(Review) After You

After You by Jojo Moyes

Publication Date: September 29, 2015

Pages: 352 (hardcover)

Genre: Adult Fiction/Contemporary

My Goodreads Rating: 3.5 Stars

Goodreads Synopsis:
A NOTE FROM JOJO MOYES ABOUT HER EXCITING NEW NOVEL, AFTER YOU:

Dear Reader,

I wasn't going to write a sequel to Me Before You. But for years, readers kept asking and I kept wondering what Lou did with her life. In the end the idea came, as they sometimes do, at 5:30 in the morning, leaving me sitting bolt upright in my bed and scrambling for my pen.

It has been such a pleasure revisiting Lou and her family, and the Traynors, and confronting them with a whole new set of issues. As ever, they have made me laugh, and cry. I hope readers feel the same way at meeting them—especially Lou—again. And I'm hoping that those who love Will will find plenty to enjoy.

—Jojo Moyes

My Review: 

If we're friends on Goodreads it's no surprise I'm a huge fan of Jojo Moyes. She writes amazing contemporary romances that are the perfect mixture of angst and swoons. That, to me, is perfection. When I read Me Before You I was left face-down on the couch and inspired to write this post about How Books Ruined My Life. That was the first time I ever felt the need to blog about books (Thanks, Jojo). 

When I heard that a sequel to Me Before You was coming out I was actually pretty excited. I loved Lou and Will's relationship and am always eager when books end the way that MBY did, so I was excited to see more of Lou's life after. 

This book started out as depressing as I thought it would be. Lou's lonely, working a dead-end job, and estranged from her family. She misses Will and, well, everything else in her life. That all changes when she falls off a roof. Yeah, her life sucks.

So, when Lou ends up in the hospital and reunited with her family things start looking up...kind of. Lou starts going to a support group, though she has a hard time telling the group the whole story about Will. She's still in the public eye after his story was leaked so she never gets to talk about Will. 

I kind of hate how Lou's family treats her in regards to Will. To me, their relationship was true but her family doesn't have any sympathy over her lost love. That bothers me a little considering how much she gives to her family. 

That's just Lou, though. She always gives. Especially when it comes to others...like Will. Therefore, when Lily shows up Lou puts everything else on hold to take care of her. Who is Lily? Oh, she's the long lost daughter of Will Traynor. Yeah, no one else knew either. 

Along with Lily, there's also Sam, the paramedic who was on the scene when she had her accident. It's interesting to see how both Sam and Lily bring Lou back to life. Her and Sam's relationship is slow and sweet. They talk about their losses (his sister and Will) and he encourages her to move on. It's hard for Lou to move on, though, considering that Lily is now in her life. 

I love to see Lou grow, but still remember Will. I think that's what I worried about so much with this book. I loved Will, even though he was a total tool sometimes. Seeing his family again was nice, and having Lily in her life was a plus. I wasn't crazy about how it all ended up with Lily, but I was glad to see how it worked out with Sam and her job. 

This sequel didn't evoke as many feels as MBY, but it was still a good read. I got a little choked up at the end and it definitely hurts to think of them living life without Will. All in all a good book. Of course, I love just about everything Jojo writes. 

I'm a sucker for a good love story.