Still Me
Author: Jojo Moyes
Published: January 30, 2018
Audiobook
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: March 6- April 1, 2018
Jessica’s Rating: 3.5 stars
Book Description:
Louisa Clark arrives in New York ready to start a new life, confident that she can embrace this new adventure and keep her relationship with Ambulance Sam alive across several thousand miles. She steps into the world of the superrich, working for Leonard Gopnik and his much younger second wife, Agnes. Lou is determined to get the most out of the experience and throws herself into her new job and New York life.
As she begins to mix in New York high society, Lou meets Joshua Ryan, a man who brings with him a whisper of her past. Before long, Lou finds herself torn between Fifth Avenue where she works and the treasure-filled vintage clothing store where she actually feels at home. And when matters come to a head, she has to ask herself: Who is Louisa Clark? And how do you reconcile a heart that lives in two places?
Funny, romantic, and poignant, Still Me follows Lou as she navigates how to stay true to herself, while pushing to live boldly in her brave new world.
Jessica’s Review:
Still Me is the third in the series about Louisa Clark (Lou). The first novel, Me BeforeYou is the best, though for me it was not a love story, it was an end of life story. Lou is the focus, but for me the story was all about Will. Yes, I did the ugly cry, and no, I have not brought myself to watch the movie. I don’t think I can handle it. In After You Lou is trying to move on in her life past Will. She learns something about Will and she also meets Ambulance Sam. At the end she is moving on to New York City.
My reviews are here:
Me Before You
After You
Now we have Still Me. I like Lou: She is just a normal young lady who had some intriguing circumstances in her life and now we get to see more of that life. She is now in New York with a new job! She works and adjusts to a different sort of life until things happen. I couldn’t help but feel for Lou at certain times, she was being naïve and innocent in some ways. At some times I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at her as well. I felt like at times that she is dragging herself into things that she shouldn’t. And then I felt at times, “Come on, move on from Will!” She gets into a bit of a mess and has to figure out what she will do next.
There are also romantic entanglements and at times I wanted to help smack some sense into her. It was frustration in a good way since Lou is a lady you can’t help but like and you want her to have her happy ending, whatever that may be. By the end Lou has made her decision and Moyes ends the story, but I could see it continuing if she chooses to. Lou is her character and yes, if she wrote a fourth novel about Lou I would read it.
Still Me is recommended.
One Plus One
Author: Jojo Moyes
432 Pages
Published: March 31, 2015
Reviewed By: Kim
Kim’s Rating: 4 Stars
Description from Amazon:
Suppose your life sucks. A lot. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your teenage stepson is being bullied, and your math whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can’t afford to pay for. That’s Jess’s life in a nutshell—until an unexpected knight in shining armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess’s knight turns out to be Geeky Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she happens to clean. But Ed has big problems of his own, and driving the dysfunctional family to the Math Olympiad feels like his first unselfish act in ages . . . maybe ever.
Kim’s Review:
Another great book by Jojo Moyes! I got through this book very quickly. I enjoyed the story and had a hard time putting it down. It was an easy read with lots of emotions! I fell in love with little Tanzie and all of her quirks. She’s definitely smarter than I was at that age, but I identified with her eagerness to learn and to do well with her schoolwork. I can also identify with being different. Although Nicky accentuates his differences with mascara and eye liner, there’s still the underlying message of “why try to fit in when you were born to stand out.”
Moyes managed to capture that without making her characters whiny and childish. And Jess is a downright inspiring character! Until the pile of wrong has completely engulfed her, she never lost her optimism, she never lost faith. Her theme seemed to be “everything’s going to be fine, everything will work out.” I really liked her! Ed is not my favorite leading man, but he and Jess had a nice chemistry. The sexual tension was subtle and that kept Jess from looking like the chick who jumps into bed with every man that comes along.
By the time the book was over, I was emotionally invested in the characters’ lives. I cared whether or not Tanzie got to the Olympiad, whether she won or not. I cared whether or not Nicky’s tormenters were caught and punished. I cared whether or not Jess and Ed managed to identify their feelings and decided to stay together. After reading Me Before You, I didn’t know what to expect at the ending! Thankfully, I didn’t completely break down in tears with this book, but I did get a little misty. The only reason I gave this 4 stars, is because of the timeline. A true love story in less than a week smacks of trashy romance novel to me. But I still loved this book, I enjoyed reading it, and I recommend it to anyone who wants a heartwarming, emotional story.
[Top]After You
Author: Jojo Moyes
352 Pages in Paperback
Published: September 29, 2015
Dates Read: July 20- August 8, 2016
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Book Summary from Amazon:
“You’re going to feel uncomfortable in your new world for a bit. But I hope you feel a bit exhilarated too. Live boldly. Push yourself. Don’t settle. Just live well. Just live. Love, Will.”
How do you move on after losing the person you loved? How do you build a life worth living?
Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started.
Her body heals, but Lou herself knows that she needs to be kick-started back to life. Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group, who share insights, laughter, frustrations, and terrible cookies. They will also lead her to the strong, capable Sam Fielding—the paramedic, whose business is life and death, and the one man who might be able to understand her. Then a figure from Will’s past appears and hijacks all her plans, propelling her into a very different future. . . .
For Lou Clark, life after Will Traynor means learning to fall in love again, with all the risks that brings. But here Jojo Moyes gives us two families, as real as our own, whose joys and sorrows will touch you deeply, and where both changes and surprises await.
My Review
**This review will have some spoilers, so beware.
Nearly two years have passed since the ending of Me Before You. Lou is still mourning the loss of Will. You can feel her pain and anguish in the first chapter. She is now working at a bar in an airport, and not happy there. She’s not living the way Will wanted her too.
She has an accident and returns home to recover. Her folks decide to let her return to her flat as long as she goes to a grief counseling group. She meets a man named Sam through a teenager in the group named Jake.
After some time, Lou seems to start to get her life together when (as the back cover of the book teases)a figure from Will’s past appears. This person appearing changes everything for Lou. The person ends up being Will’s daughter Lily. The daughter that he did not know he had. I could not help but wonder, as Lou did, if Will had known about her would he still have gone to Dignitas to end his life or would he still be around today. Would Lily have been what he needed to stay around despite being a quadriplegic?
Lou basically takes Lily in as Lily’s mother Tanya couldn’t handle her anymore. She was a very difficult teenager who just found out who her father was. Lily staying with Lou helped them both: Lily got to find out who her father was and Lou had a piece of Will. There is more to Lily than we first are led to believe. There is more to her than being the “troubled teenager”. I did have some issues with Tanya basically letting Lou take “custody” of Lily as Tanya did not know Lou. It just seemed like Tanya was just ready to “get rid” of Lily since she couldn’t really handle her.
Jojo Moyes brings back the Traynor family as well with the introduction of Lily and there have been some changes. Nathan has moved to NYC. I liked him in Me Before You and missed him in After You. There were a few scenes with himon the phone, but that wasn’t enough for me.
There is back and forth with the relationship of Lou and Sam. Will they get together or not? Is Lou even ready for that step after losing Will??? She is over her grief?
May people consider Me Before You and After You romance novels. I do not. To me, Me Before You was a life story to. It deals with two people’s lives and the decision one man made and they happen to fall in love. To me, After You is a book about dealing with grief and moving on. When the end of the book was coming, I had in my head the decision I was hoping Lou would make for her future. And I was happy with the decision she made.
There is one paragraph that really tugged at my heart. It is very powerful. This is towards the end of the book(page 325 of 352 in the paperback), so this will giveaway some things: Our eyes locked. And in that moment everything shifted. I saw what I had really done. I saw that I could be somebody’s center, his reason for staying. I saw that I could be enough.
In the paperback there is a “conversation with the author”. A question was asked if there will be anymore books with Lou. Jojo Moyes said she could see a third final book as a possibility if the readers want it. Well, Jojo, as a reader I can say that as a reader, I would love one final book with Lou!
I gave Me Before You 5 stars, so it was going to hard to live up to the original. In fact, I don’t think there is a way for After You to live up to Me Before You. It still did well. I would recommend it, but don’t have super high expectations if you loved Me Before You.
[Top]