USA Today’s top 100 books to read while stuck at home social distancing From the #1 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. They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose . . . Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady … 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 and perfect for fans of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, 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?
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Sooo good! Could hardly put it down! Great writing and a story to ponder a long time!
Such a wonderful book.
Two people are thrown together by circumstances, and destiny. When you meet each of them you’re certain that these two personalities are not naturally drawn to each other. That is a description of me before you . . . for them. By that I mean, it’s a description of what they were before coming into each other’s lives, not what they become.
Louisa (Lou) Clark is a working-class girl living a simple life in a tiny village in England. Will Traynor is upper class and now in a wheelchair after an accident ended his life as he knew it. His life was London big city, fast-paced financial deals, extreme sports, beautiful women and world travel. He loved that life. He cannot reconcile himself to what his life has become as a quadriplegic. When Lou loses her waitress job, she accepts a temporary position as Will’s caregiver. They are painfully uncomfortable with each other. And then they get to know each other. They begin to influence each other subtly. Then their influence is overt.
The message that I got from this novel is about the limitations that people artificially place upon themselves, often without even realizing it. It’s an important journey to recognize those limitations, and then to take charge of your life and push yourself to make your life what you want it to be. I felt how important it is to really experience the fleeting gift of your life. This novel is also about the struggle to see people that you care about take charge of their own lives, and perhaps not make the choices you want for them.
“Me Before You” is an incredibly romantic love story, in the midst of life and death issues. This author is skilled at creating characters that endear themselves to you, not despite their shortcomings and idiosyncrasies, but including their whole person. They feel so real.
This is such an incredible story; I don’t want to ruin the beautiful ending because you’ll enjoy completely immersing yourself into every page as it comes. Feeling the thinning number of pages in my right hand as I read on, I felt my reading slow because consciously I did not want this story to come to an end. But still, I wanted to know. And it was well worth reading on. Jojo Moyes has been an author since 2002, and has published several novels. I’m looking forward to reading more of her works.
It was a wonderful book but a real tear-jerker.
One of my favorites.
I would actually give the book 4+ stars. I knew when I picked up this book it was a love story between an able-bodied woman and a quadriplegic man and that it was a bestseller. But, ALL my assumptions that this would be a trite soap opera with a predictable happy ending turned out to be incorrect! It’s actually much, much more.
This is a well researched, deeply believable story about a small group of ordinary people who find themselves in very difficult circumstances, and how each one handles that situation thoughtfully and in the best way he/she can.
It is about much more than the love story between the two main characters. It’s also about the very definition of love. How lovers support one another when faced with difficult choices? How parents react when their children’s values become different from their own? How does one weigh love against quality of life? And how the unique bond between siblings can be a blessing for some, but not for others?
There is ample detail about the day-to-day life of a disabled person — from what’s required for the simplest bodily functions to the restrictions experienced when trying to negotiate a world and society designed for the able bodied. In its own quiet way, ME BEFORE YOU raises a variety of complex issues that both draw you into the story and challenge you to think about your own values.
I adored this book! The characters crept right into your heart and stayed there long after the last page was finished. Warm, witty, funny and heart-breaking…this book is a tour de force.
Loved this book!
Loved the book. Got them all!!!
This is…a tear jerker…of many grievances. It’s one book of very few that has made me cry so hard with big, rolling tears pouring out. It’s almost unexplainable because it was so amazingly unique that I have little and a lot to say.
The writing is simple and yet, it brought so many emotions and imaginings to light that I am literally in shock after reading this sad story. I say sad because Lou lives a boring life with a boyfriend she doesn’t love and she hasn’t gone anywhere. Will is a man who has given up on living. There are different kinds of sad and this is the kind where desperation, pushing, prodding, and rejected love are key factors.
Lou tried so hard to show Will that he can really live, but it wasn’t enough. How can you change the mind of someone who wants to die? Will has experienced so many things, but that was the life he had before the accident. I’m only beginning to see what he’s thinking. He doesn’t want to be in pain anymore, everything he does makes him think of what he can no longer do or have, and there isn’t much he can do now. My heart was crushed a few times towards the end of the book, but I will NEVER regret reading this gripping-and very sad-novel. I would describe this story in one word: delicate. I’m excited and a bit nervous to read book two, but I’m ready for it.
If you told me the plot line of this book, I would never have read it. I loved it. The characters are realistic and interesting. I cared about them to the very end. I even read the sequel, and I saw the movie. The story is a subject that needs to be explored. Jojo Moyes did a great job with this
So many emotions! Beautiful and heartbreaking! 5 stars.
An all-time favorite. Beautiful yet flawed characters, with a heart-rending ending.
PREDICTABLE, SAPPY
A wonderful book.
Beautiful story. Well told and passionate
Unbelievably wonderful – filled with heart, humor, emotion, and bittersweet heartbreak, yet with an undeniable message of hope. One of my all-time favorites!
This book is OMG so good. I knew nothing about it except it had a million reviews, so it had to be good. It was. The author took me for a ride that had me laughing out loud, then tears streaming down my face, and then a feel-good satisfaction that I read this book. I love a good story that covers the range of emotions, then becomes a page-turner I stay with, ignoring all other distractions. Me Before You also has depth with a far deeper subject, in this case that of living with quadriplegia. This is a touching, entertaining, and thought-provoking read. I feel good after reading this book. If you like women’s fiction, this is a definite recommend.
different book – good messa
So wished it had turned out differently in the end! Very sad that it didn’t.