After the Ocean had an intriguing premise with so much potential, but it fell flat in execution. The great idea at its core was overshadowed by lackluster writing (so much telling and not enough showing) and a plot that never fully delivered. I also found the characters quite dull, which made it difficult to stay invested in their journey.

Audiobook Review 📖🌊🎧

thank you so much partner @kensingtonbooks @recordedbooks for the gifted audiobook!

After the Ocean
by Lauren E Rico
Narrated by Victoria Villareal, Robb Moreira, Frankie Corzo

About the book 👇🏽

How do you find your way back when you’ve left yourself behind?

A painful unsolved mystery resurfaces after decades of confusion, sending one woman and her daughters on a journey of redemption in this emotional story about intergenerational trauma, family, and the beauty of Puerto Rico for fans of Nina LaCour, Xochitl Gonzalez, Elizabeth Acevedo, Jodi Picoult, Celeste Ng, and Julia Alvarez.

🌊 My thoughts:

“Someday he will have enough words to tell her what is in his heart. Someday they will be what they were meant to be all along.
And until that day comes, his heart will speak in the language of love and his soul in the language of music.”

I loved the audiobook and highly recommend it! The narrators were incredible and did a fantastic job with this story. I was hooked from the very beginning and listened to it in one sitting! It’s full of family drama, secrets, and redemption. There’s a reason there’s an abundance of rave reviews for this! When I saw that Aardvark had it as a choice, I did not hesitate to add it to my box! And if you enjoyed the book Familia also by this author, I am sure you’ll love After the Ocean. So if you’re looking for a fast read, with short chapters, and a book that’ll warm the heart… look no further! After the Ocean is out now!

Happy reading 📖🌊🎧

After the Ocean: This was a great story! Listened to the audiobook thanks to a NetGalley arc.

This book tells the story of Emily and Paul. They elope and take their honeymoon on a cruise ship. When Paul goes missing, his wealthy and influential family blames Emily. The story is told through several different points of view and two separate timelines (today and 30 years ago). It might sound like a lot but surprisingly it works well.

You get a little bit of mystery and a lot of inter generational family trauma & bonding. It’s short and sweet, gets the story across with no frills.
Again, it works!

It’s very well done. I would like to read from this author again.

Whole body goosebumps.

This book hit right to the heart of generational trauma and how we are transformed by it. It was heartbreaking.

After the Ocean was so beautifully layered and complex that it’s hard to not appreciate it for all of its beauty. There were so many times when I was gut punched by the relationships and struggles in this book. It was women working through the hard hands they had been dealt. Women, generation after generation, breaking cycles and communicating. It was inspiring in that aspect.

Richly written, with characters that were flawed and relatable in their fear and their emotions, this book is easily one of my favorites this year. It was spectacular.

Generous 3 stars

Story starts off like a mystery/thriller as we try to figure out what happens to a passenger who disappears from a cruise ship, but then half way through the book it switches to a family drama. The ending is rushed, and major jumps in plot are just explained away. Some characters do a complete 180 in personality off the page and we're just expected to believe it. Would have been much better if the theme of the first half of the book was carried throughout and was written as a mystery.

I will say that some of the scenes are so beautifully described that I've added Puerto Rico to my travel list.

Emilia and Paul had their dream wedding and then decided to have their honeymoon in the Caribbean. One night Paul disappears from their ship and Emilia is frantic to find him and determine what happened.

This book kept me engaged the entire time. Various characters coming in and out, but not too many to where you’re confused about what is happening. It was just enough to wonder why is this person being introduced and if you have read Lauren’s first book; Familia, you know that she doesn’t add characters for the hell of it. Everyone has meaning & adds to the understanding of what happened and how it happened, regardless of time on the page. I love how she does this! There’s not a lot of fluff.

I’m a huge lover of multiple POVs as well as multiple timelines and generational stories… this provides all that. The oldest daughter in this story pissed me off so much, as daughters do; not understanding the life their mother lived before and even after they came. And how much mothers fight and sacrifice for their children to have a better life than they might have had themselves. This story also touches on the healing power of forgiveness even when the worst has happened to you at the hands of those you trust and how strangers can care for you when family fails to do so.

This story touched so many parts of me… the daughter in me, the sister in me & the mother in me. I was definitely brought to a few tears. I read this on KU so if you’re a member, you can read it now. I’m now on my way to the bookstore to purchase a copy for my library!

This was such a riveting read. A story of family secrets and lost love. It has a little bit of mystery, romance and family drama. I loved the way the story slowly unfolded. The story is told in various timelines thirty years ago and current timeline. Emilia and Paul are celebrating their marriage and are on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. On the second day Paul goes missing.

Narrated by Victoria Villareal, Robb Moreira, Frankie Corzo. These three did such great job bringing the characters in the story to life. I enjoyed the little bits of Spanish included in the story.

I'm glad I picked up this book! This book is a story of present day with flashbacks to 30 years ago when Paul and Emilia were first married. I liked Emilia's story and her two now grown daughters. They all had a bit of growth learning about each other as they began to understand their mother's past! Parts of this take place in Puerto Rico and I enjoyed the bits of Spanish and that aspect! I also loved the role that music had in this story! Thank you RB Media for an audiobook! Both Narrators did a fantastic job and I loved hearing the small amounts of Spanish included in the book and audiobook. I highly recommend this book!

Wow, there’s a lot going on in this story! Thirty years ago, musicians Emilia Oliveras and Paul Winstead were married in Puerto Rico. Forty-eight hours later, Paul vanished from their honeymoon cruise, leaving Emilia devastated—and the prime suspect in his disappearance. So, she ran for her life, leaving behind her love, her dreams, and her identity.

Part family drama, part suspenseful thriller, part mystery, this story kept me engaged until the very end. The narration for this audiobook was really well done- I enjoyed the multiple points of view. I really enjoyed this one. Thank you to NetGalley and to RBmedia for the opportunity to listen to and review this ARC of the audiobook, After the Ocean by Lauren E. Rico. I look forward to more from this author!

I don’t know what I expected going into this novel, but I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did. I loved the story that spanned decades, the characters, the love, and the redemption. The multiple pov and different timelines through the story created so many layers for me, and I was invested from the very first chapter. I rotated reading and listening to the audio for this one, and both are great options!

Thank you NetGalley and RBmedia for my ALC in exchange for my honest feedback!

Add this to your Summer reading list my friends. It giving lounging in the sun with a fruit smoothie on a sweltering day vibes. Ok now about the book…

Young and in love, Emilia and Paul are celebrating their honeymoon on a Caribbean cruise… after a stop in Puerto Rico Paul is missing. Emilia is concerned and finds herself as a suspect once Paul’s wealthy family gets involved. With the help of a detective Emilia goes into hiding. 30 years later in Oregon… Emily “Emilia” receives a phone call that gives hope Paul may still be alive. She flees to see the truth and on her tail… her two daughters unaware of the man their mom hopes to find.

This was a page turner! Short, alternating POV chapters and a mystery that grabs your attention and keeps a hold of it throughout this short (288 pg) but thorough novel. While the synopsis sheds light on the main plot of the story, Lauren E. Rico also writes about mother and daughter relationships, gifted musicians and redemption.

I saw this on Aardvark as a January Bookclub pick and haven’t seen it to much on the gram yet! I’m hoping it gets some good buzz!

Thank you Kensington & RBMedia

50 State Challenge/ OREGON

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Beautifully written and thought provoking.

What would a mother do to protect her child?

I loved the multi-timeline of this story. 30 years ago from the honeymoon of Emilia Oliveras and "Now" the life of Emily Oliver are weaved together to tell a tale that boils down to a mother protecting herself and her child from a wealthy family that doesn't accept her. The 'now' timeline also leans on the relationship of sisters Meg and Gracie. Their relationship and how it evolved was fun to read.

Also told from multi-POV, I thought all the narrators did a wonderful job with their parts. It was easy to stay engaged with the story and their pacing and inflections were good.

Would recommend if you love:
-multi-timeline
-multi-POV
-family secrets
-family bonds
-mystery woven throughout both timelines

I was hooked very quickly. Even when I figured out what the main mystery was, there were still a few twists, and it was a cozy listen that I binged.

Thanks NetGalley for my copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and RBmedia for allowing me to listen to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoyed the audiobook experience with this story. They went with a multicast production and it really lended to the overall storytelling.
This story is about family, reconnecting, and at its heart forgiveness. It was beautifully written and captivating. The mystery is engaging, but a little unbelievable.
It’s told in multiple points of view which helps to fill in all aspects of the story. Most of the characters are well fleshed out and we get a clear picture of their journey.
I would highly recommend this audiobook!

A quintessential example of, “don’t judge a book by its cover”. I love going into books blind, meaning I look at the cover, think ‘I’ve read and enjoyed a book with a cover like that before’, and proceed to read that book. More often than not, I am pleasantly surprised by what I read. I saw this cover and thought ‘this looks like a combination of True to Me and Something in the Water’. I could not tell if it was going to be the feel-good, found-family, slight-romance of the former, or the gripping, family-drama, mystery/thriller of the latter. The truth is, this book was a little bit of both. It was a heartwarming family tale of a woman who has kept secrets from her family, and how revealing those secrets bridges the divide between them. There is quite a bit of mystery, but it’s not scary like a thriller.

Everything was unveiled in a way that kept me hooked. I may have even laughed out loud and shed a tear. The chapters were short and to the point, yet the writing was still very detailed and descriptive. Usually, with multi-POV books, I am bored by some of the POVs and excited for others. This book wasn’t like that. Every POV was interesting to me.

The audiobook narrators also did a fantastic job!

Thank you to NetGalley and RBMedia for sharing with me a copy of the audiobook in exchange for my honest review!

I really enjoyed this! It was definitely more of a family drama and mystery (which was perfectly fine by me - I love a family drama 😂) but the story itself was very captivating and kept my attention the entire time. There were a lot of characters which sometimes made it hard to follow what was going on, but by the end it all came together nicely; my favorite character was definitely Gracie.

All in all a very solid read and an absolutely wonderful audiobook!

This book was a nice surprise. Family secrets, mystery, as well as a heartwarming story. Told in alternating POV chapters, which kept me totally engaged. It was a quick listen and the narration was done very well. I can sometimes drift off if the narration is not good, but this kept me on track the whole story. I would definitely pick this up if you like mystery with family drama. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
4.75 stars

At the beginning it felt like there were a couple errors made in the dates of 30 years ago and today. I had to go back and actually read the summary of the book to better understand what was going on.

Once I figured that out, the author did a good job of developing the characters up until the point in time when Paul is found alive. At that point, it felt like she rushed through to the ending. The fact that Blaine had such a quick change of heart, his parents never found out his part and died just seemed such a let down after the buildup.

Although I was happy with the ending and how they allowed Emily to reunite with her mother, I really do believe she could have taken some more time to develop that part of the story.

Also I was disappointed with the male narrator when he was reading the investigator's part's. He could have added much more of a spanish accent.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an audio copy of “After the Ocean” for a review.

I went into this with no expectations and limited knowledge of the premise. It is a solid family drama/mystery. There weren’t any crazy twists, which I appreciated because the story felt well planned and executed.

I liked having multiple narrators since there were a lot of characters and jumps in time that were easy to track with different voices.