After You by Jojo Moyes

After You (Me Before You Trilogy, #2)

by Jojo Moyes

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Giver of Stars, discover the love story that captured over 20 million hearts in Me Before You, After You, and Still Me.

“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.

Reviewed by Sam@WLABB on

4 of 5 stars

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Rating 3.5 Stars

First of all, this is not Me Before You Part 2. Therefore, I just took it as it's own book, and tried not to compare it to its predecessor.

I really liked the idea of this book. I love knowing what happened "after", and in this book we get to see how Will's death impacted Lou, Mr Traynor, Mrs Traynor, Mr Clark, Mrs Clark. Treena, and even Nate. Some of our characters had made big life changes, while others were stuck.

One person who was stuck, is Lou. After a serious accident, Lou is encouraged by her father to attend a support group in an effort to work on moving on from Will's death. This group is filled with a lot of colorful characters, who often made me laugh. But what we really got, was some honest peeks into the different kinds of suffering people experience when they lose someone, and how it is difficult to be the one left behind.

We also meet Lily, who makes Lou revisit people from her past with Will, but at the same time, gives her someone to care for.

I have enjoyed all of Moyes books. I love the characters in this book, especially Sam, and I love how she let's kind of have it all, but makes her work so hard for it, and suffer through a lot to get there.

Lots of fun, sad, and happy parts. Solid read.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 5 February, 2016: Finished reading
  • 5 February, 2016: Reviewed