Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

My Rating: 3/5 Stars

There is no secret that I am a fan of love stories, but I have a childish desire that all of them to have a happy ending. I know, but the main reason I read is to disconnect from reality, and when I face the hard outcome, I don’t connect much with the story because it saddens me. BUT, I wanted to give Me Before you a try, despite the rumors that is a very sad story, that will make you weep and think about it a lot after finishing reading it.

The story has a heroine, Louisa Clark, who feels that she doesn’t click in this world. She is desperate to get a job, because of the poor situation her parents are in. She is driven by this responsibility and will do anything to help them. Apart from that, she is an average girl, who doesn’t do interesting things, doesn’t have an exciting life.. Just work, problems and normal. Until one day, she accepts the job of taking care of Will Traynor, a young man who had it all. Had is correctly said. He was rich, with a challenging job and a happy love life, until he had an accident that left him paralyzed. Now, he is secluded, rude, with every desire of keeping people out. His family can’t handle him any more, so they tried in finding someone who could help him, maybe even become his friend. So, Louisa, even if she felt she was not good for the job, accepted it and considered it the biggest challenge of her life.

What happens between Will and Louisa is not called love at first sight. No, far from it. Louisa tries to befriend him, but of course he won’t let her in. He is wrapped around his protective walls, grumpy, without a reason to keep living. Soon, Louisa becomes his friend, because we had to admit she was very funny and you just couldn’t love her. She is so innocent, so eager to live and to explore, but because of her situation she is literally stuck, without the possibility of thinking of herself.

I liked Louisa because she was different from other heroines. I kind of saw myself in her character. She was mature, but when the circumstances allowed it she was childish and funny, responsible and caring. She cared so much for Will and wanted to brighten his days. The trips and experiences she organized for him were amazing and spoke so much of her selfless personality. But, she didn’t realize that those experiences were also meant for her, to make her stronger as a person and to be able one day to let her spread her wings and fly. That was what Will brought to her. Not only a love story and a person to care for, but also a life altering experience that showed her life is short and it is such a pity to waste it by not living it.

I truly admired Will for the things she did for Louisa, for showing her what it means to explore and to be loved. Although I was not OK with his decision at the end of the book, I respected it, because I had no idea what I had done in his place, so I tended not to judge. He always believed in Louisa’s potential, and agreed to let her help him, but deep inside, he knew he has doing it for her. I truly believe he loved her and this last chance love story was very sad, the rumors were right about the heartbreaking part, but they were also right about the life lessons and about the things you could do in changing your perspective after reading this book.

To conclude, this book was an amazing life lesson, of 2 people who met and in a short period of time managed to completely twist each other’s existence. I believe they were meant to meet, to fall in love and to heal each other in the most amazing way.