published: 2018
pages: 415
read: 12/10/18 to 1/10/19
rating: as its own, good. as a whole series, why did ya keep going?
book: 2 in 2019
Louisa Clark arrives in New York ready to start a new life, confident that she can embrace this new adventure and keep her relationship with Ambulance Sam alive across several thousand miles. She steps into the world of the super rich, working for Leonard Gopnik and his much younger second wife, Agnes. Lou is determined to get the most out of the experience and throws herself into her new job and New York life.
As she begins to mix in New York high society, Lou meets Joshua Ryan, a man who brings with him a whisper of her past. Before long, Lou finds herself torn between Fifth Avenue where she works and the treasure-filled vintage clothing store where she actually feels at home. And when matters come to a head, she has to ask herself: Who is Louisa Clark? And how do you find the courage to follow your heart--wherever that may lead?
As she begins to mix in New York high society, Lou meets Joshua Ryan, a man who brings with him a whisper of her past. Before long, Lou finds herself torn between Fifth Avenue where she works and the treasure-filled vintage clothing store where she actually feels at home. And when matters come to a head, she has to ask herself: Who is Louisa Clark? And how do you find the courage to follow your heart--wherever that may lead?
MY THOUGHTS
SHORT VERSION:
all in all it was a good (hopefully) close to Lou's story but NOTHING compared to what started it all (i did go into it completely separating them both). also, i had to alternate between book and audio book because i couldn't continue reading it. had i not gotten the audio book, i probably would have shelved it.
LONG VERSION:
i know this is just a book and these are just character of Moye's imagination
BUT
just imagine.
just imagine if the story or they, the characters were actually real?
there might be spoilers ahead because I'm not sure how ill keep doing this book recap deal....
SO, SKIP THIS if you don't want a sort of spoiler!!!!
lets imagine what Will Traynor and Louisa Clark are real human beings on this earth in our time. and if you know their story, then isnt it amazing how everything does happen for a reason? how it could easily be that simple?
if Will hadn't been in that accident, he would have never needed Louisa. Will & Louisa wouldn't have fallen in love, he wouldn't have woken her up only to tear her back down. she wouldn't have made a connection with Nathan whom led her to New York. she wouldn't have fallen off her roof and she wouldn't have met Sam. she wouldn't have worked for the Gopnick's to end up working for Margot who in turn gave her her new lease at life.
*GASPS FOR AIR*
and none of this would have happened had Will not gone to New York for work only to decide that he wanted to go back to London only to get in a horrible accident that set everything i just typed up into motion.
ahhhhh!
START READING HERE TO READ WHAT I THINK! (LOL)
K.
i will admit, this damn book made me cry but it had to do with Dean Martin. because FUUUHHH!!!! how!? how could you!!!! ...i understand how she could. it still made me cry.
and I will admit that for the most part, I'll miss Ashok and his wife. and Margot, wherever she may be. hmm...and Ilaria, she grew on me. and maybe just the whole gang although there are some people that are pretty low on the list.
anyway, did you know there was a 3rd book?
i didn't.
i think i came across it on goodreads. and then i was mad because i honestly did not want to read another book in this series.
why couldn't it just be over?
let Louisa Clark just effin be.
but now that I'm done with it, i must say, i don't regret reading/listening to it. Moye's did a good job at (HOPEFULLY) closing out this story and making you have all the feels.
.... but i can also see why some people are like "why tf is there anoooother book!!!?"
all for it:
this was a pretty good book in my opinion.
-we finally get to see Louisa come to herself and finally discover what she wants to do.
-we get to see her happily ever after even if we don't get more than how it ends.
-you meet another set of amazing people that add to the story
-honestly, as far as this is from the first book (meaning, we could have left it at book one, tbh) this is a good closing to the story of Louisa Clark.
B U T
i should let you know that this book was mostly finished as an audio book.
i started reading it and i couldn't get into it.
maybe it was the tiny ass font or how it just seemed like one long run on sentence but there was a point where i did not want to read this.
so i also checked it out as an audio book and i think that definitely helped me enjoy the book more than i could have expected. there were even parts where I would listen to the book and read along.
if you are someone who tends to finish series because you unknowingly get sucked into them and like me, JUST CAN'T LET IT GO, then go for it. its not a bad read at all. its just to me, I've been ready to let Lou live on.
if ya don't really care....spoilers below!
SPOILERS
Lou goes to NYC to work with Nathan who works with the Gopnick's.
he does the physical therapy for Mr. Gopnick.
essentially, Lou is needed to keep his second wife busy/occupied/ be a friend to.
Gopnick met his wife, Agnes, when she was his masseuse. they kept going at it and fell in love. he divorced his wife and married her and of course in high sidity new york, shes hated by basically everyone. which is why Lou is needed. for support.
her first "event" is this gala where she runs into this guy Joshua who is basically the American version of Will. from there on he kind of lusts after her but she ignores him because she is with Sam who is back in England.
meanwhile, little by little she breaks Agnes down and eventually Agnes reveals to Lou that she has a daughter in Russia that she has left with her sister because Mr. Gopnik told her that they would ever have kids. seeing as how she now has access to more cash than she's ever seen, this is how she supports her daughter from afar. she spoils her rotten telling her husband that she's sending money to her mother.
one day, Agnes is due for some gallery crap that she of course leaves until the last minute so of course Lou is there to pick up the pieces. she calls Josh, he gets a guy, they go meet the guy and then Agnes makes it a point to go over to his place about once a week for art class.
this is where Lou notices that she somehow never takes nor brings art supplies with her.
Lou and the driver assume that Agnes is having an affair. but the driver knows the cardinal "see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing" rule so Lou goes along. (it is later revealed that she is in fact NOT having an affair but had actually commissioned him to do a large scale portrait of her daughter.)
meanwhile, Agnes gets it in her head that she wants to send a piano over to her daughter but its roughly around 18 thousand dollars. so she gives Louisa some money and a debit card and instructs her to remove $500 from the bank account for the next 10 days.
she does as she is told. she gets the money, the piano gets shipped.
all the while, her relationship with Sam is suffering. he visits her in NYC but gets sick so they don't get to spend time together. she has time to go out there when Agnes is in Russia but he states is not a good time only to surprise her in NYC in her room as she is taking care of Ashok's kids. (Ashok i should mention is the door man of their building. they live in old rich property. this day, Ashok's wife left him to babysit at work because she needs to go save the library they are threatening to tear down and she cannot wait because Ashok is always at work. so Louisa did him the favor. anyway...... back to Sam)
they're good for a while but little by little there are strains. the partner he was set with at work had to resign due to her father's health so he gets a new partner and little by little to Lou's dismay, she starts to make a move on him which of course he is blind to.
anyway, i forgot what happens...i think she has a fight with Sam about this and i think he tells her that he'll call her later and so she has drinks with Joshua. she gets drunk af and ends up passing out at his place (nothing happened) she rushes home because she is late to work.
Michael (gopnick's assistant) tells her that he needs to talk to her asap. so she goes in to the office and essentially tells her that he needs to know where the large sum of money has gone. that she got caught because of the odd pattern and the bank catching it and alerting him. she lets him know that she did not steal the money, that she did not use it nor has it but that she can't tell him what it was for.
Agnes not 5 feet away stays quiet about everything.
so of course, she is fired.
in new york with out a job, a place to stay or a friend to go to.
she stays with Joshua i think a night or 2. then the Gopnick's go about their day so Nathan sneaks her in when he can, she sleeps there then spends the day out and about.
but in a turn of events she ends up "working" for Margot while working her regular job at the vintage warehouse place where she managed to get a job when she was let go.
eventually for xmas she goes home and arrives a few days earlier and stays at her flat. once she wakes up she decides to go surprise Sam (she told him she would arrive a few days later than she actually did to be able to surprise him) and of course she walks into a complete show of Sam cooking for home girl and home girl wearing one of Sam's shirt while drinking wine and massaging him. she runs to her car and goes back to the flat.
she eventually goes to her parents house where Sam shows up and shit hits the fan.
she flies back to new york.
idk what happens here.
she ends up going back to London once she gets word that her grandfather passed away. Sam of course attends and apologizes.
she does date Joshua but its just meh. it doesn't really mean anything to her.
when Lily and her grandmother (i think lily is her name...it is now if it ain't...anyway, lily, will's daughter and his mother) are visiting in new york and i guess she tells lily about Joshua.
lily then turns around and tells Sam that Lou is engaged to Joshua and they're about to be married. (in the second book, Will's dad leaves his mother for his mistress.) she does the same to her grandpa. she tells him that grandma is out and about dating and loving life because she can sense that he realizes that he fucked up...so of course she does the same to Sam.
after lily tells Sam about the "marriage" Sam write to Lou to apologize and to start i guess some sort of friendship or whatever.
at the same time, she discovers Margot has terminal cancer and so she decides that after years of her not talking to her son, she will find him and reunite them.
she finds the grandson and long story short, she will be moving with them into their home to live her remaining time together.
Lou gets to stay in the apt with the condition that she takes care of DM until its his time to go.
and Margot was a huge fashionista in the (i forget years). she has so many amazing pieces that she ends up leaving to Lou. for her to do as she pleases. she can sell them, keep them, donate them, whatever. she was only holding on because that is what caused her to lose her son and that's all that she had but now that they are reunited this all means less to her.
the letters between Sam and Lou go back and forth and eventually she opens up and its Margot's letter that i guess makes her realize what she needs to do.
in the midst of cataloging everything, Michael knocks on her (Margot's) door. he lets her know that Mr. Gopnick wants to talk to her to which she tells him that if he wants to talk, he can come to her door.
they go to his office.
Gopnick let's her know that he has found out that Agnes has a daughter and that she came clean about everything. especially where all that money went.
his daughter from his first marriage hired a private investigator to follow Agnes and that's how they find out about her daughter.
he is trying to buy her silence to which she says she doesn't want anything and actually wants to hire her back because no one clicks with his wife like she did.
she's adamant she wants nothing nor her job back.
of course, he cant believe it because in his world no one never wants nothing in exchange for silence.
......then she remembers.
she walks several blocks home with DM.
it turns out....she single handedly saved the library.
she asked for 5 years worth of funding. he gave her 10.
and because no one in that high a circle does a good deed without it being seen AND benefiting them, Gopnick gives the donation in honor of Will Traynor.
(i should note that Lou went to the protests with Ashok and his wife trying to save the library and was then a source of haven for her after she was basically homeless.)
she writes to Sam and tells him that they both had a lot to learn after he admits that he really did not try his best at keeping them afloat.
by this time, she knows what she's going to do with all of Margot's clothes. the store where she was working at has space that she can rent out and she will be renting out all the high couture while also drumming up business for the vintage shop.
in the letter to Sam she also tells him that she wants to stay in new york and grow her business there.
she tells him that she would love to do it with him by her side. there's no permanent job for him there right away but they are always available. she tells him she would love for them to have their own place with DM living their lives and figuring it all out together.
she tells him to meet him at the empire state building (i think) (it has special meaning to him because of his sister) on a certain date at a certain time if he wants to do this. they will start anew.
and of course, with her being drama, she is late.
she is freaking out because she is late and yelling out his name when she suddenly spots him and he slowly turns around.
and that's it!
AS ALWAYS while i gave you guys the big stuff...there is still some stuff i left out.
oh also, her sister (i forgot her name) is a lesbian. tbh, i feel like that was just thrown in to have diversity. because not only is she in love with a woman but she's in love with a black woman. i guess if you're going to make it "shocking" make it as big as possible.
........and das it.
Yo! Thanks so much for the summary! I actually read the last pages of the book but I needed context. Glad the story is over. Lou has just really been lucky with meeting people.
ReplyDeletethank you so much for reading! (: glad i could help!
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