Lou Clark knows lots of things. She likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

After about ten people on the Facebook page had said how fantastic this Me Before You was, and my friend insisting I must read it I downloaded it to the Kindle a couple of weeks ago to see what it was all about.

‘Unashamed tear-jerker’, ‘you’ll be in floods by the end’. ‘I could hardly read it for crying’ were some of the comments I’d heard so I was a little apprehensive to start it and I have to say from the off it was not what I was expecting. The book starts with a bang, an explosive first chapter, but it took me about three or four more chapters to put this in relation to the rest of the story. I’m not complaining, it was nice when the story started to come together and make sense.

I really liked Lou the central character, and like many readers I suspect, I fell head over heels for Will Traynor, the quadriplegic man she ends up caring for. Lou Clark knows nothing about nursing and it’s said that she can’t even look after a houseplant but she certainly comes into her own, at her own pace with Will and his nurse, Nathan (another really likeable character).

While Me Before You is an easy read, pulp fiction if you like, it deals with quite a serious subject and you find yourself wondering a lot about quality of life, and just how small a life can become and still be worthwhile. This would be a really great book club suggestion as the scope for discussion is massive.

Without risking spoilers, I kind of saw the ending in a brilliant light about half way through, and I was spot on. This didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the book at all, in fact I liked it all the more for the end.

Unashamed tear-jerker? I might be really heartless but I didn’t find myself in floods of tears. There’s a scene between Lou and her mother towards the end of the book and I found this was the surprising catch in my throat.

Well written, believable characters and a easy read, I was through it in two sittings. Great book!