Me Before You - review

What's it about? After being made redundant from her café job at The Buttered Bun, Lou Clark finds herself reluctantly taking up a role caring for Will Traynor, left paralysed after a traffic accident. From what starts as a job just to keep her family's funds going, it soon turns into something much closer to Lou's heart. As she realises the intentions of her role, she makes it her mission to help Will improve his outlook on life after he gives his parents 6 months before he wants to escape to a euthanasia clinic in Sweden.

goodtoknow says: We couldn't help but feel for Lou as she took on a job she hated, with a hard-to-please boss, just to bring in funds for her family. However, as she got to grips with her role, we could sense a definite spark with her and Will from the start, despite their rocky carer and patient relationship. Will puts up a tough fight for us to like him at first, but we soon fell in love with their realistic chemistry - and her quest to keep him alive when she hears of Will's plan.

It's not a particularly easy topic to write about, but Jojo Moyes tackles the subject brilliantly and we were left urging Lou on in her plan to help Will, despite his declining health. We were just as eager for Lou to ditch her miserable boyfriend, Patrick too, whose mind is too busy thinking about his precious running club 24/7 to ever pay her any attention, unlike Will without her ever really realising.

It's definitely a tear-jerker, but that's down to Moyes' believable portrayal of the characters and the realistic, un-sugar-coated story. It's heart-breaking as well as heart-warming, but an inspiring read we couldn't put down. It leaves food for thought, as just when you thought the main focus was for Lou to help Will, perhaps he was actually there to help her too.

Rating: 9/10 Publisher: Michael Joseph Publish date: 5 January 2012

If you like this, you'll love: P.S. I Loved You by Cecilia Ahern

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Have a look at our other books in the 2013 Book Club collection. See other reviews of the 2013 Book Club books, as well as last year's titles here.

Where to next?

- The Girl You Left Behind by JoJo Moyes - The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey - The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year by Sue Townsend