Thanks, Caroline Kepnes! You've given the people what they want - another fun ride on the Merry-Joe-Round.

After a bit of a misfire with the non-Youverse "Providence," Kepnes returns to life inside the mind of Joe Goldberg. The third installment in the series, "You Love Me," picks up where "Hidden Bodies" left off. It also happily returns to the second person point of view after "Bodies" used the commonplace first person. Hooray!

"It's a free country, it's a small island, so I keep strolling, as people do sometimes. I turn onto your street and then into your yard - we're 'Friends,' we pop by - and I enter through the side door - you didn't lock it, tsk tsk..."

The "you" Joe is speaking to in his head this time around is a librarian named Mary Kay, who is older, wiser, but just as Foxy as Beck and Love (his previous objects of obsession). He's left L.A. behind for the much more chill Seattle area, and he just knows (with typical Joe-level psychotic confidence) that Mary Kay is the key to him settling down as a family man. There are obstacles, naturally, but he knows they can be overcome.

Mary Kay does make for a refreshing object of affection, in that she's in her forties and has a daughter that's a high school senior. It's honestly a pleasure to see a woman in this demographic being depicted as desirable. But other than that, I personally didn't warm to her all that much. I don't think that matters though, as I don't think Kepnes tries to convince readers that Joe wants what he wants for rationale, relatable reasons. It's Joe's world, and we just live in it.

At 400 pages, "You Love Me" is the shortest in the series, but it did take me an unusually long time to get through it. I chalk this up to wanting to savor every word of Kepnes's unique writing style. "I scribble lies on my notepad - my bullshit words are sticks that will hurt you - and the last two are stones. Love, Joe."

Do you love (to hate) Joe? Then you'll love this book. Even if it treads familiar ground and has more than its share of moments where you have to suspend disbelief, you get a heaping helping of the cray that you've been craving.

HUGE thanks to Penguin Random House and the author for gifting me an uncorrected proof for review via NetGalley. Mark your calendars for its April 6, 2021 publication.

I’m a big fan of the You novels and TV series, so I was thrilled to receive an ARC of You Love Me. In this third book, Joe moves to a small island in the Pacific Northwest, where he quickly becomes obsessed with a new woman – a librarian named Mary Kay DiMarco. As much as he tries to change his ways, his typical behaviour is hard to alter and he finds himself caught up in yet another messy situation.

I enjoyed You Love Me, but I’m not sure how many more You books I could read. It is starting to feel repetitive and I wonder if Kepnes (and Netflix) should quit while they’re ahead. There’s nothing worse than a good series that is ruined by being dragged on too long.

Joe is done with superficial L.A. He’s done with big cities and he’s done hiding bodies. He’s ready for a small town romance. But, as we know, things rarely work out as perfectly as they do in Joe’s head.
You Love Me is the perfect combination of creepy and hilarious. Am I allowed to favor a sequel over the original? As much as I thought You was the best, I think You Love Me might be my new favorite in the series. Joe, you pretentious, satirical psycho...I hope you never learn, so we keep getting more stories about you.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: April 6, 2021
The psycho-stalker you can’t help but love is back! Caroline Kepnes brings Joe Goldberg back with a vengeance in her newest novel, “You Love Me”.
Trying to leave the past behind him, Joe Goldberg moves from New York City to a small island town, hoping that a quaint and quiet life will be just what he needs to start over. Joe buys a house and even volunteers at the library, and then he meets HER; his boss at the library, Mary Kaye DiMarco. Joe knows at first sight that he and Mary Kaye are meant to be and he finally sees a positive and fruitful future for himself, with Mary Kaye as his partner. Mary Kaye, however, has a teenage daughter and a famous husband, and she doesn’t seem willing to leave either of them behind to start over with Joe. Joe knows that it is his responsibility to help Mary Kaye see how much better her life would be with Joe in it, and he will stop at nothing to make that happen.
“You Love Me” is the third novel in the obsessively addicting series, “You” (now a Netflix series starring Penn Badgley). The good thing about this series is each novel is just as addicting as its predecessor yet, at the same time, you don’t need to read the other novels to be able to follow along (although I highly recommend it!).
Joe is the antihero everyone hates to love, and readers will once again be cheering for the romantic misfit. Joe is as charming and deeply disturbed as he was in the previous novels, and he will definitely endear himself once again to readers. The other characters in this novel are all equally deranged (and for such a small town to have so many psychos? Be careful Bainbridge, Stephen King may come calling!) and yet, regardless of this insanely improbable fact, “You Love Me” pulled me into its clutches, locked me in the Whisper Room, and held on for dear life.
Another hands-down winner for Kepnes, and I hope to be able to continue to root for Joe in the stories to come!

As always Caroline Kepnes writes a great book. In this continuing saga of Joe in You Love Me his character is just as twisted, yet you can't help rooting for him. I love the style of the writing, and the intended suspension of disbelief when it comes to reading Joe's story. Highly recommend.

I just love this series, this wasn’t the best of the three but I still liked it. Can’t wait to see if she continues it and what direction the Netflix series will go.

I have to admit this is my first time reading a book from the YOU series (I’ve seen the show and this book seems to pick up where the last season left off, so I assume the series adaptation is pretty faithful). It definitely takes some time to get into Joe’s extreme stream of consciousness narration. It’s a book that I found difficult to binge read, as I found too much of his narration difficult to swallow. The story itself was good, and the perfect amount of fucked up, just like the first 2. However I definitely felt like it was overly long and the first half has a few chapters of just seemingly aimless narration that I ended up skimming through.

Oh my word!! This is my favorite in the series.

Joe is back and better than ever. He's found a new woman to stalk. There's some similarities to Beck and the first book.

I don't want to give anything away but it was interesting seeing Joe as a dad and tackling a new relationship. I read this in a few sittings and it kept my attention.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy to read and review!!

As a librarian, I'm a member of Netgalley and couldn't believe my luck when I saw that an advance copy of this was available to review.

Wow! I've been following Joe since his days in New York City and you'll want to know his back story before reading this. If you haven't read the first two books, have you been living under a rock the last few years? The first book, You, was turned into a Netflix series and it's awesome too.

Anyway, back to Joe. He's had some disappointments in his romantic life and has left behind the big city life in New York and LA to start a new life in Bainbridge Island, Washington. He falls for a smart, beautiful librarian and volunteers in the library to get closer to her. Things aren't always how they appear and it finally seems like Joe will get the happy ending he's always wanted. But it can't be that easy, can it? Of course not. Even when I thought I knew where the book was going, I was surprised. The final few pages were a roller coaster.

Pre-order or get on the holds list at the library now. If you haven't read the first two in the series, grab 'em and get ready to meet Joe.

Well, well, well.... welcome back Joe Goldberg.

This took me literally forever to get through. I am specifically saying "get through" and not just "read" because it just felt like I was avoiding pulling out my own damn teeth as I was reading a lot of this. At first I was excited.... but I am feeling like this series should've just ended with book two. I don't know what more will come from this but I am genuinely afraid of how the series will look upon completion.

I didn't like any of the new characters. Joe was obviously trying to be a retired serial killer, so he was interesting to follow as per usual, but everyone else? Almost unbearable. I think that's why this took me SO DAMN LONG to read.

I'm upset. I was so excited for this book and when I got approved for the ARC, I could not stop talking about it with the people at work. Unfortunately, I think this is a solid 3 stars. I don't have anything I can really say about this other than what in god's name is going to happen next.

Joe is back and as obsessive and impulsive as ever. His antics are over the top and leave you with all the creepy feelings that the first two in this series did. Would recommend to thriller lovers.

I read the first book in the series and watched the Netflix TV show. I never really connected to the main character, and there was too much going on. Once Joe "ended" a conflict with one character suddenly there was a conflict with another character. The premise is just not working for me after three books.

Caroline Kepnes does it again with the next installment to "you".

Joe thinks he has changed but thank goodness some things never change and Joe is a creature of habit.

I love it and absolutely gobbled this story up. A perpetual page turner.

Joe.

JOE.

JOE!!!!

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME!? I was semi-surprised to see that Caroline Kepnes wrote another You book. Semi because I hadn't heard even a whispering about it until someone mentioned getting a copy from NetGalley, but also only semi because the once Lifetime, now Netflix show is a HUGE success so why wouldn't you continue on? The people wanted more and you delivered, Ms. Kepnes!

Joe tried to be better. And he was. By Joe's standards anyway, which, let's be honest, aren't very high so take that with a grain of salt. But would any of us REALLY want Joe to be better? No. Absolutely not. Poor Joe was just trying to find love with Mary Kay like he usually is, but he was trying to do it in a more "normal" way. However, his luck being what it is, there are quite a few obstacles in his way. Even with him trying to be better, bad situations still come his way. Some of them his fault, a lot of them not. I thought that was an interesting route to go with this book.

I really can't say much without giving things away, but the ending had a couple of interesting twists that made me go, "WHAT! NOOOOOOOO! HUH!? UGHHHH....." I'll be honest, there were some moments that I thought the book was moving a little slow. It's a long book. Really long, actually. I almost stopped. Almost...and then I was like, No. Keep going. You know this is going somewhere crazy. And it did. That was ultimately why I knocked a star off. However, looking back on the journey, I do understand why it was as long as it was.

Overall, if you've liked the other two books in this series and/or the tv show, you will like this book. That being said, this book does not entirely pick up where season 2 of the tv show ends. However, I barely remember the details of the second book and I followed along with this one just fine.

A severe disappointment. The first two books were leagues better. I don’t know what happened but this one was painfully, painfully boring

Ohhhh my goodness. I fell in love with this series at book 1. And ohhh my am I still swooning over these stories. All my friends are reading this series now!

When things don't work out with Love, Joe opts for the simpler life and moves to a cozy island on Pacific Northwest. In hopes of a fresh start Joe takes a job volunteering at the local library where he meets his boss, librarian, Mary Kay DiMarco. Joe has made mistakes in his past but this time will be different...he will not obsess, he will be good, and this time he will not kill for her.

You Love Me is the compelling new novel in the “You” series...you could say I'm obsessed. Once again Joe finds himself in a new town trying to escape his past "failures" with love, take a breath, and start fresh. Joe has had some time to think and he's certain he knows where things went wrong with his exes. Joe becomes captivated with his new boss, a sexy and smart librarian, Mary Kay DiMarco. Mary Kay may have some "baggage" making her unavailable at the moment but Joe is willing to be patient and do what it takes to make it work. Joe is one of those characters that you know you are supposed to hate but you secretly find yourself rooting for him. Unfortunately, he seems to have the worst luck with friends and family who try to interfere with his plans. I might be a little twisted but I tend to find the friends and family of Joe's fixations rather annoying and start hoping they push him too far. I don't want to give away any spoilers but there were some great twists and turns in this one and the ending hints that there might be more Joe in my future...fingers crossed.

When I first saw that Caroline Kepnes came out with a third novel starring Joe Goldberg, I was thrilled. Although there are many redundancies found in the previous two novels, the story really picked up by the midpoint. I appreciated that the author found room for Joe to progress in his relationships and to control "most" of his violent impulses despite bad luck and bad people always getting in his way to achieving his goal. Kepnes keeps a few strands lose to maintain the possibility of a fourth installment, but I think this novel also provides a suitable and satisfying closure.

Thank you for the opportunity to preview You Love Me by Caroline KEPNES. This is the 3rd book in the series. I liked it. Its been awhile since I read the first two but it didn’t take long to resume Joe's life. For followers of this series, Joe Goldman, is the lead character and his voice and POV are front and center. Written in the first person you are in Joe’s head. His new interest is Mary Kay a librarian on a small island near Seattle. Joe’s obsession with her and her life is absorbing. Joe is CRAZY but we all know that as fans. The reader is the voyeur and as time goes by you wonder where this is going. Some of the writing is long winded but if you are a fan i think you will enjoy this book. Kepnes does it again. Get your fix with this follow up. 4 stars

"YOU" books are always a delightful read because:
1. Joe goldberg is an endlessly entertaining character and
2. The sort-of-2nd-person narration is so unique

I'll read as many of these as you'll give me