Rating: ****
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Women's Fiction, Contemporary Women, Romance, Contemporary, Contemporary Fiction, Lang:en
Summary
A
New York Times bestseller—with more than one
million copies sold—by the author of
One Plus One and* The Girl You Left
Behind* 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?
Amazon Best Books of the Month, January 2013
: Before Louisa met Will, her plans didn't
reach beyond their tiny English town. Will, when he wasn't
closing multimillion-dollar deals, blew off steam scaling
mountains, leaping from planes, and enjoying exquisite
women--until an accident left him paralyzed and seriously
depressed. When his mother hires Lou to keep his spirits up,
he meets her awkward overtures with caustic contempt, but
she's tenacious and oddly endearing. Their fondness grows
into something deeper, gaining urgency when she realizes his
determination to end his life, and her efforts to convince
him of its value throw her own bland ambitions into question.
Plumbing morally complex depths with comedy and compassion,
Jojo Moyes elevates the story of Lou and Will from what could
have been a maudlin weepie into a tragic love story, with a
catharsis that will wring out your heart and leave you
feeling fearless. --
Mari Malcolm
In The Last Letter from Your Lover (2011), Moyes presented
a heavily plotted novel that spanned decades and featured
parallel romances. Her newest work dials down the intricacy,
and the result is a far more intimate novel. Moyes introduces
us first to Will Traynor, a formerly high-flying,
thrill-seeking executive now confined to a wheelchair as a
quadriplegic. Twentysomething Louisa “Lou” Clark
has been hired as his caretaker, despite a total lack of
experience. As the prickly Will and plainspoken Lou gradually
warm to each other, she learns that the six-month length of
her contract coincides with the amount of time Will has
agreed, for his parents’ sake, to postpone his planned
assisted suicide, a subject Moyes treats evenhandedly. Armed
with this information, Lou sets about creating adventures for
Will, hoping to give him a reason to live. Simultaneously,
Will encourages Lou to expand the expectations of what her
life could be. All signs point to romance and a happy ending
for the pair, but Moyes has something more heartbreakingly
truthful in mind: Sometimes love isn’t enough. --Patty
WetliAmazon.com Review
From Booklist