After We Fall

By Deborah Clack

Sometimes the place you least expect to belong is exactly where you were always meant to land.

Self-sufficient Penelope Reid has her life completely mapped out--a necessity after surviving foster care. Now she's on a mission to prove that she's capable of managing a halfway house at Twelve Bluebells Ranch. The last thing she needs is hindrance from the charming Luke Granger, who asked her to dance three years ago, then disappeared before the music began.

Luke lives a nomadic lifestyle as a security specialist and has never found a reason to put down roots. So when the ranch neighboring Twelve Bluebells is vandalized, securing the area is just another gig for him before he hits the road--until he's reunited with the bossy brunette and her generous heart.

As Luke and Penelope work alongside each other to care for the ranch's halfway house residents, Penelope makes a mistake she might not recover from. Her careful walls begin to crack, and Luke's restless heart finds reasons to stay. But when tragedy strikes, they must decide if it's worth the risk to lower their guards for a love that could give them the home they've always longed for.

A poignant, emotional, no-spice contemporary romance about all the heartbreaking ways we can fall and what it takes to put us back together again. This clean and wholesome opposites-attract love story with a protective MMC will delight fans of Abby Jimenez, Katherine Center, Annabel Monaghan, and Corinne Michaels.

Content consideration: For specific content warnings that may include spoilers, visit this book's page on the author's website.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0800746953
• ISBN13: 9780800746957
• Release Date: October 2026
• Publisher: Haven
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.83 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

deeply moving women's fiction

"Love stands at the top of the ladder, arms held high, conquering every feeling, leaving them destroyed in its wake." I loved the no-nonsense, take charge Penelope from the moment I met her in Even After This. She's my kind of person - organized, efficient, dependable, talented, and able to fix any situation. But there were so many layers to Penelope and I loved getting to know her layers one by one. Her first person voice was hopeful, funny (even if she didn't see it), generous, and full of compassion. Penelope was a beautifully multi-colored silk core wrapped in steel. Her broken past and her journey through healing - physically and emotionally - were heart-breaking. Luke was her complete opposite in his approach to life. Unconventional, spontaneous, and protective, he was the perfect hero for Penelope. It truly attests to the author's skill when the entire book is written in Penelope's voice and yet I feel like I know Luke as well as Penelope. There was loss and grief, despair and pain, but love and forgiveness triumphed all. Catching up with Harlan and Meredith was the icing on this delicious cake of a book. I thoroughly savored every page and can't wait for the next book in the series. I received a complimentary copy courtesy of Haven, the publisher, via NetGalley and was under no obligation to post a positive comment. All opinions are my own.