Still Me is the third and last book of Me before You Series written by Jojo Moyes. It was published in 2018. This book series brings us the way of life of the little girl named Louisa Clerk. The author shows us the life changes which we can face along the life journey in this book series. In this last Journey of Louisa, she choose difficulty between the life that she want to be herself and the high-society life that once she got there because of her past love. This book shows us no matter what happens you just need maintain to be yourself and don’t let the other change you by their perception.
The New Environment
Book 2 ends with our little girl leaving London to work in New York. After Louisa got there, she works for Agnes Gopnik as her assistant. Gopnik’s family is a wealthy family who lived in the Lavery hotel. Agnes is Mr. Gopnik’s second wife. Louisa lives with Mr. Gopnik’s personal trainer Nathan and the housekeeper Illaria at Mr. Gopnik’s staff apartment. One day, Agnes took Louisa to a Charity event named yellow ball to accompany her. At that event, she met Josh Ryan. Josh has the same background as Will Traynor.
She started to miss her past and how her life has changed because of Will. The reason why Agnes took Lou to that event is that she felt lonely in this high society environment. She felt like she is left out by her husband’s relatives and super-rich society. She opens up to Lou about her feelings and not long after that, they became good friends.
Louisa’s boyfriend Sam who lives in London visited Lou in New York to see her. Because they haven’t seen each other in months and he wants to check on Lou to make sure everything is fine. But he suffers food poisoning on his first day in New York and got sick for an entire weekend. During that time Agnes starts to learn how to draw from an artist Steven Lipkott.
Lousia helps Agnes to go to the country club to deliver the speech to the staff members who will be retiring soon. But at that event, Mr. Gopnik’s first wife shows up and also gives a speech that is better than Agnes’s. That makes Agnes more depressed and she decided to go to the bar and ask Lou to accompany her. When they reach there Lou met again with Josh and he tried to flirt with her. But Lou insisted that she wasn’t interested in him since she has Sam.
After that Lou call Sam and find out about Katie. Katie is a new work partner of Sam who is romantically interested in Sam. That makes Lou jealous but she can’t express her feelings toward Sam. Because this is not his fault. She felt frustrated and jealous but can’t do anything. One day Lou helps her neighbor named Mrs. De Witt to find her lost dog.
Start Of the Changes for Lou
Agnes decided to go to Poland to visit her family so she gives Lou a long holiday. Lou tried to hang out with Sam in her free time. But Sam said he already had plans. That’s why Lou wander around the city on her own. In her wandering trip, she found the Vintage Clothes store. Lou always dreams to become a fashion designer and this shop caught her mind at a glance. That’s why she can easily befriend the owner of the store.
After that, she came back to Lavery to help to babysit the doorman Ashok’s children. After putting the children to sleep she found Sam at her door. Sam decided to surprise her with a sudden visit. Lou brings Sam to the usual bar where Lou went with Agnes and met with Josh. Sam noticed Josh is romantically interested in Lou and there is something between these two. But he decided to say nothing. Later he found the pregnancy test kit in Lou’s apartment and he assumed that Lou was cheating on him and left her. Lou discovered that the pregnancy test was Agne’s. The reason behind Agne’s test kit was left in her room is she had to make sure that she doesn’t pregnant since Mr. Gopnik don’t want the children anymore.
Agnes instructed Lou to withdraw a small amount of money from her account every week to buy a small piano for her niece in Poland. Agnes did that without telling her husband because he thought she spent too much money on her niece. When the Christmas holiday came Lou decided to go back to England to spend the Christmas holiday with her family. She went to Sam’s place earlier than he can think since she want to surprise her. When she got there, she saw Sam and Katie spending their time together. She cancels her surprise plan and goes back to her hotel. Then she met with Sam at her house in London on Christmas Eve, she breaks up with him.
Keeping the Promise
After the Christmas holiday, she goes back to New York and accompanied Agnes to her art lesson. While she waiting for Agnes to finish her art lesson she saw the drawing of a little girl who looks exactly like Agnes. Agnes explained to Lou by admitting that she had a daughter in Poland and she got her before she met with Mr. Gopnik. But she didn’t tell the truth about her daughter from her husband. Lou promised Agnes to maintain her secret since she thought they are friends.
Getting to know the secret of Agnes and her messed-up relationship makes her frustrated. So, she went to drink with Josh and spend the night at his place. Josh explained to her that they did not sleep together last night. When she returned to Mr. Gopnik’s apartment, he confronted her about the money she had been withdrawing every week from Agnes’s account. Since Lou gave her word to Agnes, she didn’t tell Mr. Gopnik about the instruction that Agnes gave her. So, Mr. Gopnik fired her. Before she can find a new place to stay Nathan let her stay in his room for several days.
After a few days, Lou finds Dean Martin who is a dog from her neighbor on the street. So she decided to bring it back to Mrs. De Witt and she found her unconscious on the floor. So she called the ambulance and accompanied her on the way to the hospital. Then she returned to Mrs. De Witt’s apartment to look after her dog and her house. Lou and Mrs. De Witt became very close after that incident. Lou finds out that Mrs. De Witt had inherited her apartment and she can no longer afford the bill for this apartment. She comforted Mrs. De Witt to sell her designer clothes to the Vintage Clothes shop, but they were too precious to Mrs. De Wit.
At that moment Lou decided to date Josh and went to attend work events with him. Then she goes back to England to attend her grandfather’s funeral. After that, she helps Mrs. De Witt to contact her son and grandson because she learns that Mrs. De Witt is diagnosed with cancer. Later she broke up with Josh because he wants her to change her outfit on the way to meet his boss and she refused to do so. She tried to maintain her thoughts and be herself like Will tells her.
Mrs. De Witt decided to spend the rest of the time with her son. So, she gave Dean Martin and all of her designer collection to Lou and let her stay in her apartment. Lou decided to start a new business with a Vintage Clothes shop by renting out her clothes to others. And then she received a mail from Sam which makes her realize she still cares for him after everything happened. So, she replied to his mail by telling him she don’t want to leave her new business in New York but she still love him. So, she asked him to move to New York with her if he feels the same as her. The novel is ending with if he accepts her offer, she asked him to meet her at the Rockefeller Center.
After reading this book, there was some development in Louisa personality. Like how she handle with Josh and Sam, how she tried to be herself when Josh want her to change her style and how she make it clear between what she want and what she didn’t want. We will also face challenge and problems in our life like our little Lou did. But we can learn from her to be stay positive and never give in and give up. She shows we must love ourselves and be ourselves no matter what happens.
This book is the last path Louisa walk in this book series. If you want to read the start of the changes in Louisa’s life you can read from the link below,
https://summarybook.org/me-before-you/
and if you want to know the life of Louisa after the changes you can read from the link below,
https://summarybook.org/after-you-new-life/
https://www.amazon.com/Still-Me-Novel-Before-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B073YTMMQS