This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 3.5 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!

The You series is terrific and the addition of You Love Me really adds to the storyline. There's something about Joe that makes you love and hate him all while being totally creeped out by him. This story was great and I loved all the emotions that were evoked through the twists were great!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publishing and Caroline Kepnes for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest book review of You Love Me. My thoughts and opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advance copy.

Oh Joe! How I’ve missed you! Did you miss me too? This is the third in the series “You” and Joe is up to his old antics again. Try as he might, he just can’t seem to stay on the straight and narrow. This time Joe has relocated to from LA to a small quaint town where he falls for the local librarian. He promises he just wants to help her, he’s not going to obsess over, but he just can’t help himself. Mary Kay has a boyfriend and although Joe knows that he would be the best boyfriend, he says he wants to win her the right way. He’s going to be so amazing that she just can’t help herself and will fall in love with him.

Well, nothing turns out like he thinks, ever. Before you know it, he is stalking her, gets caught, then has to start covering things up. If you’ve read the other two books in the series, you’ll know where this is headed. I know people were disappointed in this book, but I wasn’t. This is exactly what I wanted. There were twists and turns and hole Joe digs for himself only gets deeper, but what do people expect? That’s what I love about the You books. I mean, do you go on a rollercoaster and say wow that was boring it just went up and down and all around! The insight into Joe looking at his child on instagram was sad and my heart did go out to him a bit.

So join Joe for his completely bad decision making skills and find out if Mary Kay can survive his love. I was there for all of it and will be waiting for Season 3 on Netflix.

Took me a little while to finish this but HOLY SHIT. I did not see that plot twist coming at the end. Like at all. Jesus Christ. I won’t give anything away but you will not see this coming in the end.

You Love Me by Caroline Kepnes is fantastic. Joe wants to be a changed man. Now working at a library outside the city he does not want to meddle or obsess about things or people anymore, or does he? As shocking and twisty as the books that proceed it, You Love Me is suspenseful, darkly humorous at times and an all-around good time with the shock factor that Kepnes always brings to her character work with Joe. Highly recommend!

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
You Love Me by Caroline Kepnes
This is book three in the You series. I’ve found this series is hard to write reviews for. I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone. Joe has given up on the city and moved to Seattle. He’s back up to his usual obsessive behavior and has a new target. Mary Kay she’s a librarian and Joe thinks he’s perfect for her. All Joe focuses on is tone in love with somebody and have them love him to. But is Mary Kay capable of handling all just corks? As always a mind blowing story from the very self obsessed Joe.
Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC.

This wasn't terrible but it also didn't grip me like You did. I think I'm just going to accept that You was a standalone because I haven't enjoyed the sequels that came after it, sadly.

Twisted, delusional Joe wreaks havoc on more lives. This is another story about Joe and his next true love. This man is so dysfunctional and so destructive in everything he does.

DNF. I lost interest and the story wasn't gripping to me. This may be more of an issue of me becoming less and less interested in this storyline/character than the book itself.

You Live Me is book 3 in the You series by Caroline Kepnes and dare I say it’s the BEST one in the series?!?! Hell yeah it is! Back with Joe, the stalker, we all seem to love and can’t get a enough of. To be inside Joe’s mind is such a treat. It’s dark, obsessive and so intriguing to me. I couldn’t read this book fast enough! I flipped through the pages at record speed. I was fully engaged and as with every book in this series I just wanted more JOE GOLDBERG and to forever be in this YOU-verse!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review! I HIGHLY recommend this series!! If you haven’t read books 1 & 2 start there and binge all three! You won’t regret it!! 5 mesmerizing stars!!!

I think it's time for me to accept that You was a one-off for me because I haven't enjoyed either sequel in this series. Neither sequel has held my interest and felt like a chore to read.

“You Love Me” is fun. Doesn’t have the same punch that “You” did, but it got closer to it than “Hidden Bodies” even though both the second and third felt different. In “You Love Me”, we follow Joe to the pacific north-west, where he swears no more killing or stalking, he’s changed. I think this one was by far the easiest book on which to unwillingly side with him, even if he may still need to be up to his weird antics because old habits die hard and he just needs to get closer and protect and know. Kepnes hasn’t lost her ability to put us right in Joe’s mind, the ruminating and justification follow him wherever he goes, and I can’t wait to see what he’s up to next. My only complaint was the use of “Murakami” as a euphemism. I’m still recommending this series to anyone willing—and unwilling—to listen.

I can see this book getting some hate because it wasn’t really all that different from You and Hidden Bodies, but let’s be honest… that’s what we love about this series! We know exactly what to expect from Joe Goldberg; he’s going to fixate on a woman and fall in love before it all goes to shit and blows up in his face. While this one wasn’t as good as the first two books, it was an entertaining read and I’ll definitely be picking up number four.

DNF - Did not finish. I did not connect with the writing style or plot and will not be finishing this title. Thank you, NetGalley and Publisher for the early copy!

I loved the original You and the follow-up, but didn’t enjoy this one. The voice of Joe felt different and it just didn’t have the same humor and sharpness of the others. As much as I loved the first two, I was pretty disappointed in this one. It felt like a different author had taken over. But I did finish it!

Oh Joe! Between the new love interest and the old Love things kept this book intriguing. Always something happening with good ole’ Joe around. There was no less than three storylines going on in this book (which is ok by me….it keeps things moving)

Thanks to NetGalley for the early reader advance (even tho I’m a bit behind)

Also the book is WAY different than the third season of this show for anyone wanting to know. Almost to the point it was a completely different story.

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book! I will be posting my review on social media, to include Instagram, Amazon, Goodreads, and Instagram!

So first of all, you don’t have to read this before you watch season 3 of You on Netflix because they are 100% different stories. Like, barely any comparison.

You Book 1 vs season 1: 70-80% accurate

Hidden Bodies (book 2) vs season 2: 25-40% accurate

You Love Me (book 3) vs season 3: MAYBE 5% accurate

As you can see, the more the show progresses, the more it follows its own storyline instead of the one written and outlined in the books. Of course the main characters remain the same: Joe, Beck, Peach, Kenji, Candace, Love, Forty, Love’s mom Dottie. Once you get to season 3 the new characters are SIMILAR to the new characters in You Love Me but not the same. Mary Kay is Marienne, for example. And the neighbors are totally new people. Also Love is present in the show but not the book (no spoilers on how/when she does show herself). I think the fans loved Love so much that they felt she needed to be just as much of a focus as Joe, and I like that take. I personally enjoy Love.

The book was pretty different than the usual in that Joe doesn’t ACTUALLY kill anyone himself. People die left and right around him, and probably even because of him, but not at his hands. It is an interesting parallel. Would any of these things have happened to this town if Joe hadn’t moved to it and brought his own brand of chaos? Would they have happened differently? You Love Me did a good job of showing that Joe, while a murderer and psycopath stalker, has his own issues, so does everyone else. You Love Me highlighted the issues of the people around Joe through his Joe-lens. These issues are pretty cut and dry even while being filtered through the Joe-lens. Cheating husband, cheating wife, shitty best friend, shitty other creepy male best friend, two-faced neighbors.

The fact that all of these things exist, and definitely existed prior to Joe’s arrival, brings yet another more human less monster side to Joe Goldberg. His presence expedites the reveal of all of these people and their wrongdoings. As usual, we the reader are almost rooting for Joe to finally find happiness because Caroline Kepnes is just THAT GOOD of an author. She makes this absolutely insane human into one we root for despite knowing he is full-stop unhinged. We read this story entirely from his point of view, which may make him an unreliable narrator in certain situations, but still we see the agony his actions cause, the ticking of his clock as he finds a new person to fixate on, the surprise when BAM another twist comes his way. Joe Goldberg is shit but Caroline makes us love him. Caroline Kepnes is to psycho men as an excellent producer is to reality tv. Joe is my book equivalent of Jersey Shore and I am not sorry.

I cannot wait for book four to see what else Caroline has up her sleeve for us to watch Joe experience. Meanwhile I am two episodes from finished with season 3 and I am eating it up. Much like Gossip Girl and other shows before and after, You is varying from the books in a way that allow them both to stand on their own as excellent sources of entertainment. I don’t think one is better than the other, but I do love how the show gives us alternate viewpoints we cannot access in the books. I appreciate this variance and hope it continues. Although a book from Love’s POV would be at the top of my TBR pile in a second.

I always get nervous with the third in a series of something I love, nervous it won't live up to my expectations (Godfather 3, anyone?). Fortunately, this book held its own and I actually enjoyed it even more than Hidden Bodies. Maybe because I feel I've gotten to know Joe better and sometimes find myself even liking him (should I be nervous about what that means?) but it makes you want to read each chapter without stopping. Awesome, awesome series.

I will read anything written by Caroline Kepnes! This was just as wonderful as everything else she's written. The You series is one I always recommend to people who haven't read a book in ages, but want something they will get hooked by... You Love Me. Joe is the main character you love, but you might not like and hopefully you disagree with a lot of his choices. You can't help but root for him.