Still Me.

Still Me is the third book by Jojo Moyes in what, following the enormous success of Me Before You,  has become the Louisa Clark series of novels.

Fully recovered from her accident and in the early stages of a love affair with ambulance man Sam, or Ambulance Sam as he is continuously referred to, Louisa finds herself living and working in New York. After somewhat miraculously securing a Green Card and never having set foot in NYC, Louisa is employed as a live in assistant to a wealthy young wife on the Upper East Side. Can Louisa manage to make a successful new life for herself and will her relationship with Sam survive now that there is an ocean between them?

   

Just like everyone else I loved Me Before You and I was eager to read the second book After You to find out what had become of Louisa. However, I found myself hating After You. It was a hugely disappointing read for me - Louisa irritated me, I found the attempts at humor grated on me and the storyline was simply too unbelievable. The only reason that I decided to read Still Me was because of it's New York setting and the fact that I was curious to see how wealthy New Yorkers and their lives were portrayed. 

I didn't dislike Still Me, it was a lighthearted, entertaining story that was easy to read, but there were too many things that I could find fault with for me to truly like it. The writing wasn't bad but the plot and story lines were incredibly unrealistic. The author had either been badly advised or else had done hardly anything in the way of researching New York, or the lives of wealthy New Yorkers and their household staff. The characters in the story were extremely stereotyped and the situations that Louisa found herself in were not at all credible. There were so many situations that had me shaking my head saying to myself 'that would never happen'. 

All in all this story felt a little slapdash and whilst it wasn't as bad as the second volume I wish so much that Jojo Moyes had left Me before You as a stand alone novel. If there is a Volume 4 (which I do think would be considered rightly as flogging a dead horse) I honestly can't see myself reading it.