Before

By: Anna Todd

Narrated by: Shane East, Jason Carpenter, Grace Grant

Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

Book five of the After series - Anna Todd's Wattpad fanfiction that racked up one billion views online and captivated romance fans across the globe! As told by Hardin and other characters, Before will explore the hero's life before he met Tessa, reveal what happens after After, give you new insights on their turbulent romance - and revel in the awesome power of true love. #HESSA

©2015 Anna Todd (P)2015 Simon & Schuster

Before is Hardin's heart

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

YES!! Because Before is sooooo amazing!

What other book might you compare Before to and why?

All this drama has no comparison

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

Shane East is the perfect Hardin. I remember when I first listened his voice in After We Collided—he didn’t sound like a 21 year old guy— but then I got used to his voice. I loved his narrations in the next installments of the series and ended up relating his voice and British accent to Hardin and only Hardin. I loved that he was back for this audio. Shane knew how to translate Hardin’s emotions, when he was angry, anxious, insecure and of course, when he was turned on by Tessa. My favorite parts were how he changed Hardin’s voice when he was comparing Tessa to Elizabeth from the book Pride and Prejudice. The short appearances of Jason Carpenter and Grace Grant in this audio were great. Jason did a great performance with Landon, Smith, and Zed. The change of inflexion for each character was remarkable.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The latest chapters!

Any additional comments?

BOOK & AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: 5+++ STARS

People tend to say that retelling stories from the male POV are boring and a waste of time. I ASSURE YOU, BEFORE IS NOTHING LIKE THAT!

Before Is Hardin’s Heart!

Before is the book that was missing to make this series perfect. I loved it from beginning to end and despite my hesitation to suffer all the #Hessa drama all over again, it has made me want to re-read all the books one more time, because their love/hate/love story is simply amazing.

Before has 3 parts: Before, During and After. It’s not just a retelling of book one, like many people was thinking—me included, it shows the missing parts of the previous books, the truth behind Zed, Molly and Steph’s actions, what happens with Christian & Co and Landon after all the drama—OK not everything about Landon, but at least there’s a hint of what will happen in his book *grinning like an idiot* And of course, the most important thing about this book: HARDIN! His feelings, his emotions, his intentions. Everything. I loved reading his POV in books #2, #3 and #4, but seriously, reading his ASSHOLE SIDE IN FULL FORCE was the best! I always enjoy reading how a man changes out of love, especially if it’s from his POV, so I was very happy reading this book.

I really liked that this book wasn’t a “repetition” of After. The events that are featured in this book are just the right ones to show how really Hardin was feeling about Tessa before and after they met. I loved the introductions in each chapter. For me they were “excerpts” from the book Hardin wrote when he became an author. And of course, I love love love the latest chapters, the #Hessa ones. My heart was beating faster and my eyes were tearing while I was reading/listening more about their HEA. That was BEAUTIFUL.

There’s something very important that needs to be said: Anna Todd’s writing style was perfect! She improved it so much since the last book she last wrote. I loved that this book was shorter than the others, and yet she put everything in it and it all was perfectly connected to the whole series.

Shane East is the perfect Hardin. I remember when I first listened his voice in After We Collided—he didn’t sound like a 21 year old guy— but then I got used to his voice. I loved his narrations in the next installments of the series and ended up relating his voice and British accent to Hardin and only Hardin. I loved that he was back for this audio. Shane knew how to translate Hardin’s emotions, when he was angry, anxious, insecure and of course, when he was turned on by Tessa. My favorite parts were how he changed Hardin’s voice when he was comparing Tessa to Elizabeth from the book Pride and Prejudice. The short appearances of Jason Carpenter and Grace Grant in this audio were great. Jason did a great performance with Landon, Smith, and Zed. The change of inflexion for each character was remarkable.

Note: I recommend to read this book AFTER reading the first four books of the series, otherwise, you’ll be spoiled and you’d miss all the drama.

Reading order:

Book 1: After – read review here.
Book 2: After We Collided – read review here.
Book 3: After We Fell – read review here.
Book 4: After Ever Happy – read review here.
Book 5: Before.

I love Hessa!

favorite book series to date! Sad it's over and hopeful the movie is even remotely as enjoyable as the books.

Pointless but still good...spoilers!!!

I could have skipped this book and been just fine but it was good I guess. It's really repetitious and a boring point of view from Hardin, but none the less, I loved the others, so I had to finish out the series. If you want to play "find the inconsistencies" between details in the first four books and this one, you'll be pleased. Lots of things must have gotten mixed up in the editing process because small details from the other books are not consistent in this book. For one, when Tessa went to her friend's wedding in Chicago, the book prior said she did not ask Hardin to go with her as her date, she wanted to go alone, but that she met up with Hardin afterwards for dinner and sex at her hotel, and because she was only there for one night. This book said Hardin went as her date to her friend's wedding and she stayed with him for 3 days after it. It also says that Smith loves everything about Hardin except his tattoos, and that it's the only thing he argues about with Hardin, earlier in this book. Then later in this book, when they're reading from Smith's point of view, it says he loves Hardin's tattoos and wants to get them himself when he's older. Small details like that matter to true fans. Oh one more, the book prior says his daughter Emory is 6 when Tessa is pregnant with Audin. This book says they are only five years apart. Just saying...the details matter to true fans who have invested many hours listening to these books. I also think the movie was awful after reading these books. They made a "Disney" version of these books for theaters, meaning they toned it down way too much. And wth did they do with Hardin's character in the movie??? He's way too nice in it!!

I wanted more

I really liked pt. one and wish the book was more of that. Delving into Hardin's past. Telling us what we didnt kniew about the others. She didnt even mention what happened with Stephanie and Zed. Just a little excerpt read in less tham 2 mins.

Part two was just retelling of the first book from Hardin ' s POV. But It was basically just retelling the dirty bits. Nothing that tells us about hardin during the in between times. Like the bet for example... they told us what led up to it but not what he did or how he handled it from his side.

Pt 3 was just boring. It wasn't really "After" we have no resolution of the other characters. It was lacking.

I guess that's my problem with the whole book it was just lacking. Mostly boring and not enough to keep me interested.

great book

my favorite in the series but I love them all. Anna is a wonderful writer.

Best book of the series.

It really gave you a whole new perspective of hardins life before and after Tessa.

Amazing!

Just like the rest of the series this book was very captivating. I loved it!

A Good End

Good Read. Voice doesn't match Hardin. Thats the only negative. Appreciate that the author incorporates all supporting characters story line. Its a great bonus.

Painful Listen

I loved all of Anna Todd' s After Series books on audible. Thought I'd try out Before. What a mistake. The woman who reads has almost no intonation and sounds borderline robotic. Didn't even get through the 4 the chapter. would love a remake with a better reader.

Not my favorite but still good

Before was definitely not my favorite book from the After series, however, it wasn’t bad either. I would’ve loved to hear more of the outside characters stories and how they experienced things. I do like that the end of Tessa and Hardin’s story was written about more in the end of this since it wasn’t in the fourth book, though.

Great performance...

If you are an Anna Todd Novels fan you will love it.
I really enjoyed reading the books but listening to the audiobook was something else.
The main thing is, not always when you reading you realise all the small story details.

Nice to see other perspectives

I thought this was one of the better books of the series. It was nice to hear things from Hardens point of view zed and even mollys. I just wish the ending wasn’t so rushed in the last book. I feel like the author owed us more after we read all the books.

Absolutely loved it

It was really amazing explaining device that everyone had before they met Tessa and before everything happened. it was nice to get back stories behind the characters that weren't really mentioned love in the first couple of books like Marley said and with Christian.