From the New York Times bestselling author of The Giver of Stars, discover the love story that captured over 20 million hearts in Me Before You, After You, and Still Me.“You’re going to feel uncomfortable in your new world for a bit. But I hope you feel a bit exhilarated too. Live boldly. Push yourself. Don’t settle. Just live well. Just live. Love, Will.” How do you move on after losing the … Just live well. Just live. Love, Will.”
How do you move on after losing the person you loved? How do you build a life worth living?
Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started.
Her body heals, but Lou herself knows that she needs to be kick-started back to life. Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group, who share insights, laughter, frustrations, and terrible cookies. They will also lead her to the strong, capable Sam Fielding—the paramedic, whose business is life and death, and the one man who might be able to understand her. Then a figure from Will’s past appears and hijacks all her plans, propelling her into a very different future. . . .
For Lou Clark, life after Will Traynor means learning to fall in love again, with all the risks that brings. But here Jojo Moyes gives us two families, as real as our own, whose joys and sorrows will touch you deeply, and where both changes and surprises await.
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As in all of Jojo Moyes books, the quirky characters are easy to get attached to and her writing flows from one scene to the next, keeping you thinking about them long after you’ve put the book down.
After You by Jojo Moyes is a contemporary novel about learning to live through loss. It follows on from Me Before You as the reader sees how Lou learns to live again.
Loss consumes and dominates. “Losing him was like having a hole shot straight through me, a painful, constant remainder, an absence I could never fill.” Lou refers to herself as a ‘doughnut’ and she wants to be a ‘bun’ to be whole again. When we lose someone we have to wade through the hurt we feel. “I’ve been waiting to feel normal again.” Normal as we know it has gone. We must learn how to adapt and live a ‘new normal.’
The reader witnesses a support group for the bereaved through Lou’s eyes. We see there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to grieve. We just have to do what we can to cope.
There is the fear of being vulnerable again and opening up our hearts to love. Loss hurts so much, is it really worth the pain again?
Changes are afoot as some characters decide to give feminism a try, much to the consternation of the male characters affected.
The characters are well drawn and realistic being a mixture of emotions. There are some laugh out loud moments juxtaposed with very raw grief.
There are some very big hearts who help and protect the lost, the hurting and the vulnerable.
I am loving this series and eager to read the third and final book.
Second didn’t disappoint but really to understand Lou’s way of dealing with Lily you need to have read the 1st book. Otherwise, you tend to want to slap her into being an adult and seeing Lily as the child she is.
Good follow up to original book
All 3 of her books were fascinating
Her books stay with me after I’m done. I can’t stop thinking about the story. I will read all her books!
Read Me before you – been wanting to read follow up book. Just as good as first book
Jojo Moyes is one of my favorite authors, period. After You is the continuation of Louisa Clark’s journey to reinvent herself and in so doing claim a brighter future. If you haven’t read Me Before You, you must read it before After You, not because you won’t be able to follow the story, but because it is one of the most heart-wrenching, emotional, beautiful journeys of love and personal discovery.
Louisa is trying to recover from losing Will Traynor, unfortunately, she is failing in every way. Will implored her to live life to the fullest and morph into the person he believed her to be. Well, when the book begins she is wasting away, with a going-nowhere job, somewhat estranged from her family, she has a non-existent love life, no real friends, and absolutely nothing going on that is worth talking about. She is drowning in self-pity and lacking motivation, so it’s no surprise when a near-fatal accident forces her to face her demons.
What proceeds are a series of new complicated relationships that will force her back on track, force her to believe in herself and fight for what she deserves. Will may be gone, but what he left behind is just what the doctor ordered.
After You may not be the earth-shaking, emotional tour-de-force that Me Before You Was, but it is still a very satisfying continuation of a quirky woman’s journey to discover herself.
This is a beautiful, tender series!
This is the second book in jojo wrote and we pick up with Louisa after Everything that has happened. This book had me in a constant state of intense reading! I was either crying, swearing, throwing the book, laughing or jumping in my seat! This is a have to read if you have read the first book Me Before You.
I think the first story, Me Before You, should have been it. I found this story tedious and boring. The main character has become just boring and pitiful. She doesn’t even seem like the same quirky character she was in the first book. It kind of made me sad for the first book.
Great story. Loved it.
A very good book about moving on in life. There are moments that make you laugh out loud and moments were tears are streaming down your face. The reason I say 3 stars is because there is a lot going on at once in this book, it’s hard to keep track of all the events, but the author does a nice job of wrapping it all up in the end.
Nice follow up to previous book as subject puts her life back together.
I enjoyed the continuation of Lou’s life. It’s nice to see what happened and the twist’s the the author introduced. I had not been aware that ther was still another book, ‘Still Me’. I look forward to reading that also.
This is a wonderful sequel to JoJo Moyes Me Before You. It made me want to go back and read the first one again – it’s been a few years.
A great sequel to a wonderful novel. Heartfelt plot and believable characters.
Losing a person we love is more than difficult. JoJo Moyes shares a way of creatively coming to grips with the pain. For example, there is the Moving In A Circle Support Group. It is here where Louisa, the main character, comes to grips with the loss of a guy she loved very much.
While being entertained, the reader learns that there is healing in silence, talking and some times reacting in an unexpected way. There are so many ways to share and to gain a sense of balance once again.
Started out slow but got better a long the way
Would have liked Louisa to find definite love comparable to what she could have had with Will.