6 August 2016

Book Review: Me Before You (Me Before You, #1) by Jojo Moyes

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!

(Click image to take you to Goodreads)

Format: Paperback
Publishers: Penguin Books
Published: 5th January 2012
Pages: 512
Genre: Adult, Contemporary Romance, 
Main Characters: Lou, Will
Date Read: 8th June - 21st July 2016

Rating Given:

Synopsis:Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.
What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.
Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.
What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.

This book only came across my radar this year as I saw the trailer for the film and thought that I would love to read it before I watch it and now that I've read it I don't know whether I will bother with the film.

There's so many covers for this one book and I think this one that I got was my favourite. You can't really tell in this picture but most of the book is like brown paper which is different to what I've seen on any cover before. I like the simplicity of the cover with the main focus being the title.

I'm actually struggling to find words to how I feel about this book without spoiling anything so I'm going to try my best but some of my issues with the book may be considered as spoilers. This was something completely different to what I have read before so I really wanted to fall in love with this book as it sounded like something I could like but I just couldn't get into it. I was very disappointed with the romance side of the story as to me it didn't feel like a romantic book and the tiny bit that there was I didn't believe in what they where feeling. I think in their own way you could tell they cared for one another but as for love well who would say "If you love me you'll come with me" Will that's who, which bugged me to no end it's just something I couldn't get over and still think about it a couple of weeks later. I didn't like the ending as I just didn't like how it all played out but even after all that I find myself wanting to read the next book just to see what happens next.

I wasn't a huge fan of most of the characters but what I'm pleased about is that Lou grew into a much better person through out the book. I felt she started of a little childish and I actually thought that she was the younger sister however, she was the eldest. Lou did change throughout the book into a much stronger and wiser person. Will I liked at the very beginning before anything happened to him but then obviously he changed into a more difficult person which I could understand. What I didn't like was how he treated Lou for most of the book. I really didn't like Lou's sister I felt she was so selfish and just not likeable enough for me.

Overall, I was expecting so much from this book but unfortunately it felt flat for my liking.