REVIEW:

Thanks, Caroline Kepnes! You've given the people what they want - another fun ride on the Merry-Joe-Round.

After a bit of a misfire with the non-Youverse Providence, Kepnes returns to life inside the mind of Joe Goldberg. The third installment in the series, You Love Me, picks up where Hidden Bodies (You #2) left off. It also happily returns to the second person point of view after Bodies used the commonplace first person. Hooray!

"It's a free country, it's a small island, so I keep strolling, as people do sometimes. I turn onto your street and then into your yard - we're 'Friends,' we pop by - and I enter through the side door - you didn't lock it, tsk tsk..."

The "you" Joe is speaking to in his head this time around is a librarian named Mary Kay, who is older, wiser, but just as foxy as Beck and Love (his previous objects of obsession). He's left L.A. behind for the much more chill Seattle area, and he just knows (with typical Joe-level psychotic confidence) that Mary Kay is the key to him settling down as a family man. There are obstacles, naturally, but he knows they can be overcome.

Mary Kay does make for a refreshing object of affection, in that she's in her forties and has a daughter that's a high school senior. It's honestly a pleasure to see a woman in this demographic being depicted as desirable. But other than that, I personally didn't warm to her all that much. I don't think that matters though, as I don't think Kepnes tries to convince readers that Joe wants what he wants for rationale, relatable reasons. It's Joe's world, and we just live in it.

At 400 pages, You Love Me is the shortest in the series, but it did take me an unusually long time to get through it. I chalk this up to wanting to savor every word of Kepnes's unique writing style. "I scribble lies on my notepad - my bullshit words are sticks that will hurt you - and the last two are stones. Love, Joe."

Do you love (to hate) Joe? Then you'll love this book. Even if it treads familiar ground and has more than its share of moments where you have to suspend disbelief, you get a heaping helping of the cray that you've been craving.

HUGE thanks to Penguin Random House and the author for gifting me an advance uncorrected proof for review via NetGalley.

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

Joe is done with the cities. He’s 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 Kay 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.