170. Still Me by Jojo Moyes

BOOK REVIEW: Still Me by Jojo Moyes

Have you all watched the funny yet tear-jerking Me Before You movie? Did you read the books Me Before You and the sequel After You by Jojo Moyes? No? Get the books ASAP from your nearest bookstore because the books are really heart-warming and relates to each and every person.

In this prequel, the lovable 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 (he's a paramedic by the way, a tiny spoiler if you haven't read the sequel) alive across several thousand miles.

Louisa is hurled into the world of the super-rich Gopniks: Leonard and his much younger second wife, Agnes, and a never-ending array of household staff and hangers-on. Lou is determined to get the most out of the experience and throws herself into her job and New York life within this privileged world.

Before she knows what's happening, Lou is mixing in New York high society, where she meets Joshua Ryan, a man who brings with him a whisper of her past. He looks so much like Will (the disabled guy whom she fell in love with in the first novel), that she becomes so attracted to him.

In this novel, as Lou tries to keep the two sides of her world together, she finds herself carrying secrets - not all her own - that cause a catastrophic change in her circumstances. 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?'.

Through her triumphs and tribulations, Louisa learns that she just has to remain the way she is and that if people can't accept her the way she is, then TOO BAD! She learns that love, even with distance, can still stand strong once you really understand each other.

A wonderful book from Times Reads, I laughed uproariously at the funny parts and was sniffling into a tissue when Louisa had her downs. All in all it was a beautiful prequel, as beautiful as the two novels before it. I highly recommend this book to my girlfriends and family.

Thanks to Times Reads as well for their wonderful freebies, a magnetic bookmark and two gorgeous Reign of the Fallen character cards. I have been using the Kasmira character card as a bookmark for this book. Haha... Thank you Times Reads!