Book Review: Me & You

By Becky Gulc

Having read and really enjoyed Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? a couple of years back, I was excited to receive Claudia Carroll’s latest novel, Me & You, for review.

Me & You is a story about friendship, love and so much more. We join Angie as she’s waiting for her best friend, vivacious, generous Kitty, to join her on her birthday celebrations at a spa, all arranged by Kitty herself. The problem is Kitty doesn’t show up and is nowhere to be found, even her loving boyfriend Simon doesn’t know where she is. When she’s left her phone behind and her passport the panic quickly sets in for both Angie and Simon and they do everything in their powers to try and find her. But will Kitty be found safe and well? Could there be more to this story than meets the eye?

When I read the blurb for this book (which includes the line, “I’m fine. I’m sorry. Please take care of him for me. And maybe one day I’ll get to explain.”), I had my own assumptions about what this could mean for Kitty’s disappearance, but it turned out to be nothing related to what I thought it was and that made the book all the more interesting, the teaser line could insinuate different scenarios.

The narrative is really strong in this book. For a good chunk of the book we are just presented with Angie’s viewpoint, how she copes with the sudden disappearance of Kitty and what steps she takes to try and find her. This really helps build a tense picture, I became more and more worried for Kitty the more I read (despite that teaser line suggesting she may not be at harm) and I was desperate to read about what had happened to her. I think if Kitty’s story had been presented sooner than it was there would be less tension, and I found the tension was a real asset of this book and the reader forming a strong bond with Angie, who is lovely.

By the time we do start to learn something of Kitty, it’s her back story rather than her present, so again we’re not sure where Kitty is or if she is ok. We slowly build up a picture of Kitty and we learn the person Angie and Simon think they know isn’t necessarily the same person we, as the reader, get to know. Eventually we find out Kitty’s current circumstances, and by this point as a reader you love her as much as Angie.

There is only one very minor criticism I have with this book which is the use of ‘v’ instead of ‘very’ which was quite frequent during the early stages of the book. I may have found this less annoying had it featured in dialogue, but it wasn’t, so I found it unnecessary.

This book has mystery, sadness, tension, light-relief and a bit of a love-triangle when Kitty’s disappearance leads to Angie and Simon growing closer day by day. It was a book I could barely put down and was a thoroughly rewarding read from start to finish. I don’t want to give anything away about what ultimately happens to Kitty, but all I can say is I thoroughly enjoyed the final chapters of the book when one way or another there is resolution which I personally found satisfying. A fantastic read!

Thanks to Avon for the book in exchange for an honest review.

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