After Hello by Lisa Mangum

5 STARS

After Hello to me was a magical journey around New York that left me with a smile. It was a journey of meeting friends and being a friend, of helping friends and strangers.
A journey of looking back to trials of our pasts into the possible future ahead.
Sara is 17 year old and is alone in New York city. Sara and her father planned to be here for one day. Her father's business meeting was on going so Sara was on her own to discover New York City.
Sara has her camera and wants to discover some of the tourist attractions. She sees a man and takes his picture outside a bookstore. She decides to follow him and they have a discussion and walk together learning about each other a little.
Sam is a finder. He finds things that other people want and trades with them what they want to give. Sam after graduating early from school came to NY to live with his older brother Paul.
Paul works for a spoiled actress. When Sara meets her to hand over the book to her she is asked to find something for her. She has Sara take notes for what she wants on a back of her picture. If Sara does not find the art by the end of the day Paul will be fired.
Sara tells Sam about what she wants and what will happen to his brothers job if she does not find it. So they decide to look together for it. They go out to find friends of Sam's who's art might work and along the way they meet lots of interesting people that Sam Has met and traded with.
He once took a package of sugar and traded it for the waitress and got her two sold out concert tickets to her favorite show. Sam is a good friend to others and they are good friends to him.
I loved the characters we meet in this novel. The fun they have in trading giving something someone wants for what they have. That is fair to each person. Loved the different art experiences they have. The discriptions make New York come alive for me.
Though as a mother of two girls I have to ask what that father was thinking leaving his daughter alone to discover New York by herself.
I was given this ebook to read in exchange of honest review from Netgalley.
10/23/2012 PUB Deseret Book Imprint Shadow Mountain