Synopsis from Amazon:
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?
*This book is part of my POPSUGAR 2016 Reading Challenge.*
After watching the trailer for Me Before You I knew I had to read the book. The trailer alone made me tear up so I went into this book knowing I wasn’t emotionally ready. But this book still tore me to pieces.
Louisa Clark is happy with her regular life. She lives at home with her parents, Grandad, sister, and nephew, and she’s dating her boyfriend, Patrick, as she has been for the last seven years. She lives in a small town and doesn’t travel. She plays it safe and is okay with that.
Until she loses her job. After trying a multitude of jobs she finally settles for being the non-medical caregiver for a quadriplegic patient. The patient, Will, is not what Louisa was expecting. He’s young and handsome but also moody and difficult to work with. That doesn’t stop Louisa from being her naturally talkative and cheerful self, doing her best to make him happy.
However, Louisa soon realizes the truth behind why Will’s family hired her to spend time with him and it makes Louisa question everything she thought she knew about Will and about life and death in general. Choosing to stick it out, Louisa does her best to make Will’s life better and in return Will opens Louisa up to new experiences, making her a tad more fearless than she was before.
This novel is beautifully written, told mostly in Louisa’s point of view although there are a few chapters that are in different characters’ point of view. What I find interesting is besides the prologue, which admittedly was still in the third person, we never get Will’s point of view. I’m not sure if Jojo Moyes did this intentionally but the fact that Will has almost no control over his life is clear in that even in this novel he’s not really given a voice.
Overall, I truly loved this book. It made me cry (a lot) but it also made me laugh and smile. Louisa and Will’s relationship is heartwarming and I love that they made each other better. Even if you haven’t read it yet definitely do. The film, starring Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin (two of my faves) comes out this June and the sequel, After You, came out last year.
Borrow or Buy: Buy!
Stars:
Favorite Line:
“You only get one life. It’s actually your duty to live it as fully as possible.”
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Zakiya N. Jamal 
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