What Happens After Midnight was a fun and suspenseful book with a charming second-chance romance. The characters have to learn from their mistakes while also taking big leaps of courage. I loved the other book by this author, The Summer of Broken Rules, and I’m so glad I loved this one to! I also will never say no to the continuous TS references. No body, no crime 😉

Lily Hopper is a good girl, a good student, and doesn't cause trouble. She's a faculty kid, so everyone at Ames knows her and expectations are high. The senior prank is looming, and Lily's been tagged to help. Enter the dilemma...help The Jester and have some fun, be someone unexpected for a change? Or pass on the offer and keep her goody-two-shoes reputation intact? Once she realizes The Jester is her ex, Taggart Swell, the guy she never got over, the decision gets that much more complicated.

What I love about K.L. Walther is that her books are unapologetically romantic. The books might be YA, but Walther is able to capture the big feelings, the ups and downs, the pros and cons, of every girl's first love. The other half of the equation is the adventurous side to every one of her books. This book is just fun to read for the pranks alone. The banter is top notch, and the pop culture references are spot on. Second chance romance might be her preferred trope, but there's no question she's a master.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a super cute YA Romance. It is a bit predictable, and most of the story is given away in the synopsis, but I still enjoyed the story.

I thought that Lily and Tag were cute together, and they had good chemistry. I absolutely loved Alex's character. He's probably my favorite.

Thoughts:

This book does a good job of riding the line between bubblegum pop romcom and teen thriller. It's actually a good combo of both.

It's not too long, which means it doesn't try for some sort of lengthy gravitas. And it's not too short, which means the reader gets rounded characters that feel worthy of a story.

I just wish the premise paragraph didn't give away the whole story. It's too bad the synopsis is all spoilers.

I think my students will really enjoy this. Lily is a great character (and I adore her mom). And if you're a Taylor Swift fan, the song references are 💯

Y’ALL.

KL done did it again. I loved everything about this story. The boarding school setting. The “before” lead up. The clues and figuring out the mechanisms of the actual prank. The “after.”

This was so fun, swoony, and the perfect follow-up to the heartfelt hijinx from THE SUMMER OF BROKEN RULES.

Highly recommend.

This book!
K.L. Walther has become a insta buy for me, and this book assured that. From the Taylor references to just the whole plot I was smitten. I absolutely loved this book!

Oh my!!! This was such a sweet book!! It had me so intrigued to know what was happening next, the romance and how they would find the almanacs! Besides the amazing characters and charming Lily, I LOVED the Taylor Swift referenced!! Made it even more fun to read the book!

I love the way the book was written, the plot, characters, all of it!! Now wanting to read more books by the author.

Lastly, I loved getting to know how the author’s dad was once a Jester! So amazing when authors take parts of their family to write a book. Made me connect to it more!

such a fun read with all of the teenage angst that i love. though most of the book is pretty much explained in the synopsis, i really enjoyed how it all played out through the setting up of the jester’s scavenger hunt for the school prank. the tension between tag and lily was palpable and tag’s true feelings for lily were apparent through her POV. the romance was super sweet but ugh, i really needed an epilogue! still this book is quick and adorable and i highly recommend it for a fun, fresh summer read.

*thank you to the publisher for an ARC. my thoughts are my own.

K.L. Walther writes the perfect summer stories to read on vacation or by the pool (as I did). Lily wants to break out of her perfect student image before she leaves high school. She gets the chance when she is drafted into a series of secret pranks by her ex-boyfriend. The prank storyline and nighttime setting was so fun but the chemistry between Lily and Tag is what captivates you. They have great banter and you will be rooting for them until the final page. I loved the Gilmore Girls feeling (small community, "everyone's golden child" character, cool mother/daughter relationship). This is perfect sweet, fun summer reading. Thank you to K.L. Walther, Sourcebooks Fire, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I want to start this review by saying that The Summer of Broken Rules was my favourite book out of 100 in 2021-it’s perfect.

This book was such a disappointed to follow that up. I really did not enjoy this, I had to force myself to finish it. The synopsis is a bit over detailed-Lily gets tagged to help her ex, Tag, acting as this years school joker, to play a prank on the class president and her prom date. The story all takes place within a week or so of this event, with most of it taking place throughout the night of the prank. Despite this, I don’t really know what this was supposed to be about. Lily and Tag aren’t together for kind of silly, immature reasons and they spend this time together and basically rekindle. Everything about this story, writing, characters, etc. feels really juvenile, The writing on its own is awful, I really don’t know what happened but it’s just so cringey, there’s all these references that don’t fit, the worst being the Bridgerton one at the end, it gave me hard second hand embarrassment. I felt like the characters in this book spoke both like they were 12 and 30. Nothing sounded right, it was all so cheesy, the storyline between Lily and Tag was cheesy although it tried for romantic. Even Lily herself didn’t make sense, she’s super studious and follows the rules but then says she “swears like a sailor”. It was all just too much, trying too much to be something it wasn’t. Lily’s motivations for participating in the prank weren’t established enough, nothing really was. The whole book didn’t really have a purpose, it felt like a real struggle and just didn’t really flow in any way. I felt like Daniel, although he sucked, wasn’t awful or totally deserving of Lily completing changing her mind and absolutely hating him? This was disappoint in every way. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free preview in exchange for an honest review.

Between Gilmore Girls vibes and Taylor Swift lyrics it was the perfect second chance rom-com YA book I didn’t know I needed.

A senior prank involving staying out all night, a hilarious group of friends (Alex is the best!), revenge on a common enemy, many close calls, health scares, and so much more.

Definitely a quick, fun read. Don’t skip it!

If you’re looking for the perfect summer read you’ve come to the right place because this book is SO good. I genuinely did not want this book to end because as i continued to read, it just got better and better. The plot, chemistry and characters were wonderful! I would definitely recommend this book because it has such a great summer vibes. This book’s writing and the plot are so well thought out making this book the perfect opción to read!

I was extremely excited for this book because I absolutely adored the author's previous title, The Summer of Broken Rules. That book and Hey Stephen by Taylor Swift became my whole personality so my expectations and excitement for this installment was through the roof. I am so disappointed to say that I just did not click with this one, though. I ended up being annoyed with this book as it went on. One of the only things I enjoyed from this book was the easy writing style. I think, by the end of this, everything just got on my nerves. I don't think I could really point out to myself actual character development for the main character. That could have just been an issue with me, though, because from the beginning of the book it didn't seem like this was a main character I could root for. The romance was unconvincing to me because, since it's second chance, I wasn't there for the initial development of it. I also found that the flashbacks for introducing the romance came too quickly and would have liked to see it introduced more naturally in the first half rather than have the flashbacks shoehorned in the first few chapters. I just felt like the structure didn't make sense because instead of keeping the reader guessing, we automatically knew about the romance from page 7. I was also excited for all of the Taylor references bc I love her, however, the easter eggs were so heavy-handed and didn't make sense or flow well with the actual prose of the book that it left me with a sour taste in my mouth. If the references would have been more natural, I would have had much more fun coming across the 73 Taylor easter eggs that I could find. Overall, this wasn't my favorite book and I'm so disappointed by that since I truly loved TSOBR!

loved this romance and her trying to find love and finding herself. loved the friends and and the romance. I would read this author again. I really enjoyed the pacing and how the story and the character worked things out.

This was a cute and fun YA romance - a great way to kick off the summer. I loved the boarding school setting, the all-night pranking and the sweet romance between our main characters. The main story follows Lily and Tag, her ex-boyfriend of about a year, as they set up an epic end of the year prank targeting their class president, Daniel. An added complication? Lily's going to prom with Daniel. Over the course of the night various friends join in the pranking, but Lily and Tag keep finding themselves thrown together. An evening with your ex who you still have unresolved feelings for - what could possibly happen?

I don't really have much to say other than this was an enjoyable read. I loved all of the Schitt's Creek references and the relationship between Lily and her mom Leda - major Rory/Lorelai Gilmore vibes! I loved that even though most of the story takes place over one night we still get plenty of flashbacks that set the foundation for Lily & Tag's rekindled romance.

*Second Chance Romance
*Schitt's Creek + Taylor Swift Vibes
*Senior Prank
*Type 1 Diabetes Rep
*Boarding School Setting

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire & NetGalley for a review copy.

As many other reviews have pointed out, the entire plot of the book is essentially just the synopsis, and it doesn’t feel like the reader gets much more out of it by reading the actual book.

As a story, it’s fine I guess, though it’s tough to say who exactly the audience for this is. The plot skews very much toward the young end of the YA audience, but the language and a lot of the ancillary content would only be appropriate for the older end of the YA audience. Essentially, it’s not an appropriate read for younger YA readers, but it’s too juvenile plot-wise to be of much interest to most older YA readers.

The basic premise is sort of a take-off on Frankie Landau Banks, minus the younger YA age appropriateness and lacking anything like the same level of cleverness and quality. It’s also frustrating to watch two teens make very adult decisions about the physical nature of their relationship, but otherwise interact with one another like 11-year-olds do. It would have been fine to do either, but not both.

It also doesn’t help that the protagonist is often irritating and contradictory in a way that makes her seem whiny and unpleasantly inconsistent rather than sympathetically unsure of who she is just yet as she grows up.

And lastly, for a book centered completely around pulling off an epic prank, this is the lamest prank ever.

This book is perfect if you’re looking for a light summer read that’s set at a boarding school on the beach with second chance romance, adventure, Taylor swift references, and Gilmore girls vibes!

I thought this was such a sweet story and I flew through it in one sitting! I really loved Tag, our mmc, and Lily and Leda’s mother daughter relationship was so fun to read about. A large part of this book is filled with a scavenger hunt and pranks, which was really fun! I rated this 3 stars because I felt like there were some loose ends that never got tied up and I wished we could’ve gotten more romance. I really loved lily and tag and I just wanted to see more of them together! I do think if I were closer in age to the intended audience of this book, or if I wasn’t expecting it to be a romance, I may have liked it more, but it was still a good time.

This was a really light, quick read and I had a lot of fun with it. The ending was rest sweet and I think a lot of people could really enjoy this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 stars

I enjoyed this but not as much as previous books by the same author. The romance was sweet, no complaints there, and I love how nostalgic it felt. I really disliked all of the Taylor Swift references though, it definitely put a dampener on my overall thoughts.

3.75 stars

I really enjoyed this!! It was so fun and entertaining. Walther is a master at books about sneaky games and pranks. This was a sweet high school romcom with a wonderful cast of characters.

I have only two negatives:
1. As everyone has said, 80% of the plot is told in the synopsis. There are literally zero surprises in this.
2. Lily is very nostalgic in this, and it’s kind of confusing on when she’s in the present and when she’s thinking about the past. I read the digital arc, so maybe it’s a format thing that’ll be fixed in the finalized version? I’m not sure, but this was a critique I had in The Summer of Broken Rules as well.

Definitely an easy and breezy read! This would be great if you’re looking for something fast and sweet and predictable.

3.5

What Happens After Midnight is a warm, lighthearted, whimsical story about pranks— which was something not really I have read a lot. I usually don’t read a lot of mystery novels, and when I do, they’re about characters committing crimes— while this one is just about pulling pranks. Well, obviously it won’t be a mystery novel if there wasn’t a big prank where everything goes wrong. So, of course, I expected that. Additionally, there were numerous Taylor Swift references (some felt forced) and even other contemporary entertainment references— even social media platforms like TikTok. Usually, I wouldn’t want those in my books, but this one didn’t bother me as much.