Book Review: What Happens After Midnight

It’s not often that I read YA books, but I’m actually a big fan of them, especiallty when they hook me and aren’t cheesy. One of my favorite upper YA books is The Summer of Broken Rules by K.L. Walther and I’ve read one or two other things by her since then. Last week I read What Happens After Midnight and I absolutely loved it!

The novel follows Lily Hopper and Tag Swell, high school seniors at a boarding school in Rhode Island. Tag comes from a wealthy family in Chicago and his parents are largely absent. Lily is a “fac brat” – her mom is an English teacher at the school and they live in a house on campus in a neighborhood with other staff so Lily doesn’t live in the dorms like the other kids. Lily and Tag are also exes. They were together for 2 years and then broke up the year before the novel takes place, but secretly have never stopped loving each other.

For the past year, the two have mostly tried to avoid each other even though they have mutual friends. But when Lily gets a cryptic message from this year’s Jester – a senior who has been left the honor of planning the senior prank by the previous Jester – enlisting her help in his grand plan. Lily has always been a rule follower, but feeling a desire to do something a little daring and adventurous before graduating, Lily decides to go for it and meets the Jester and his band of fools – herself included – at midnight. And the Jester is none other than Tag!

Now the two must plant all the clues for their prank around campus before dawn without being caught by campus police or any other students or staff. And also in the meantime, come to terms with their feelings for one another and unresolved ending to their relationship.

I loved this book and was hooked from start to finish. I loved Lily and Swell and the whole setting. I never would’ve thought I’d want to live at a boarding school lol. I became so invested in these characters that I really felt for them (and even personally offended) when they had setbacks or – what I felt was – unfair punishment for things. I’m already missing Lily, Tag, and all the side characters!

Read this if you’re looking for an upper YA romcom with a boarding school setting and the second chance romance trope.

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