So here’s the thing. I accidentally read the wrong Jojo Moyes for my book club; you can’t blame me because the covers all look really similar. My book club had chosen The Girl You Left Behind but somehow I ended up reading the eBook version of Me Before You from my local library. And I enjoyed it.
The story of Louisa “Lou” Clark, a girl from a small town in England with a seemingly “small” life, who takes on the job of caring for quadriplegic Will Traynor, whose perfect life was destroyed in an instant, goes in many of the ways you might expect. Will is angry, bitter, and rude. Lou is cheerful but stubborn. Will has lost his desire to live and Lou wants to help restore it. Will is described on the back cover of the book as a former “master of the universe” used to power and prestige while Lou comes from a humbler background—never aspiring to anything more than a waitressing job at the local diner (or whatever the British equivalent of diner is). However, Moyes manages to keep the story from being too cliché by fully fleshing out both main characters and the loved ones that surround them.
Similar to Big Little Lies, this book is a perfect summer read—characters you care about, some serious themes, but also a great deal of heart and humor. This is the first Moyes book I’ve read, but I don’t think it will be my last.
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