Review: We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes

 

We All Live Here by Jojo Moyes

Publication Date: February11th 2025 by Pamela Dorman Books

Pages: 464

Source: Publisher

Rating: ★★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Goodreads | Librofm | Audible 

My Thoughts:

Lila’s life is not what she pictured for herself at forty-two. Her husband left her for the neighbor down the street, her stepfather has moved in after her mother died in a tragic accident.  Lila’s house is constantly in need of repair, and her biological father, Gene, an eccentric, attention-seeking actor, has just shown up needing a place to stay. As if all of that isn’t enough, Lila sees the woman her husband left her for everyday at her daughter’s school pickup.

 

I was outraged for Lila and completely rooted for her! At the same time, she wasn’t perfect either. She made mistakes, as most of us do. There’s a romance with some bumps and I hoped it’d all work out!

 

We also have the POV of Lila’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Celie, who is going through some tough times, too. I loved that Gene, Lila’s MIA bio-dad, form a bond, and he helps with some of her trials. Gene definitely had a lot to answer for, but I couldn’t help but have a soft spot for him, especially when we get some that last insight.

 

We All Live Here portrayed a slice of messy, relatable life, and I felt all the emotions acutely! I was angry, I laughed and cried, but the story left me in such a wonderful place of joy and hope! A definite recommend!

5 Stars

Book Description:

The #1 New York Times bestselling author, whose books so many love, brings us a fresh, contemporary story of a woman and her unruly blended family

Lila Kennedy has a lot on her plate. A broken marriage, two wayward daughters, a house that is falling apart, and an elderly stepfather who seems to have quietly moved in. Her career is in freefall and her love life is . . . complicated. So when her real dad—a man she has barely seen since he ran off to Hollywood thirty-five years ago—suddenly appears on her doorstep, it feels like the final straw. But it turns out even the family you thought you could never forgive might have something to teach about love, and what it actually means to be family.

New Release: After You (Me Before You #2) by Jojo Moyes

Today, Waves of Fiction is excited to announce the highly anticipated sequel to Me Before You by JoJo Moyes.  I had the pleasure of getting a copy of After You weeks before its release, and you can check out my review on WinterHaven Books. 

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

Publication Date: September 29th 2015 by Penguin
Purchase Links:  Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble

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.

After You is quintessential Jojo Moyes—a novel that will make you laugh, cry, and rejoice at being back in the world she creates. Here she does what few novelists can do—revisits beloved characters and takes them to places neither they nor we ever expected.

My Thoughts

Beautiful, emotional and full of hope!!

I absolutely loved this book!! It was everything I could hope for as a continuation of Louisa Clark's story.  This well casted novel was filled with heartfelt moments, funny episodes and powerful emotional punches that truly branded my heart with bliss.  To check out more about my thoughts on the book, you can see my review on Goodreads or WinterHaven Books!

5 Suns

Jojo Moyes Talks With Sophie Kinsella About Writing AFTER YOU

Review: One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

One Plus One by Jojo Moyes (Goodreads Author)
Published July 1st 2014 by Pamela Dorman Books

One single mom. One chaotic family. One quirky stranger. One irresistible love story from the New York Times bestselling author of Me Before You

American audiences have fallen in love with Jojo Moyes. Ever since she debuted stateside, she has captivated readers and reviewers alike, and hit the New York Times bestseller list with the word-of-mouth sensation, Me Before You. Now, with One Plus One, she’s written another contemporary opposites-attract love story that reads like a modern-day Two for the Road.

Suppose your life sucks. A lot. Your husband has done a vanishing act, your teenage stepson is being bullied and your math whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can’t afford to pay for. That’s Jess’s life in a nutshell—until an unexpected knight-in-shining-armor offers to rescue them. Only Jess’s knight turns out to be Geeky Ed, the obnoxious tech millionaire whose vacation home she happens to clean. But Ed has big problems of his own, and driving the dysfunctional family to the Math Olympiad feels like his first unselfish act in ages . . . maybe ever.

One Plus One is Jojo Moyes at her astounding best. You’ll laugh, you’ll weep, and when you flip the last page, you’ll want to start all over again.

My Thoughts
Love!!! The cast... The story... The plot... The steady but never over the top drama... The unique perspectives.... Yes I quite like this book.

The first book I came across by Jojo Moyes was Me Before You. I read that earlier this year and have not stopped thinking about it since. Easily that book will land on my Top Favorite Reads for 2014… without a doubt. So, when I heard that Moyes had a new novel coming out back in July, I was extremely excited to get my hands on One Plus One. Luckily I was able to acquire a copy at the ALA Convention in Las Vegas, and I found myself lost in the pages shortly thereafter.

I’ll admit, I had high expectations of this book because Me Before You was absolutely mind blowing for me in the best emotional, gut-wrenching way possible, so I was a bit nervous to dive into another book by Moyes for fear of disappointment. Well as you can see by my 5 star rating, I fell in love with this novel as well.  One Plus One exposed me to a cast of characters that I won’t easily forget. This story has moments of struggle, love, heartbreak, hope and perseverance that made my reading experience an absolute joy.

I’ve noticed over the years that I go through reading phases - as evident by my genre jumping that I tend to enjoy, and lately I’m looking for those stories that have something meaningful, thoughtful and provocative in their delivery. Well One Plus One had it all for me. I took me along-side Jesse, Ed, Tanzie and Nicky as they go on a road trip of a lifetime that altered all of their lives.

Prior to this road trip, Ed was going through a tough time when he found himself convicted of insider trading that was truly a result of a spontaneous careless act that in no way reflected his character. As his life began to unravel, he stumbled upon a young, single mother of two who was on her way to take her daughter to a Math Olympiad in the hopes of winning the competition to use the funds to pay for schooling. The four, including the ginormous family pet, traveled at slow speeds to the competition and along the way began to develop a relationship that altered the course of their future.

Jesse was working a couple of jobs to make ends meet for her and her two kids. When her youngest daughter Tanzie was tested and accepted into a prestigious school, Jesse faced the hard fact that she couldn’t come up with the extra funds unless her daughter competed and placed in a Math Olympiad. They set off on an adventure that immediately hit a roadblock… that was until Ed came to their rescue and offered to get her family to the competition that was a few days away by car.

I simply adored all of these characters to an immense degree. Ed was handsome, geeky, compassion and funny. Jesse was hard working, optimistic and full of life. Tanzie and Nicky were the perfect complement to this cast, where you have a math genius and her brother a social outcast. When they all collide, there are a series of mishaps, discoveries and revelations that all lend for a heart-warming adventure that moved my emotions all over the map.

Well as you can see, I’ve clearly shared a lot here, mainly because I don’t want to forget one bit of it. It’s stories like One Plus One that remind me how magical reading can be. Jojo Moyes has cemented a spot on my bookshelf, and I can’t wait to continue reading her stories that are filled with emotional substance and heart. One of my gem picks from ALA and I finished this in two sittings. Perfection!!

5 Suns

Review: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
Published December 31st 2012 by Pamela Dorman Books/ Viking

Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.

What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.

My Thoughts

Beautiful... unforgettable... heart-breaking. This book will stay with me forever.

Louisa and Will made my face leak. It doesn't happen often and probably won't happen again for a long, long time, but yes this book brought tears to my eyes. Final verdict?? I might not be dead inside. I can safely say that Me Before You will be my pick for Best Book I Read in 2014. Amazing and emotional to such a degree I wasn’t expecting.

You only get one life. It’s actually your duty to live it as fully as possible.

And that is exactly what Will Traynor was doing until a tragic accident left him as a quadriplegic. Before his accident, he was on top of the world, managing a multi-million dollar company and enjoying exotic vacations and dynamic adventures that most of us only dream of. So when his life takes the worst turn anyone can ever imagine, and he’s confined to a wheelchair and dependent on nurses and caregivers around the clock for his basic needs, this character sadly loses his will to live.

When Louisa is hired on for “suicide watch” as Will’s caregiver, she makes it her mission to bring that will to live back to him and teach him to embrace a new life with his reality. She forces him from outside the confines of his home which he hasn’t left in two years, except for doctors’ visits and medical exams. Louisa brings a small semblance of happiness back into Will’s life for the first time since his accident. However, despite the changes Louisa manages to make, his sense of hope and what he wants from life is still in tatters.

Together, they develop a heartfelt relationship that eventually turns into the truest form of love, but sometimes love isn’t enough when you’ve defined your life a certain way and fate has made living to your fullest impossible.

This story really broke me. I was emotional from the very beginning, and as the story continued to unfold, my heart felt like it was carefully coming undone. It was extremely sad to see how a quadriplegic not only has to battle the physical decline of their body as movement is impaired, but also how our world today makes it so difficult for them to access the simplest of places. I never truly knew what a burden they suffer and how much they rely on others for the simple actions I take for granted.

The ending of the story was unbelievable to me. I think I sat there for over an hour stunned and broken. I was not expecting what happened at the end and I applaud Jojo Moyes for her bold storytelling. She refused to sacrifice realism in her fictional world and her execution of the ending was incredible. This story will stay on my mind for a long time and I look forward to picking up other books by this author. She impressed me with her skill of flawless storytelling. Amazed and emotionally moved!

5 Suns