Title: Me Before You

Author: JoJo Moyes

Genre: Romance, Contemporary

Publisher: Penguin Books

Format: Paperback, Movie Tie In

Pages: 400

Rating: 5/5 stars

Synopsis (Goodreads):

They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose . . .

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.

Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.

A Love Story for this generation, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?

Book Review:

“Push yourself. Don’t Settle. Just live well. Just LIVE.”

This book brought out all the feels. There were times where I laughed uncontrollably, and then there were times where my heart broke and I cried inconsolable tears. Moyes is able to write a story and create such realistic characters that you cannot help yourself; you get way too attached. I had already watched the movie before reading the book, and I really liked the movie and the storyline. But, as always, the book was a thousand times better. The book was able to delve deep into the lives of the characters, and what they were truly feeling, in a way that I feel the movie missed.

The book centers around two characters: Louisa Clark and Will Traynor. Louisa is an ordinary, interesting, colourful character who dresses in bright, colourful clothing, but doesn’t want to be noticed. She is quite content living in her small town, with her big family in her small house, and with her boyfriend of 7 years. Louisa thinks that she wants to live a comfortable life in her tiny town because she is afraid to take risks. She is afraid of what might happen if she spreads her wings and takes a chance of doing something different. Then all of a sudden she loses her job at the cafe she loved, and has to go to the job center to find work. She ends up getting a job caring for Will, a quadriplegic. Will teaches Lou so much about life, and how important it is live- and live well. He can see the potential in her, and he knows that she should be doing much more with her life than taking care of him. He also teaches her the importance of not letting mistakes define who you are, and that you should move on and live your life;

“Some mistakes… Just have greater consequences than others. But you don’t have to let the result of one mistake be the thing that defines you. You, Clark, have the choice not to let that happen.”

I would argue that Louisa experienced the most character development in the book. She learned a lot about what is important in life, and how you have to live like each moment matters. Another amazing character was that of Will Traynor. He may have not developed as much as a character as Lou, but he still changed for the better because of her. Will has found it extremely difficult to live life in a wheelchair, as the life he lived before was full of love, adventure, and spirit. He loved to be active, travel the world, and he loved the job he had. Then all that changed when he was put in the chair due to an unfortunate accident. Will sort of gave up on life, knowing that he could never get his life back to the way things were. When he had his accident, he was depressed with his life and he couldn’t even remember why life was worth living. Then Louisa steps onto the scene, with her bright clothes and bubbly personality, and she makes him realize that he should be spending the rest of his days enjoying the tiny moments, laughing, and not moping around. The change we see in Will is also significant, and completely relatable as a lot of people in a similar situation struggle to find the good, and ask why they were dealt the cards they were given. I will not delve any deeper as I do not want to spoil the book, but Will’s character was written very well, and I found myself falling in love with the character more and more as the book went on!

The book tackles many issues; one being whether or not we should allow people living in the confinements of a wheelchair to make certain decisions regarding their life. We saw many sides to the situation, and I thought the author did an amazing job of presenting both sides to the reader. I could see myself agreeing with one character, and then another character makes a different argument, and I found myself also agreeing with that character. It is hard to get into as I do not want to spoil anything, but I think that this story was beautifully written, with a fast enough pace to keep me hooked, while slowing it down at times to explain a scenario fully. Louisa was determined to show Will that life was worth living, even though you are confined to a chair, and in the process, she learns the same lesson herself. She learns that she has to take every opportunity presented to her, and she needs to spread her wings and experience life for all it has to offer her. I really want to read the sequel now, After You. I feel very attached to Louisa now, and I cannot believe I waited this long to read the book!

I received this book from SocialBookCo in exchange for a review. This website is super cool as it allows you to compare book prices and shipping costs so that you get the best deal for your favourite books. If you are a crazy book lover like me, then it is great to have a site that does all the comparing work for you! If you want to check out this book, which I highly recommend you do, just click on this link! http://www.socialbookco.com/book/9780143130154/me-before-you?rid=111

Thank you for reading my review, and I hope you all enjoy the book as much as I have! Happy reading!