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.

You Love Me is the third book in Caroline Kepnes’ You series. To be inside Joe Goldberg’s head is always a wild ride. This time, Joe has left the city and has settle in a little town that he likens to Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove. It seems perfect. His house even has a whisper room which comes in handy. Once again, Joe tries to put his past behind him. He begins volunteering at the local library where he meets Mary Kay. There is instant chemistry between them and she quickly becomes his newest obsession. He even manages to get Mary Kay’s teenage daughter to accept him. Eventually, Joe’s past does catch up with him and things go off the rails.

If you have watched the Netflix series there are some huge differences. In some ways, I liked the show better. It had more twists and gave the story a more layers. I thought the ending of the tv series was brilliant. The book has a twist at the end too. I found this one to be less compelling than the others, but I still can’t help but like Joe Goldberg’s character even though he is a psychopath.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I have truly enjoyed being in this mad mind of Joe Goldburg over the past three months. This book was most decidedly different however. This book finds Joe living in a little sleepy town ready to begin over again after taking a bunch of money from Love's family to keep out of their lives. But Joe misses his son and resents not being a part of his life. He follows Love on her socials (naturally) to see the baby. However this little town has a library...with a hot librarian Mary Kay. Joe gets his sights on her but decides he needs to do it the right way. No stalking, no sneaking. But Joe is Joe and nothing quite goes the way he wants it to. There is a nosy friend who finds him in the bushes and much more. I don't want to give any plot points away here but I have to say this is the most disappointing of the three books. I think its because things happen in this book but a big factor in the previous two books isn't to be seen in this one. It feels...weird. Which says a lot about a series about such a weird man and weird situations. There are truly two different resolutions in this book. One involves Love and the plot from the second book and the other is the resolution of his obsession with Mary Kay. I don't know if it is being in Joe's head but I find that I never like his targets. I feel bad for them for being stalked but they just don't seem like good people. Maybe that is the point. If there is a fourth book the author needs to really get motivated again and probably start to wrap this series up and leave us with a bang. This book was the definition of 'ok' but what else?

2 Stars!

I tried. I really tried. Unfortunately, it just wasn't holding my interest. Took me forever to finish this book. Guess it's just wasn't for me.

Always the twists and turns with these books. This one sucked me in just like the others in the series and left me turning page after page to see what would happen next.

Book 3 in the you series follows Joe and his latest conquest as they move to their suburban nightmare with their newborn and try to assimilate into normal life. But as per usual, the normal for them involves lies, stalking and murder. Another great novel from the queen of creep.

This series helped get me out of a reading slump. I usually read the book before watching the tv show or movie but I watched the first 2 seasons of the show before reading the book. I enjoyed both and I like how they have some similarities but also a lot of differences.

Joe is done with city life. He moves to the pacific northwest and gets a job at the local library and meet Mary Kay DiMarco. Librarian.

Joe Goldberg is hard to resist. I love to hate him. I cringe and wonder about his self awareness. But no matter what he does, I can't look away. This book made me feel the same way but it also surprised me in a few ways too. If you binge watched the newest season of YOU on Netflix, this is for you!

Unfortunately, I did not like this book as much as the original. The sequels fell flat and missed a lot of what originally intrigued me about the character of Joe.

You Love Me is the third installment of the You series and I had been patiently awaiting the return of Joe to see where things were going to go for him in this book. These books are really the prime example of the villain being the hero of their own story. While there are not as many twists in this installment as in the first two books, it was still an enjoyable read. The concept is similar to the first two as well (Joe, you are dark and twisty but your relationship history stays consistent). Also, as a librarian I always love to see a librarian character haha. I am curious to see where the series goes from here if it continues.

You Love Me is the third installment of the You series, which brings back to the insanity of Joe Goldberg.'s life. Joe is crazy with mixed-up views of life and love, but the author still makes you like him enough to keep rooting for him. Caroline Kepnes created an over-the-top thriller that leaves you guessing what Joe will do next.

Oh how I crave me some Joe! Kepnes has done it again, making you route for the bad guy. Poor Joe he really is trying to do better but these people just keep messing it up for him! I really enjoyed this third book of the You series! It was very different to the prior books with Joe settling into his new life but don't worry although Joe is giving up killing, death just seems to follow him.

I will always love Joe, I’ve waited for this book for years and would have waited longer if I had to. He’s just one of those guys you hate to love, but it’s inevitable!

Obviously if you’ve made it to this book you’ve already read the first 2 in the series. So I’m going to assume you already have some sort of infatuation with Joe. So you’re probably going to love this book as well! I don’t want to give anything away or spoil anything, so I will just say of you haven’t already…read this book now!!

Bye, bye LA, hello Seattle. In the third installment of the You series, Joe finds himself accepting a volunteer role at a local library where he meets her: Mary Kay DiMarco. But Joe decides this time he won’t obsess, he will win over Mary Kay the old-fashioned way. But can Joe even do old-fashioned?
…
If you are like me and think that even though you have watched all 3 seasons of You on Netflix that you’ll know everything leading into this book - you are wrong (rookie mistake!). That being said, I am really excited to go back and read You and Hidden Bodies. While the Netflix series gets to the core of the plot of the story, as usual things are changed. Joe is an extremely creepy and narcissistic character and throughout this entire novel, we are inside his head. Some of the things he thinks and the ways he approaches situations were disgusting, but I couldn’t turn away. He gives off major Ted Bundy vibes which tie into the Pacific Northwest setting in this novel. Are you ready to see what Joe does next?

Thank you @netgalley and @randomhouse to the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Dark and twisted. I wish I had liked this one but it just didn't suit. I think I'm over Joe. Sorry not sorry.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

Now that climax was pretty great honestly. I didn’t see it coming and I was really shocked.
The last 2 pages however…. *narrows eyes*

Another awesome installment of the You series. I really enjoy the beers so much more than the television show. In this book, Joe moves to a small town and starts to volunteer at the local library where the head librarian catches his eye. If you have read the previous books in the series, you know where things are going. Even though it is the same concept, I found the book to be an engaging read that I did not want to put down.

Oh this series. so deep and dark and twisted, and yet you can't put it down and you're itching to know what happens next. another creepy but good read.