Still Me is the third book in a series, continuing with the life of Louisa Clark who is now in New York City and in a new life. This life has been initiated by her friend Nathan who used to be Louisa’s love of life Will Trainer’s therapist, and Louisa finds herself as the assistant of Agnes Gopnik, the young Polish wife of a much older man who is among the wealthiest and most influential New Yorkers. Louisa, in this book, has a long-distance relationship with the paramedic and ambulance driver Sam in the UK.

As easily as Louisa adapts to the city, she is a fish out of water with the Gopnik’s wheelings and dealings. Added to this is the negative treatment of her by the housekeeper Ilaria and Mr. Gopnik’s daughter from an earlier marriage. On top of it all, is her boss, the neurotic Agnes, whose motives and actions are totally self-serving and deceitful but this is unknown to Louisa at the beginning of the book, and she takes Agnes to be her friend. Then, she meets someone who looks very much like Will Trainer. Her struggles with her internal life and her being in an upper-class situation of living life under constant observation and stress are intensified and worsened by Agnes’s dark secret, which she shares with Louisa. How Louisa will disentangle herself and find tranquility is up to the reader to find out.

As much as I enjoy Jojo Moyes’s writing, I think this third book has not lived up to the promise and quality of the first book, Me Before You, in the series. Still, the author is very successful in reflecting the positive and negative relationships among women and in showing the world of the super-rich. The characterization of Louisa Clark, after the great tragedy of her life in the first book, is masterful, and Louisa Clark is still the relatable friendly person sometimes with an innocence that shocks and other times a wisdom that stuns. Then, there is still the tension and unexpected twists in the story and the exquisite storytelling of a very talented and capable author.

the fact that Louisa still carried Will's love inside her, but she saw at the end that he, like the other men in her life, had acted selfishly.

who Agnes was.

is Jojo Moyes, an award-winning British novelist and journalist.

I neither recommend nor not recommend this book. It is very well written but it also disappointed me because of my original expectation from this author. This book certainly didn't live up to the standard of the first book in the series.

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Created May 06, 2018 at 12:17pm • Submit your own review...