Review - Still Me by Jojo Moyes

Still Me - Jojo Moyes - My review:

I was lucky enough to win a copy in advance of publication from Penguin books and here are my thoughts after diving in.

I'm a die-hard Jojo Moyes enthusiast, she writes such readable, fully immersive books and even though I usually prefer stand alone books rather than series, I loved Me before You so very much that not reading Still me just wasn't an option. Yet like many readers I knew in my heart it was never going to better the first book in this series.

"Do I need to read book 2 before reading this?" seems to be a common thread regarding this book, and I will say "Hell Yeah - why on earth wouldn't you?" The 3 books ARE a trilogy, written in chronological order and You'll make a better connection with Lou's adventures in this book, if you have followed her story from the start.

I loved meeting up with Lou Clark yet again and following her to New York where she puts her caring nature to work and follows the advice of her previous employer (and love of her life) Will by grabbing every opportunity that comes along and saying yes to far more than she says no to.

This book is 100% pure romantic fiction, its light and easy and fun to read and Lou capers through it wearing her big heart on her sleeve and her bumble bee tights on her legs.

She ends up working for a mega rich American business mogul's difficult and demanding new young Polish wife Agnes. Despite struggling to get to grips with being a servant in a wealthy household, nevertheless Lou's warm and caring nature mean the two women become almost friends. Despite being employer and employee, both strangers in the city that never sleeps and both with past hurts to overcome. But we are told never confuse business with friendship, and you'd think, having got so involved with her ex employer and having had her heart broken, she'd be a little more wary and things are about to blow up in her face.

Meantime Lou's now long distance relationship with new boyfriend Sam (whom we met in After You) struggles and stutters, and temptation is placed in her way when she meets the handsome and successful Josh, who just happens to be the spit of Will who she still misses and morns despite loving Sam.

Yes this is a pure unadulterated romance and if you're looking for something deeper and more meaningful, well, go back to the beginning and read book one again, because this really just isn't that deep.

Look at it as a completely new book with the comfort of a familiar character or two and read it without prejudice and prior expectations. Read it expecting another Me before You and you may feel a slight sense of disappointment, and this book doesn't deserve to disappoint any reader. It is written with the great skill and style of this top bestselling Author.

It is peopled with really great characters you'll feel you actually know and it's set in the great location of the Big Apple in a luxury apartment block in an old New York Brownstone, with descriptions which will make you either feel you've visited or leave you wanting to go there.

With lots of background stories, a group of residents battling to save their local library from closure (how many of us keen readers will that ring true to?)  peppered with vintage fashions, a few secrets and lies, a crotchety old woman with a cute and irascible pug called Dean Martin how could you fail to love it?

Its fun, its lovely and I galloped through it. Don't miss it.

The Blurb

Louisa Clark arrives in New York ready to start a new life, confident that she can embrace this new adventure and keep her relationship with Ambulance Sam alive across several thousand miles. She is thrown into the world of the superrich Gopniks: Leonard and his much younger second wife, Agnes, and a never-ending array of household staff and hangers-on. Lou is determined to get the most out of the experience and throws herself into her job and New York life within this privileged world. 

Before she knows what's happening, Lou is mixing in New York high society, where she meets Joshua Ryan, a man who brings with him a whisper of her past. In Still Me, as Lou tries to keep the two sides of her world together, she finds herself carrying secrets--not all her own--that cause a catastrophic change in her circumstances. And when matters come to a head, she has to ask herself Who is Louisa Clark? And how do you reconcile a heart that lives in two places?