However Matt isn't about to let his dream go and soon puts his plan into action, with consequences that change the lives of everyone. I found myself almost pulling my hair out in frustration with her merely accepting his behaviour and thought their toxic marriage brought a sinister edge to the novel, something I’ve never seen before in a Jojo Moyes book. Other reviewers have mentioned that they didn’t really see the point in the Laura/Matt “story on the side,” but for me, I found it a nice addition. Matt and his wife Laura are obsessed with the idea of owning Spanish House when its cantankerous and demanding owner Mr Pottisworth dies. I like there to be more than one POV, and feel it often helps to round out the story and flesh out the figures.

The story has some ups and downs, personal growth, a little bit of sex, manipulation, lies, family secrets and problems just to name a few of the themes within the book. Mir gefällt das Buch, da ich dieses mal wieder sofort in der Geschichte drin war und einfach nur weiterlesen wollte.Initially, my heart totally broke for the delightful Isabel but watching her blossom and heal was just wonderful. She finally makes her mother pull her head from the sand and face facts in that they cannot afford the lifestyle that Isabel has become accustomed to. Isabel will discover an instinct for survival she never knew she had— and that a heart can play a new song.

Isabelle was an infuriating character, I couldn't root for her or feel sorry for her even though she was grieving for her dead husband and her life had turned upside down. I read couple of her old time historical fictions she wrote before “ Me before you” which were good but not so great and actually I started to feel same about the book after reading few pages!Es ist bestimmt nicht ihr bestes Buch, denn die Geschichte ist schon recht durchschaubar und recht Klischee behaftet. Her teenage daughter Kitty takes on more responsibility than she should, and her young son Thierry has retreated into a world of silence since his father died.

The worst thing about Isabelle was the fact she chose to get married and have kids when she knew she couldn't ever love and support them how they needed. On a side note, many thanks to the author for giving me a fit of giggles when Byron Firth emerges all wet and dripping from a lake – wonder where her inspiration for that scene lay? This might have been enjoyable if the main characters hadn't been so thoroughly unlikeable, they were either thick-self-pitying-doormats or weird entitled maniacs. Luckily, at this point, the family are thrown a lifeline in The Spanish House and they immediately up sticks and move to the country and try and settle into the difference that living in a small village community offers. Kitty makes friends in the village and becomes a more normal teenager, and Thierry is befriended by the mysterious Byron, who has a dark secret that only Matt seems to know about.I could visualise the ramshackle old house that she subsequently inherits at a totally desperate time of her life and, just when it seems nothing can possibly get worse, it does. I feel like most of us know people like this, and it’s a reminder that you never know what people are going through. Stereotypes feel familiar, after all, and I knew these people would remain in character and play their parts correctly.