After the Storm is the third novel in the Lost in Austin series by Christina Berry.
Finished on: 3.6.2025
[Here are my reviews of the other books in the series.]

Content Note: addiction, suicidal ideation

Plot:
Greg is reeling. After his marriage fell apart, as did the relationship with his assistant, he is trying very hard to self-destruct and sabotage the rest of his life as well. Before things can spiral completely out of control, Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans and Greg finds himself desperate to go there and find Violet again. Violet, who he met many months before as she was renovating a movie theater she just bought. Violet, who he hasn’t spoken with since a night full of paint and intimacy. Violet, who has remained on his mind ever since. Throwing caution into the wind, Greg decides to go for it and find her again and help in any way he can.

After the Storm is a sweet romance set in a very specific time and space that feels very well represented. I liked the characters and enjoyed reading their story.

I read the first two novels in the Lost in Austin series a while ago, and I finally ordered the other two novels to finish the series. But before that, I did a bit of re-read of the first two novels that I really enjoyed again. After the Storm was now finally new material, and I was really looking forward to it, while at the same time a little nervous about the set-up: white man drives to New Orleans to find a Black woman after a hurricane? This could have gone entirely in the wrong direction, namely the one of white saviorism.

Fortunately, this is not that book. In fact, if anything, Greg is the one in need of saving and Violet really does not have the time to do that shit, she just survived a hurricane, thank you very much. That the book is told from Greg’s perspective throughout gives us the opportunity to see all of his insecurities, and it was nice to see that he is not hesitant to acknowledge them and also share them with Violet. His open admiration for Violet makes her seem almost perfect at first, but as he gets to know her (and we through his eyes), he also acknowledges her flaws and edges, and that is definitely important. Since Greg has gotten the short end of the stick in the series so far, it was also time to get more into his head.

Berry isn’t Black herself, from what I can tell, but she managed to capture the feeling of Greg standing out in Violet’s Black community by making Blackness feel like the norm, and I thought that was a particularly nice element.

All in all, this has been a consistently good series, and After the Storm is definitely no exception, making you root for the characters and their journey, offering some nice sex scenes (though they didn’t feel as important in this one as in the other two novels, I thought) and making me look forward to the final book in the series.

Summarizing: Very nice.