After You (Me Before You #2) by Jojo Moyes

“You’re going to feel uncomfortable in your new world for a bit. But I hope you feel a bit exhilarated too. Live boldly. Push yourself. Don’t settle. Just live well. Just live. Love, Will.”

How do you move on after losing the person you loved? How do you build a life worth living?

Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started.

Her body heals, but Lou herself knows that she needs to be kick-started back to life. Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group, who share insights, laughter, frustrations, and terrible cookies. They will also lead her to the strong, capable Sam Fielding—the paramedic, whose business is life and death, and the one man who might be able to understand her. Then a figure from Will’s past appears and hijacks all her plans, propelling her into a very different future. . . .

For Lou Clark, life after Will Traynor means learning to fall in love again, with all the risks that brings. But here Jojo Moyes gives us two families, as real as our own, whose joys and sorrows will touch you deeply, and where both changes and surprises await.

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After You picks up shortly after Me Before You ends, and we get to see the fallout caused by Will’s death. Although the story promises some “bombshell” revelations, it was a fairly predictable story. This sequel is similar to the first novel in terms of humor and character, and I find that I rather enjoy Moyes’s writing style. It’s not the most sophisticated, but is is full of wit, humor, and heart. Even though I was able to foresee or figure out quickly most of the “twists” in the story, I still enjoyed reading this book. I would have liked a bit more at the end...to me, it felt like as soon as the story had finally come together, it veered off into another direction. I’m not sure if there is another sequel planned or not, but I think she definitely left it open for one.