BOOK REVIEW: AFTER YOU – JOJO MOYES

I hate it when people ask me what my favourite book is. To me, that is like asking someone who their favourite child is. Now, some people may have a favourite child, but I don’t have a favourite book. I have books that I love and have read again and again but to name one? No way.

A good book should grab you from the first few pages and never let you go. A good book is when you groan about having to stop reading and go to sleep/work/eat/socialise/live outside the world you are currently living through the pages of the book. You should feel a magnetic pull to pick up the book and keep reading whether it’s because you have no idea what’s about to happen, you know what’s about to happen and like a car crash it’s happening in slow motion, you love or loath the characters and you want to see them happy/sad/seek revenge/justice etc or, if it’s a really good book you have no idea where the story is going and you need to know. Like, yesterday.

I’d like to begin by saying I love JoJo Moyes. I first discovered her when I read her novel The Last Letter From Your Lover which then led me to read her exceptional book Me Before You. Me Before You was a book that I finished in 2 days as I had no idea how it was going to end right until the last few pages. I loved the two main characters Lou and Will, and they made me laugh and cry. Moyes writing is both entertaining and emotional and she writes in a way that makes you NEED to know what happens next. When I’m asked by people to recommend a book, Me Before You is one of my top answers, so when I heard she had written a sequel named After You, I had mixed emotions.

Part of me was upset that she would tamper with the magic that is Me Before You. Here was a book that I had cried over, thought about for weeks after I’d finished it, I had been that emotionally invested in it, so did I need to know what happened next?

 So, when the publication day rolled around, my finger hovered over the ‘buy now with one click’ button debating whether I wanted to go down this path again. Deciding that yes, I did in fact want to find out, I purchased it through my Kindle and started to read. And read and again, like Me Before You, I couldn’t put it down. The blurb didn’t give much away in terms of the story so when one hell of a curve ball was thrown, my jaw dropped and I was hooked.

The book doesn’t have the same pull emotionally, as it did for Me Before You but Moyes has created and captured characters that will entertain and move you. The main players are still there, although like real people, they have changed and moved on in some way and the new characters are colourfully created.

Moyes writing is part of her charm and one of the main reasons she is the success she has become and After You is no different. Looking for a book to read? Start with Me Before You and then decide if you want to find out what happens next. I guarantee you won’t be bored.