Greetings you guys! Gosh, we haven’t done a Throwback Thursday ever since we’ve switched to WordPress. I honestly can’t give you clear reason for that either. Probably admin. We hate admin and we had to add the new graphic to all the previous posts and make sure the old reviews are on the new blog and …. And that’s the main reason! I’ve realized that we are never going to pull in all the old reviews to our stunning new Ultimate Book Blogger Plug-in if I don’t make a plan around it. So joining in with Throwback Thursday, is our masterplan.
- The Chocolate Lady’s #Throwback Thursday takes place on the Thursday before the first Saturday of every month. Yes, there is a linky and it will remain open until she uploads the new one. Thank Goodness. My first and last sometimes gets very confused.
- Your post must highlight one of your previously published book reviews and Davida encourages other participants to do the same.
- Add the link to your post and remember to link back to The Chocolate Lady’s Book Blog And do not forget to #ThrowbackThursday!
It’s not quite yet the last Thursday of the month, but if we do a practice run this week, I’m sure we will have a perfect post next week. As this is our tenth Throwback Thursday and we have managed to upload the first 9 reviews ever written on our new blog, we can look back at our tenth review that was first published on July 23rd, 2016.
After You by Jojo Moyes Series: Me Before You #2
on July 19th, 2016
Genres: Romance
Pages: 353
Format: Paperback
Source: Book Club
Goodreads
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.
From our review
Louisa Clark (she doesn’t go by ‘Lou’ that much anymore) 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 and she finds it difficult to hold dear to the promise that she will live her life to the fullest. In fact, she might be even more confused than when she met Will 2 years ago.
How did she end up working in an airport bar watching over people go on the journeys Will so wished she would undertake herself?
Why doesn’t the flat she’s owned for a year feel like home?
Why does she dress in cheap jeans and un-imaginative t-shirts?
When a “this-will-only-happen-to-Lou” accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started. While her body heals, Lou knows that something needs to change and she needs to be kicked back to life. Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On Support group.
You can click on the From our review link to read our full post.
We didn’t tweak all that much on this review. First of all, it takes way too much time and it was a fun review to write 6 years ago. We still love Jojo Moyes and read just about anything published by her.
Books from the Backlog
Bit by bit, the ravages of age are eroding Marina’s grip on the everyday. And while the elderly Russian woman cannot hold on to fresh memories—the details of her grown children’s lives, the approaching wedding of her grandchild—her distant past is preserved: vivid images that rise unbidden of her youth in war-torn Leningrad.
In the fall of 1941, the German army approached the outskirts of Leningrad, signaling the beginning of what would become a long and torturous siege. During the ensuing months, the city’s inhabitants would brave starvation and the bitter cold, all while fending off the constant German onslaught. Marina, then a tour guide at the Hermitage Museum, along with other staff members, was instructed to take down the museum’s priceless masterpieces for safekeeping, yet leave the frames hanging empty on the walls—a symbol of the artworks’ eventual return. To hold on to sanity when the Luftwaffe’s bombs began to fall, she burned to memory, brushstroke by brushstroke, these exquisite artworks: the nude figures of women, the angels, the serene Madonnas that had so shortly before gazed down upon her. She used them to furnish a “memory palace,” a personal Hermitage in her mind to which she retreated to escape terror, hunger, and encroaching death. A refuge that would stay buried deep within her, until she needed it once more. . . .
Your scrollable box looks great! 😍
I am very chuffed with it Tessa! Thank you ever so much!!!
[…] haven’t done a Throwback Thursday in ages and it was good to join up again and to look back at our review for After You and to see […]
I read and sobbed through Me Before You but never read After You. I really should give it a try. The Madonnas of Leningrad is on my TBR (and physically taking up room on my shelf) as well and I really should read it.
Hi Katherine! I’ve read all three in the Me Before You trilogy and loved them. The Madonnas of Leningrad really does look like such a good read and that’s why it’s still on my TBR. I actually just need to start at the bottom of my TBR and see where I end up.
Jojo Moyes is on my Authors I want to read soon list, and this book seems like a great place to start! Thanks for sharing.
Hi Wendy! The Me Before You trilogy is definitely a great start for Jojo Moyes yes. She is a wonderful author and one of my favorites. Let me know when you get to her!
Lovely! I added the link to my link party!
Thanks so much Davida! I will try to be more present on Throwback Thursday and not get so lost!!
Hope you had a good weekend!
I haven’t read the Madonnas of Leningrad, but I remember hearing very good things about it! It sounds like it would be a really absorbing read. I have read After You, although it’s been a while. I think it would have been hard for any book to follow Me Before You, but I remember that I liked After You quite a bit and thought it was moving. I hope you enjoy both of these!
Hi Lisa! I’ve enjoyed all three books in the Me Before You trilogy and thought they were all moving in their own unique way. Jojo Moyes is such a brilliant author.
The Madonnas of Leningrad has been on my TBR for ages. I really need to start dusting those books!
Thanks for stopping by!
I tend to enjoy WWII stories. The Madonnas of Leningrad sounds promising. I love your WordPress blog!
Thank you Carole! We love this blog and every now and then we play around a bit.
WWII is a go-to genre for me and I’ve actually read very few that I didn’t like. Thanks for stopping by and for still hosting Books from the Backlog. I hope to participate a bit more again!