicas and Gavins comments and confrontations. Their flirting at the company Christmas party drives Ethan to create a disturbance there with both of them. Eventually Ethan is confined to the hospital psych ward through the conspiracy of his sister, Renee, and the hospital staff. Of course his adulterous wife and her cousin, Grace, are assigned to be his doctors and they torment him with humiliating examinations and force-feeding. Jessica is especially cruel by bringing their son, which was fathered by Gavin, to visit Ethan to further remind him what he has lost and her contempt for him. In the end there is no comeuppance for Jessica and Gavin who seem to have had all their desires fulfilled and, I suspect, later on get married and have a family with their son. The hospital staff all go on with their lives while Ethan is left to rebuild from the devastation that has befallen him. He marries Sarah (the other discarded spouse in this love quadrangle) and they move to England. I guess I was expecting more of a story about someone excising a cancer from their life and moving on & moving up. It just did not satisfy me that way.

I wasnt sure what to expect from the description of this book. It seemed like it might be a romance book, and since I dont usually read romance, I didnt have a lot of expectations. However, I was pleasantly surprised after just the first couple of chapters. The actual writing is well done, the characters are realistic, and it wasnt hard to imagine this happening in real life instead of in print.

I honestly felt like she got off too easy. I can’t stand the way she excuses her behavior. I kept waiting for her to get karma... but he ends up begging her for another chance... NOT FOR ME

This book had me from the very beginning. I wasnt sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. The characters were relatable and the situations seemed very realistic. The POV changed from person to person, which I liked. I will definitely be looking for more by this author.

Its rare that all I want to do is read a book. This story drew me in because it was so powerful at its core. I am not even sure how I stumbled upon it. I think I was on a page for one book that said at the bottom people who bought this book also purchased... so I clicked on it and read the description and decided to go for it. Though this story was much longer than most e-books I normally read, I simply couldnt stop until I finished. If I hadnt had to sleep and work, I would have read it straight through. But I still read it every chance I got. When all was said and done, I loved the story. It has some language and a few pretty steamy scenes in it, but it didnt take away from the value of the novel for me. What I loved about the story was how deep it went and how honest it was. Ive never seen a more compelling portrayal of alcoholism and the damage it can do to adults. For the most part I loved all of the characters. There were times when I didnt like some of them at all, but thats like real life. Sometimes we dont like the people we love. And sometimes we just need to know when to walk away and let someone learn the hard way that they need help. The ending was fanstastic and I think it worked well for the story. There are people that are good for us and the relationship is healing. There are some people that are like poison to our souls. Ethans insight about the healing power of forgiveness toward the end was enough to move a reader to tears. I was so glad when he found peace and joy in life again. Some picky little things that drove me nuts were the excessive use of exclamation marks. Any seasoned writer knows that they are not needed most of the time and should be rarely used. If it hadnt been for all of those marks in the story I would not have believed this was the authors first novel. It was very well-written and other that, had few flaws. This story engaged not only my head, but my heart. I was afraid - more like terrified - at times as well as extremely sad about situations that occurred. There were no easy answers, but the author had the characters acting in ways that made sense and fit their situations given their lives and what they knew. More than that, I felt like I knew these people kind of like I knew characters in a soap opera I used to watch many years ago. I often held my breath as they did crazy things that fit the drama of the day and couldnt wait to find out what would happen next. And though the author did not have a pure point of view (in other words there was some head-hopping) she actually did this very well. Its not easy to have multiple viewpoints in a scene and do it well. I am sad that this story ended, but was excited that a prequel is coming out in 2012. Im definitely getting it as I want to know how it all began and I know for sure it will be told well. Hopefully it wont have a thousand question marks in the story, but even if it does, Im sure Ill enjoy it.

I really enjoyed this book. It was an honest look at love and infidelity.