Review: The Girl You Left Behind

It’s been pretty busy for the Cagwins as of late. While it’s all fun and good (well, mostly), I’m definitely letting a few things fall by the wayside — namely the laundry, keeping up with the dog hair, and that whole “read two books every month” thing.

I’ve been trying to get through The Girl You Left Behind for almost four weeks now — not because it isn’t fascinating (because it is — oh, it is) but because I feel like I don’t have a spare moment to read for fun, and that’s just downright silly. I need to make it more of a priority.

But! I finally finished it, and my goodness, y’all — Jojo Moyes has done it again.

Remember her? She wrote Me Before You, which has officially earned a spot among my favorite titles. The Girl You Left Behind is completely different. Moyes’ beautiful writing style still shines through (I don’t think I can stress that enough: her writing is absolutely, gorgeously perfect), and I again found myself falling in love with the characters, but the actual story is like no other that I’ve ever read. 

The book is narrated by two different women. That’s not out of the ordinary, you may say, but these women lived in times separated by almost a century  — Sophie recounts her tale during World War I, while Liv tells hers during present-day. I found Sophie’s narrative particularly interesting, but Moyes weaves both their stories together with fascinating clarity. And the ending, oh, the ending.

The summary from the back of the book doesn’t give much away — there is so, so much more to the plot — but I don’t want to spoil it, so this is what you get:

Paris, 1916. Sophie Lefèvre must keep her family safe while her adored husband, Édouard, fights at the front. When their town falls to the Germans in the midst of World War I, Sophie is forced to serve them every evening at her hotel. From the moment the new Kommandant sets eyes on Sophie’s portrait — painted by her artist husband — a dangerous obsession is born, one that will lead Sophie to make a dark and terrible decision. Almost a century later, Sophie’s portrait hangs in the home of Liv Halston, a wedding gift from her young husband before his sudden death. After a chance encounter reveals the portrait’s true worth, a battle begins over its troubled history and Liv’s world is turned upside all over again. 

Did I love it as much as Me Before You? No. But I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and I would absolutely recommend it! I’ve got a few more novels by Moyes on my list of books to read, and after finishing these two, I’m incredibly excited about the rest.