After You is the sequel to Jojo Moyes’s New York Times bestseller novel, Me Before You. It is the second book in the Me Before You Trilogy. It follows the story of heroine Louisa Clark after she lost the love of her life, Will Traynor.
Summary
After Will’s death Louisa Clark is feeling empty inside, she now lives in a flat in London that she bought with the money Will left her. She had traveled a bit to Paris before settling in London. Louisa feels empty and alone without Will and ends up falling off a roof (it was an accident) and broke her hip. During recovery, a mysterious 16-year-old girl shows up at Louisa’s door claiming to be Will’s daughter. Louisa has to deal with Will’s daughter, Lily and her destructive tendencies. Louisa also has another romantic interest in this novel, in the form of Ambulance Sam, who was the paramedic that saved her from falling off the roof.
Review
They’re right, the sequel can never be better than the original. I do like this novel, but it doesn’t compare to its predecessor.
Moyes decides to throw a curve ball at us by introducing Will’s daughter. Will never knew of his daughter because his college girlfriend at the time had split with him and never told him about her pregnancy. It is very interesting seeing how Will can never really leave Louisa, especially through Lily but as a reader, it was too soon! We only saw about a couple months after Will’s death and how it completely ruined Louisa. And then throw in the fact that he had a daughter this whole time? It should’ve been later in the book not right at the beginning.
One thing I liked about this book was that we got to see how Louisa was getting over Will. She joined a support group called the Moving On Circle and she got a job. She ended up starting a relationship with Ambulance Man Sam.
Although, Sam and Louisa’s connection in this novel wasn’t built genuinely like Louisa and Will’s was in the first novel. There were little interactions between Sam and Louisa, and most of their relationship started out sexually. Although I am very happy that Louisa moved on from Will and found someone she could be happy with.
Final Thoughts
This book was written well, it was interesting but it wasn’t as centered around romance. It did provide us a continuation to see how Louisa was feeling after losing Will but it just didn’t have the same feeling. There is a third book in this series and I will read it because I want to know how Louisa’s story will end. I still recommend reading this book although it’s not as good as the first.
