After You - Book Two of a Trilogy (Author Jojo Moyes)

Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Romantic Fiction

After You - Book Two Of A Trilogy By Jojo Moyes

Lou has moved to London. Her life is chaotic & unfullilled. She is working in a bar in an airport & attending a grief counselling group which doesn't really seem to be helping, but she also feels she is not worthy of. She smokes, & drinks more than she would care to admit. She bought an apartment with the money that she was left, although, the space remains undecorated, sparsely furnished & largely uncared for as she sees it as somewhere she uses solely to eat & sleep, & is rarely there anyway.

After returning home late from work one night she consumes rather too much alcohol &, via the fire escape climbs up on to the flat roof space. She walks, balancing precariously along the edge of the building. Then, somewhere in the dark, she hears a voice call her name. It startles her. She turns to see from where & whom the voice is coming & loses her footing......

There follows a very frustrating stay with her parents, the introduction of, and welcome return of a very handsome paramedic & the offer of a job in New York. Who owns the voice from the roof & what do they want from Lou? Could it be connected to her past?

I was made aware during a hospital stay that Jojo Moyes had in fact written two other books - Me Before You and Still Me. A tea lady gave me her copy of this book. I purchased the third. I personally adore trilogies & stories that re-introduce past characters either brought in at the beginning of a story or from a previous novel. Especially when it's unexpected. Even though Lou has a different life away from her quiet home town & her family, Will still influences her mood & her daily life as she is still carrying a lot of guilt. His family are still very much a presence in this book together with the presence of a new female member of the Traynor dynasty.

The character of Sam, the handsome paramedic, as Lou's love interest made me feel happy for Lou but also protective over Will's memory & presence within the book, having seen the film of the first novel & read the other two books, the characters had really come to life for me & felt like real people. I wish that films had been made of the last two publications.

Eventually, the highs & lows of the relationship between Lou & Sam really made me want them to be together. As she leaves for her new job 3,459 miles away, it leaves you wondering what the future holds....