After You: A Novel (Random House Reader's Circle)

When Ellie learns of her best friend's, Lucy, tragic death, she puts her life on hold (including her own marital problems) to be with Lucy's husband, Greg and daughter Sophie. As Ellie tries to cope with Lucy's shortened life, she discovers Lucy's hidden secrets that cause Ellie to question their friendship. After You is a book about personal healing after a loss. Whether it's the death of a loved one, end of a relationship or the loss of innocence. After You explores the necessary steps to move forward and begin again where you are.

I added this book to my wishlist and almost forgot about it. When I received it as a present, I was surprised, read the blurb and couldn't really remember why I added it.
But then I read it.
Amazing.

I couldn't stop reading. There's no way I can express how much I love this book - or why - without either spoiling it or sounding illiterate, but it is an amazing book. I'm so glad I did receive it and got the opportunity to read it.

I recently read the Opposite of Love and really enjoyed it so I was looking forward to reading Julie Buxbaum's new novel. This one was even better! This book was much deeper and although it had me on the verge of tears throughout most of the book, it also made me laugh out loud in many places as well. It really made me think about my best friend and how much I love her, and how much we should appriciate the loved ones in our lives. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good inspiring read.

This was very realistic, and the author made me care about the characters. She did that magical book thing, that thing that makes me miss the people I have been spending time with for the last few days. Not every author does that for me.

I had never heard of Julie Buxbaum before, but this book came up as a recommendation from the store and after reading the description, I decided to go ahead and try it out. I found myself quickly engrossed in the storyline involving the main character and the tragic events unfolding in her life. I felt that there were some predictable elements but overall found it an enjoyable read. I look forward to reading more from this author.

When Ellie's best friend from childhood, Lucy, is murdered, Ellie flies from Boston to London in order to support the grieving widower and the eight-year-old daughter, Sophie, whom Lucy left behind when she died. Although Ellie's marriage is in trouble and she has a feeling that she's doing further damage to the relationship between herself and her husband, she decides to stay in London indefinitely. She feels as though she is making a real difference to Sophie, and it feels comfortable to her to slip into her best friend's life.

At some point, though, Ellie needs to decide whether to go home in order to begin living her own life and facing her own demons again.

I really liked the relationship that deepened between Sophie and Ellie as the woman tried to help the child heal and deal with the ultimate horror of watching her mother murdered. I felt like the story got a bit bogged down in Lucy's secret, though, which was left unresolved by her death. The ending of the story was a bit too easy for me, with the various love connections, Sophie and her father's resolution, and an especially tidy way for Ellie to make the decision about where to live. I felt like the complexities of the various plotlines were wrapped up altogether too neatly.

When I started this book, I found myself getting pulled in by the storyline right away. It is definately a unique tale of different relationships and how things are not always as we have been led to believe. There are a few unexpected twists that unravel as the story plays out, but also more that are predictable. The writing style is easy and unfortunately doesn't leave enough room to the reader's imagination. It seems to border on young adult fiction the way it portrays the friendship between the two women.

This story is about losing people you love whether through death or divorce. It was enjoyable and insightful looking through the eyes of the characters in the book. Kind of makes you look at what is really important in your own life and what your priorities actually are. There aren't any answers in this book, but it does prompt you to look at your own life and reevalutate.

"After You" is the latest chick lit lite from Julie Buxbaum, previously author of the popular debut The Opposite of Love: A Novel . It centers on Ellie Lerner, who's recently suffered a miscarriage. Her lifelong best friend forever Lucy has just been stabbed to death on the streets of London's recently fashionable Notting Hill neighborhood, in front of Lucy's eight-year old daughter Sophie. Ellie, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-born American academic (Lucy, too, hails from Cambridge: she's just married an Englishman), feels the loss of her friend to an unbearable degree: she flies over to look after her goddaughter Sophie, thereby putting her marriage to Phillip at risk. Lucy's husband Greg retreats into liquid anodynes; Ellie's husband Phillip responds to her long absence with anger. Together, seeking healing, Lucy and Sophie read a book that has apparently given comfort to many little girls, The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Meanwhile, Ellie's parents, who have several times divorced and remarried, are exploring yet another remarriage.

Buxbaum, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law School, now lives in London. She's a good writer, witty and terse, with the talent to be touching. She gives us a good sense of London, particularly Notting Hill. Her dialog and narrative writing are fine. Unfortunately, there's nothing plot-wise to this book but these domestic dramas that don't greatly interest me. Seems to me we've all got our domestic relationship problems: I prefer not to read about other peoples'. There's not even one teeny tiny little murder to solve: Lucy's murder is introduced to us, just about, with meth-head perp's tabloid newspaper picture attached. And I have read quite a few books recently centered on the story of a young woman's falling in love with someone else's child, most of them dependent on a similar plot device that causes said woman to come into close contact with said child. And I've never read "The Secret Garden," nor do I intend to do so. Overall, however, Buxbaum writes so well, I'm sure she has her fans. But it looks like I'm just not one of them. Perhaps Brooklyn, New York breeds a different sort of woman than Cambridge, Massachusetts. So it goes, as another Cornellian, Kurt Vonnegut, used to say.

I really loved this book. The writing was so smart and strong, and the characters were very real to me. Somehow After You manages to combine a quickly-paced plot with gorgeous, unrushed prose, and I found the combination addictive. I look forward to more from Julie Buxbaum!

I enjoyed reading this book. It was an easy read from the beginning and I got through it very quickly. The story was a little sad but not too sappy. I found the ending to be a little too simple and abrupt, but overall a good book for a quick "chick lit" read.

Ellie's world is rocked when her best friend, Lucy, is murdered during a robbery. Not only was she brutally stabbed, but it happened in front of her eight year old daughter, Sophie. Ellie rushes off to comfort and be comforted by Lucy's husband and daughter.

Ellie and Lucy have been friends since they were four and have told each other everything. That is at least what Ellie thought. The truth was that they each kept secrets from the other and neither's seemingly perfect life was what it appeared. The book is a rich telling of the reality of their lives, including marital stress and personal self-doubts. The characters are well developed and several story lines wrap together to make an interesting read. Ellie's using the book "The Secret Garden" to help heal Sophie's (and her own) loss was intriguing enough to get me to read that book for the first time.

Recommended.