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Dolan Brothers #5
After the Parade
After the Parade [Paperback] [Jan 01, 2000] Garlock, Dorothy.
416 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2000
42 people are currently reading
235 people want to read
About the author
Dorothy Garlock
86 books382 followersDorothy Garlock was a best-selling American author of over 60 historical romance novels, most of them set in the American West. More than 20 million copies of her books are in print, in 18 languages. Her books have been on the New York Times best seller list seven times. She was named one of the 10 most popular writers of women's fiction four years in a row, from 1985-1988. In 1997, she was awarded the Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award. Garlock is also a member of the Romance Writers Hall of Fame.
Garlock worked as an editor, agent and publicist for most of her writing career. She was a native of Texas who grew up in Oklahoma then married and moved to Iowa. Garlock donated many of her manuscripts and other unpublished writings to the University of Iowa libraries.
Pen names include:
Johanna Phillips
Dorothy Phillips
Dorothy Glenn
Garlock worked as an editor, agent and publicist for most of her writing career. She was a native of Texas who grew up in Oklahoma then married and moved to Iowa. Garlock donated many of her manuscripts and other unpublished writings to the University of Iowa libraries.
Pen names include:
Johanna Phillips
Dorothy Phillips
Dorothy Glenn
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
November 2, 2025
This was a good book that brought closure to a lot of characters introduced in the second Dolan novel, With Hope. Book two was Tom and Henry Ann's story. It was also the book Johnny Henry was first introduced along with other characters from the Mud Creek area. A very poor part of Oklahoma. While Johnny and Kathleen are the main characters in this book, there are actually two other love stories included that involve characters from With Hope. So despite this reader's frustration with MMC Johnny's attitude, it was still an exciting book.
October, 1945. World War II has ended and Johnny returns to Rawlings, Oklahoma on a train with many other veterans. As he disembarks, he's hoping to see a woman with bright red hair. Kathleen Dolan Henry, his wife. She sees him, but he doesn't find her. He's swept up in the celebration and paraded down the town's main street with other returning soldiers. His biological father, Barker Fleming and two of Johnny's half sisters give him a ride out to his ranch following the parade.
At the end of the prior book, the reader believes Johnny and Kathleen have found their HEA. But after two years of marriage and the loss of a baby, their relationship has deteriorated. He enlists in the navy and tells Kathleen she should file for divorce because he can't give her what she wants. Kathleen is broken hearted and doesn't want a divorce because she's still very much in love with him. And this is why she doesn't approach him after he returns home. She believes he's fallen out of love with her.
Johnny's house has been thoroughly cleaned and stocked when he arrives but knows Kathleen won't be there waiting for him. Barker Fleming, understanding what Kathleen is going through, rents a furnished house to her for a modest amount of money that his tannery owns. She's still a partner to Adelaide and Paul who run the Gazette, but she no longer works there every day. Instead, she's committed to completing a book manuscript for her publisher.
The main reason Johnny separates from Kathleen is that he's convinced his bad blood caused their daughter's deformity. Their baby was born with a condition medically described as anencephaly. Johnny doesn't learn this though until later in the book when he's already treated Kathleen so poorly that he might not get her back. For anyone who hasn't read the prior books, Johnny is part Cherokee from his father's side and part Caucasian from his mother - a woman who was reputed to be the daughter of an incestuous relationship. And a prostitute to boot. Johnny believes he's doing Kathleen a favor by telling her he refuses to have no more children and if she wants a family, she should divorce him and move on.
It doesn't help matters when Isabel, Johnny's half sister comes to Rawlings wanting Johnny to let her stay with him. She's extremely sick with Syphilis and later diagnosed with late stage breast cancer. Her condition does nothing but reinforce Johnny's idea that his blood is really bad. Isabel was always a pain in Johnny and Henry Ann's side in book two, but now her medical condition has exacerbated her vile behavior. It reminded me of a character from the book Devil in Winter. (He was Evie Jenner's half brother who suffered from what they called the Great Pox in 19th century England.)
Throw in some additional crazy side characters such as a man who abuses his wife who works at Dr. Jude Perry's medical clinic, a stalker obsessed with Kathleen, a kidnapping, and this reader was fully engaged every time I opened the book.
While the story is predictable, it was good reading about the characters from book two reuniting. The author dedicated the story to her late husband, Herbert L. Garlock, Sr. He was also a WWII veteran that served in the South Pacific. Like Johnny Henry.
Fall/Winter bingo square #33 - MC returns home to visit.
October, 1945. World War II has ended and Johnny returns to Rawlings, Oklahoma on a train with many other veterans. As he disembarks, he's hoping to see a woman with bright red hair. Kathleen Dolan Henry, his wife. She sees him, but he doesn't find her. He's swept up in the celebration and paraded down the town's main street with other returning soldiers. His biological father, Barker Fleming and two of Johnny's half sisters give him a ride out to his ranch following the parade.
At the end of the prior book, the reader believes Johnny and Kathleen have found their HEA. But after two years of marriage and the loss of a baby, their relationship has deteriorated. He enlists in the navy and tells Kathleen she should file for divorce because he can't give her what she wants. Kathleen is broken hearted and doesn't want a divorce because she's still very much in love with him. And this is why she doesn't approach him after he returns home. She believes he's fallen out of love with her.
Johnny's house has been thoroughly cleaned and stocked when he arrives but knows Kathleen won't be there waiting for him. Barker Fleming, understanding what Kathleen is going through, rents a furnished house to her for a modest amount of money that his tannery owns. She's still a partner to Adelaide and Paul who run the Gazette, but she no longer works there every day. Instead, she's committed to completing a book manuscript for her publisher.
The main reason Johnny separates from Kathleen is that he's convinced his bad blood caused their daughter's deformity. Their baby was born with a condition medically described as anencephaly. Johnny doesn't learn this though until later in the book when he's already treated Kathleen so poorly that he might not get her back. For anyone who hasn't read the prior books, Johnny is part Cherokee from his father's side and part Caucasian from his mother - a woman who was reputed to be the daughter of an incestuous relationship. And a prostitute to boot. Johnny believes he's doing Kathleen a favor by telling her he refuses to have no more children and if she wants a family, she should divorce him and move on.
It doesn't help matters when Isabel, Johnny's half sister comes to Rawlings wanting Johnny to let her stay with him. She's extremely sick with Syphilis and later diagnosed with late stage breast cancer. Her condition does nothing but reinforce Johnny's idea that his blood is really bad. Isabel was always a pain in Johnny and Henry Ann's side in book two, but now her medical condition has exacerbated her vile behavior. It reminded me of a character from the book Devil in Winter. (He was Evie Jenner's half brother who suffered from what they called the Great Pox in 19th century England.)
Throw in some additional crazy side characters such as a man who abuses his wife who works at Dr. Jude Perry's medical clinic, a stalker obsessed with Kathleen, a kidnapping, and this reader was fully engaged every time I opened the book.
While the story is predictable, it was good reading about the characters from book two reuniting. The author dedicated the story to her late husband, Herbert L. Garlock, Sr. He was also a WWII veteran that served in the South Pacific. Like Johnny Henry.
Fall/Winter bingo square #33 - MC returns home to visit.
December 28, 2011
Audiobook.
A little melodramatic. The heroine first met her husband when she was kidnapped. After she gave birth to a baby missing part of skull, he wanted a divorce because he blamed his bad genes for what happened. Then he took off to serve during World War II. When he returns, he finds she didn't divorce him but he still doesn't want to get back together in case they have babies again. Then there's them being convinced the other still doesn't love them, even though everybody keeps telling them they're wrong. A little ridiculous. Then another kidnapping. Kathleen walks around with this bad luck cloud following her everywhere! The ending was a little too HEA.
I'm not going to keep this audiobook.
A little melodramatic. The heroine first met her husband when she was kidnapped. After she gave birth to a baby missing part of skull, he wanted a divorce because he blamed his bad genes for what happened. Then he took off to serve during World War II. When he returns, he finds she didn't divorce him but he still doesn't want to get back together in case they have babies again. Then there's them being convinced the other still doesn't love them, even though everybody keeps telling them they're wrong. A little ridiculous. Then another kidnapping. Kathleen walks around with this bad luck cloud following her everywhere! The ending was a little too HEA.
I'm not going to keep this audiobook.
August 7, 2024
I liked this book
February 25, 2017
I really wavered over whether to give this book 3 or 4 stars. I ended up with 3.5 stars.
I've really enjoyed this whole series about love in small towns in the American heartland during the Depression. After the Parade is the fifth and final book in the series. In the book before this one, the fourth book, With Heart, Kathleen and Johnny meet and fall in love. In this book, they've become estranged. Although they still love each other, they have separated after a tragedy in their lives.
This would have been a 4 star book for me, except that Johnny, the hero, acted like a horse's ass for the majority of the book. Because of his horrible childhood, Johnny is either unable or unwilling to communicate his feelings, and he has an overdeveloped sense of pride the size of Oklahoma (where he lives) that gets in the way of his relationships, from the one with Kathleen to that with his father. Because of these two traits, he has cut himself off from the woman he loves.
Kathleen keeps trying to reconcile, but Johnny repeatedly rebuffs her (although he loves her deeply). After the tragedy they experienced, he made a unilateral decision about their relationship (that pretty much ended it), but of course he never discussed that decision with her. Although Johnny was not unsympathetic, I just ended up being pretty disgusted with him. Kathleen was a well-drawn, engaging heroine, and at times I wondered why she tried for so long to revive their relationship without success.
Like the other books in this series, this one was very well written. The wonderful cast of characters from With Heart were back, as well as some important characters from the earlier 3 books. I loved the small town worlds that Garlock created in this series, and all the characters that reappear in the final book.
However, because I found Johnny so difficult and frustrating, I'm giving this book 3.5 stars instead of the 4 I would have given it if Johnny had resolved his issues earlier in the book.
I've really enjoyed this whole series about love in small towns in the American heartland during the Depression. After the Parade is the fifth and final book in the series. In the book before this one, the fourth book, With Heart, Kathleen and Johnny meet and fall in love. In this book, they've become estranged. Although they still love each other, they have separated after a tragedy in their lives.
This would have been a 4 star book for me, except that Johnny, the hero, acted like a horse's ass for the majority of the book. Because of his horrible childhood, Johnny is either unable or unwilling to communicate his feelings, and he has an overdeveloped sense of pride the size of Oklahoma (where he lives) that gets in the way of his relationships, from the one with Kathleen to that with his father. Because of these two traits, he has cut himself off from the woman he loves.
Kathleen keeps trying to reconcile, but Johnny repeatedly rebuffs her (although he loves her deeply). After the tragedy they experienced, he made a unilateral decision about their relationship (that pretty much ended it), but of course he never discussed that decision with her. Although Johnny was not unsympathetic, I just ended up being pretty disgusted with him. Kathleen was a well-drawn, engaging heroine, and at times I wondered why she tried for so long to revive their relationship without success.
Like the other books in this series, this one was very well written. The wonderful cast of characters from With Heart were back, as well as some important characters from the earlier 3 books. I loved the small town worlds that Garlock created in this series, and all the characters that reappear in the final book.
However, because I found Johnny so difficult and frustrating, I'm giving this book 3.5 stars instead of the 4 I would have given it if Johnny had resolved his issues earlier in the book.
March 19, 2008
This is the continuationof Kathleen and Johnny's story that started in the book "With Heart". Johnny has come back from World War II and him and Kathleen are estranged from each other. If I go into any more than I will spoil the book. A great book for the conclusion of Johnny and Kathleen's story. It is also the conclusion of this set of books from Ms Garlock. The entire series was "With Hope", "With Song", "With Heart" and "After the Parade"
May 24, 2011
A decorated sailor returns home after WWII to his estranged wife and family to a little town in Oklahoma. She really loves him; he really loves her but stubborness and pride keep them apart, yada, yada, yada...they get back together, she gets pregnant, kidnapped by a stalker and there's an HEA ending on Christmas Day no less.
September 12, 2012
Reading the last book in a series before reading the others probably isn't the best way to go about things. But the fact is, I really didn't like this book. The two main characters are cowardly procrastinators to the highest degree. They just can't find the courage to confront and confess to each other. And it's not just for a short while, it's for the whole book!
May 17, 2020
A good finish to a decent series. Another quick read, but it was good to see Johnny and Kathleen again. It was a bit frustrating to see Johnny & Kathleen not talking about what their true feelings were, but if they did it would have been a short book! It was a little weird that Teddy left all his money to Kathleen, a bit of a stretch for his character, it was like Dorothy Garlock kind of forced him into the story to add suspense, so that they could end up together.
May 4, 2017
Great sequel to the book With Heart which I just read. The red haired woman waits for her husband to come back from World War Two. When he arrives home, he doesn't want anything to do with her. She has to decide if she lives in town or gets a divorce and moves away.
February 7, 2019
Interesting time period. OK Would not recommend.
June 10, 2019
This book is 5th and last of the Dolan Brothers series. I generally pass on stories taking place during the years between the two World Wars; I just cannot muster much interest. However, this series as a whole - and this book -- are absolutely wonderful.
AFTER THE PARADE is a continuation of Johnny and Katherine Henry's story (WITH HEART). During the span of time between these two books, Johnny and Katherine have had a baby girl. She was born with no hope of living and Johnny blamed himself (he was `Mud Creek trash').
Katherine was devastated by Johnny's coldness and his insistence that she get a divorce while he went to war. The story opens as Johnny is returning to Oklahoma - as a hero. He learns rather quickly that Katherine has not gotten the divorce.
It is perfectly obvious that these 2 people are still in love but both are too proud to apologize to the other. Things continue to go downhill until Katherine finally finds herself at the lawyer's office.
This book is a `tour de force' because many of the characters in the previous 4 installments either reappear or are mentioned in this story. The author did a lovely job of updating readers of the changes the families experienced.
I can't find anything to complain about this book - other than I wish there were another one coming. Beautifully written with distinct characterizations are two things a reader can expect from this author. Ms. Garlock outdid herself; she's also captured a bygone era.
AFTER THE PARADE is a continuation of Johnny and Katherine Henry's story (WITH HEART). During the span of time between these two books, Johnny and Katherine have had a baby girl. She was born with no hope of living and Johnny blamed himself (he was `Mud Creek trash').
Katherine was devastated by Johnny's coldness and his insistence that she get a divorce while he went to war. The story opens as Johnny is returning to Oklahoma - as a hero. He learns rather quickly that Katherine has not gotten the divorce.
It is perfectly obvious that these 2 people are still in love but both are too proud to apologize to the other. Things continue to go downhill until Katherine finally finds herself at the lawyer's office.
This book is a `tour de force' because many of the characters in the previous 4 installments either reappear or are mentioned in this story. The author did a lovely job of updating readers of the changes the families experienced.
I can't find anything to complain about this book - other than I wish there were another one coming. Beautifully written with distinct characterizations are two things a reader can expect from this author. Ms. Garlock outdid herself; she's also captured a bygone era.
October 6, 2015
It was neat to read a book taking place right after WW2 and to see how things have changed. I really liked the characters of Kathleen and Johnny and the rest of the townsfolk. I found it kind of funny that everyone around them knew how they felt about one another but kept denying it because they didn't think that the other one felt the same way.
The bad guy in this book was super creepy and deserved everything that he got. Some of the things that he did still give me shivers just thinking about them.
I look forward to more books by this author.
The bad guy in this book was super creepy and deserved everything that he got. Some of the things that he did still give me shivers just thinking about them.
I look forward to more books by this author.
November 29, 2012
I liked the book. It was a warm story of how Kathleen and Johnny fell apart after the world war and then are reunited on a common issue that caused both. The birth and death of their defected child. It was basically an extension of the novel "With Heart" which i truly loved. I believe when we read good novels, we are always left with the thirst of wanting more and more. " After the Parade" quenched that thirst after the splendid "With Heart".
July 19, 2010
Great book, I will have to back track and read the others in this series. Kathleen and Johnny's Story is well written by Dorothy Garlock! It as a great story about 2 people destined for each other, but not sure how to get there. The story has a good enough twist and turn to capture your attention, and does a great job capturing the time period in which it takes place. Definitely recommended!!
March 13, 2013
So happy to read what happened to Kathleen and Johnny. Although to me their original story wasn't as good as the others. This book made up for "with heart" as you were finally drawn into knowing Kathleen. I already felt I knew Johnny so more character development increased his appeal. Enjoyed the ending to a good series.
September 4, 2013
The story was just all right. I don't believe the woman is actually from the south because the things that she has occur in Oklahoma just don't happen. Especially small town Oklahoma and I should know because I come from an extremely small Oklahoma town. The was no research effort put into this novel and there are numerous grammatical errors.
July 21, 2012
Small town in Oklahoma set just after WW2. Hero has just returned and meets his estranged wife again. Wife is a writer and felt left all alone. Hero has to adjust to civilian life and his family. I liked the story because it invoked a long ago era.
November 6, 2007
Ummm...I've been trying to finish this book for 2 months. I'm just not interested...I need a new one.
Read
November 26, 2008LP Gar
January 27, 2009
Set just after WW2. Very good, authentic post-war romance.
March 20, 2009
Good book. Lots of side stories going on in addition to the main story. Set in 1945 after WW2 ended.
June 2, 2009
loved it
November 10, 2009
Wonderful!!
May 4, 2010
Continuing saga of Kathleen and Johnny Henry. Another mystery/love story set post world war II
March 11, 2013
LOVED this series!!
October 2, 2013
I enjoyed how Miss Garlock tied up all the loose ends, answers all those questions that we had from the last book, and still keep it interesting as well.
September 11, 2017
Good book on tape
September 13, 2017
Great reading.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews