Still Me – Identity Crisis

I have made it to the end of this trilogy of Louisa Clark’s journey, and I think it’s safe to say this book was extremely predictable.

When Lou arrives in New York, she is working a job as an assistant to the young wife of an entrepreneur and my first thoughts were, does Agnes have a mental illness? Why doesn’t she work like her older husband? He clearly likes to spoil her and maybe she’s meant to be some kind of socialite.

Lou on the other hand faces challenges in this book with her long-distance relationship with Sam, when he visits her for the first time, it doesn’t go as planned, but I kept hoping for something to work out because I thought they were cute together.

Okay, I’m going to rant a little so there’s some spoilers incoming. This book introduced Joshua Ryan, which Jojo described as another whisper of Will’s past, and at first I was like, oh is this guy another offspring Will produced with another woman without anyone’s knowledge? No, it’s basically his American clone that Lou meets at one of the parties she has to attend with Agnes, bearing no relation to the Traynors whatsoever, he just happens to look like Will but without the wheelchair. Imagine if books two and this one were also adapted into films, Sam Clafin could play Josh maybe?

But I don’t like Josh, not because he’s a doppelgänger, but he’s just that type of man in this books who all of a sudden decides that Lou is meant for him. Even when they first meet, he’s already smitten with her, touching her intimately (without going below the waist), kissing her on the cheek when she bumps into him, and eventually right on the lips when Lou gets fired and looks to him to help her get back out there. Maybe this is just me, but dude, she may like you but do you know what a woman’s boundaries are and her comfort level? If I was Lou, I wouldn’t want some handsome guy kissing me until I say they can, in other words, I say I agree to be their boyfriend if I happen to like them as well. And Lou doesn’t try to stop him until she does give in and they become a couple.

The other thing I hated about him was the direction he took her towards, while she’s staying with Margot who warms up to her, he wants to bring her to all these big parties, but he won’t let her wear her vintage colorful wardrobe that she’s been rediscovering as part of herself. Lou is basically finding out who she is and she’s definitely not a high-class girl in a business suit, she’s a cheerful funny gal who loves to wear the cool clothes from the 70’s. As soon as I saw him not let Lou be herself in apparel and events that she isn’t comfortable with, I was just like, get out you control freak!

Anyway, the good news is she eventually realizes he’s not the one for her thank God, and she picks herself and builds a better life for herself finally doing what she really wants to do, which is fashion and I’m happy to hear that. Okay that’s enough spoilers, I’ll let you decide to read the book if you want to know what else happens.

The rest of the book was good, but I do wish there was a little bit more closure, like where does she end up living? Surely she’s not going to stay in Margot’s apartment forever, and when she met Sam at the end, did they truly get back together? I want to think that they did.

A decent conclusion nonetheless.

What am I going to read next, well there’s some more stories in my Necronomicon that I have not read yet, and my friend got me a book about Nightwish’s early years when Tarja was in the band, so I would like to read that as well, and a long long wishlist on my Kobo, but I’m going to do one book at a time to avoid building a huge backlog!

👽Emily