You Love Me (You #3) by Caroline Kepnes #BookReview

Joe Goldberg is back. And he’s going to start a family – even if it kills him.

Joe Goldberg is done with cities, done with the muck and the posers, done with Love. Now, he’s saying hello to nature, to simple pleasures on a cozy island in the Pacific Northwest. For the first time in a long time, he can just breathe.

He gets a job at the local library – he does know a thing or two about books – and that’s where he meets her: Mary Kay DiMarco. Librarian. Joe won’t meddle, he will not obsess. He’ll win her the old fashioned way… by providing a shoulder to cry on, a helping hand. Over time, they’ll both heal their wounds and begin their happily ever after in this sleepy town.

The trouble is… Mary Kaye already has a life. She’s a mother. She’s a friend. She’s… busy.

True love can only triumph if both people are willing to make room for the real thing. Joe cleared his decks. He’s ready. And hopefully, with his encouragement and undying support, Mary Kay will do the right thing and make room for him.

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I haven’t read You #1 and #2 but I’m a biiiiiigg fan of the Netflix series YOU so I was very excited to read the third book in the series. It was a weird experience because I really saw Joe Goldberg and the way he sometimes looks in the camera, that half smile of him, while I was reading this novel. I could literally hear his thoughts in my head the way they’re always presented on screen. It was strange but I liked how I could visualise him so I actually find it an advantage to have watched the series first and then read the novel.

Though I have to say Joe is a bit different from before. Our Joe’s grown a bit softer in this novel and while you saw how disturbed he was in the past, he appears to be – or at least wants to be – normal and have a real family AND he found just the right woman for that. Does that mean he can lay off killing someone in this novel? I’m not saying! All I can say is that he really really tries and that he just doesn’t have luck on his side at times. It is impossible not to root for Joe this time to stay out of the police’s hands.

I very much enjoyed reading You Love Me, reading about the many ups and downs for Joe, struggles and unexpected setbacks along the way to his road of happiness. As usual he’s obsessing over this woman MK (or Mary Kay) and while he can admit she’s not perfect in some ways he always finds a reason to justify why she’s acting the way she is. All she has to do is fall for him… and Joe wouldn’t be Joe if he didn’t pull eeeeverything out of the closet to get her to be in a relationship with him! The only one standing in the way is her husband and it’s tempting (so tempting) but he promises himself not to kill her husband for it, or lock him in his silent room at home (of course he has another ‘cage’, it was a perk that came with the house). That’s a nice promise right? But Joe wouldn’t be Joe if he doesn’t lend a hand and tries to get what he wants this time in another way. His manipulation skills have never been put into practice as much as in this novel! Ah and the ending, well the last chapters of the novel did not disappoint at all with twist upon twist upon twist upon twist. I’m deadly serious :-).

The only small issues I had were mostly about Joe’s attitude towards someone who is blackmailing him, it goes on throughout most of the novel and I found it so unlike Joe. He would normally be bothered by this, he would plot and scheme to take revenge but it doesn’t even enter his mind, he’s OK WITH IT. I’m almost ashamed to say he was a little disappointing there, a regular Mr. Goody Two-Shoes and just a little unbelievable. Also his many repetitive references to Closer, Murikami, and calling Mary Kay’s daughter Nomi always a Meerkat became a bit too much (I didn’t always get them either so maybe there’s that too). A last point was the fact that the novel seemed to start from another point compared to how season 2 ended on Netflix, it’s really not the case and it becomes clear after a while with flashbacks what has happened in between but it was a bit confusing at the start and made me wonder if the novels were just that different from what they filmed.

All in all, there’s a lot happening (yes you can read that as there’ll be some dead bodies; I’m sure that’s not really a surprise if you saw or read the previous novels or series) in You Love Me and you’re in for a real adventure that just keeps on giving… I have a good feeling there’s going to be a next novel too so I can’t wait to read or see it, I’ll take whatever comes first because I love both! You can get the beautiful cover of You Love Me as from April 1st, if you’re a fan of the series you know you must have it ;-)!

I received a free paper copy of this novel from the publisher Simon & Schuster UK. This is as always my honest opinion.

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