“You Love Me” by Caroline Kepnes
Published: April 1, 2021 by Penguin Random House LLC
Genres: Thriller, Suspense, Psychological thriller, Romance novel, Psychological Fiction, Romantic Suspense
Joe is back in the third “You” book, “You Love Me” by Caroline Kepnes. Has Joe changed? The short answer to this question is yes, but there’s so much more to it.
Joe has decided to give up city life to move to a safe quiet little town to start over after giving up Love Quinn and his son, Forty (named after Love’s late twin Forty Quinn). He starts volunteering at the local library where he meets the sexy librarian Mary Kay DiMarco. Joe is as obsessive as he always was, but he has made a vow to be different to win her love.
Things are going well for Joe until he finds out Mary Kay has a whole life she’s hiding from him. Now he has to remedy this situation to get what he wants while sticking to his vow not to kill anyone.
Unfortunately for Joe, he’s not as free as he thinks he is, as his past and powerful people come back to hurt him.
The brilliance of Caroline Kepnes’ writing is that she does a wonderful job with call-backs. There are references carried throughout the book and call-backs to the previous books, “mug of piss.” I do like how Joe reminds us throughout his inner monologue who is dead from the previous books by referring to them as “RIP Beck,” “RIP Forty,” “RIP Candace,” etc. It’s a great reminder of the disturbed human Joe was…yeah, was.
He’s so different in this book. While still manipulative and a complete stalker. He is not on edge like before. He’s set boundaries and rules for himself. He’s more confident in his ability to earn love than he was with Beck in “You” (book 1). Maybe he lost some intensity when he fell out of love with Love in “Hidden Bodies” (book 2).
Joe was always kind of charming and sweet, but he’s grown to be a bit cocky. I don’t know who he hung out with in prison, but he’s acting like a high school football coach assigning nicknames to all the players. Joe’s use of nicknames is a bit much in this book, “mothballs,” “shortus,” “meerkat,” “the rat.” He uses nicknames for lady parts he never used before too that are honestly kind of annoying. When did Joe get annoying?
The end of the story made me sad and left me wanting more, but I’m also satisfied knowing that some things never change.
Overall, I liked “You Love Me.” I love Caroline Kepnes and I think she’s done a good job telling a different story with Joe and showing his growth from book to book, making him feel more like a real person learning from his mistakes, “mug of piss.” I would recommend it to anyone who has read the first two books. I will give it 3 1/2 stars out of 5. It loses points because his use of nicknames has ruined lemonheads for me forever.
Season 3 of the Netflix show “You” should be coming soon. The release date keeps changing due to the pandemic. Season 1 was pretty close to the same story line as the first book, “You”. Season 2 was way different than the second book, “Hidden Bodies.” I’m interested to see how different season 3 is from this third book, “You Love Me.”
