I loved reading this contemporary romance re-release from one of my absolute fav authors!! This story will make you swoon and cry and is perfect for fans of authors like Colleen Hoover and Abby Jimenez. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy of the new edition in exchange for my honest review!! If you haven't read a book by Kelly Rimmer yet you are missing out!!

Me Without You by Kelly Rimmer destroyed me!
I haven’t cried while reading a book in some time…. But this one did it!
This was an emotional book to read, it’s heartbreaking, real and very compelling.
It tackles very relevant subjects which I enjoyed and thought Rimmer did an absolute stunning job creating such fantastic, realistic and engaging characters.
She has written another book that tugs at the heart strings and doesn't let you go until long after you finish. This is another masterpiece!

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Forever for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

“A year ago I met the love of my life. For two people who didn’t believe in love at first sight, we came pretty close.

Lilah MacDonald – beautiful, opinionated, stubborn and all kinds of wonderful in ways that words could never quite capture. The woman who taught me to live again.

My Lilah, who gave me so much, and yet kept from me a secret that she knew would break my heart.

My name is Callum Roberts, and this is our story.

Me Without You is a book to make you smile, bring you to tears and remind you to hold on tightly to those you love.”

A breathtakingly beautiful story about love, loss and what we choose to share with those we love. I overall really enjoyed this book but it also frustrated the heck out of me at times with the main characters lack of communication! Chronic illness is a hard story line to accurately write and @kelrimmerwrites does a fantastic job. One particular plot twist had me in tears however provided unexpected closure. It reminds you to live in the moment and never take one day for granted. Thank you @netgalley for this re-release copy in exchange for my honest review!

Enjoyable, moving and heartbreaking, Me Without You had me grabbing for the tissues while reading this love story. A chance meeting that impacts two lives......

Callum Roberts met Lilah MacDonald on a ferry after making comments about her not wearing shoes and they had a witty sarcastic banter that drew me in and had me liking them both. Both are dedicated to their jobs, both lack a social life, and both are witty and sarcastic. They hit it off and ....

This proved to be a fast read for me that drew me in and had me feeling all kinds of emotions. I really wavered with my rating of this book. My one and only reason for this is that in the synopsis it mentions another book that I absolutely loved and having that book mentioned, I knew in advance where this book was going to go.

What I enjoyed the most were the characters and their banter. I grew to care about them, hence the tears at the end. This book is well written, well thought out, and perfectly paced. I enjoyed the motivations of the two characters but also wanted them to communicate more in the middle of the book.

Moving, heartbreaking, and well written.

Me Without You follows the story of Callum and Lilah, Lilah has lived an extraordinary life, while Callum has lived a seemingly boring one. Our two main characters meet on a Ferry heading home from work when Callum is disgusted by Lilahs bare feet on the public transit. They talk and decide to go to dinner where Lilah gives Callum a slice of her life (literally they go to a vegan pizza place). As time goes on they spend more and more time together falling in love (Lilah trying her hardest not to), throughout this book Lilah constantly tries to push Callum away and set boundaries that they are not in a relationship and that it wouldn't be a long term thing. The way that the story is written is dual pov, Callum is telling the story in current time and Lilahs chapters are her journal entries. Throughout this story we find that Lilah is sick with something we just aren't sure with what. Later in the story we find out she has Huntington Disease, just like her dad did, and is deteriorating quickly. Lilah tries her best to give Callum the best memories and experiences so that when she is gone he stays out of his shell. They spend the holidays together and eventually Lilah breaks things off so Callum doesn't have to go through watching her deteriorate and die. When he comes back to her (with the help of her mom) he is there for her and they have their own version of a wedding, and she dies knowing that he loved her and that she loved him. It is such a beautiful story and made me cry for two hours, the last 80 pages or so were brutal. I think it was such a fantastic read and even in the short span of the book I came to care for the characters so deeply.
Here are some of my favorite quotes/moments:

"True love is just a synonym for desperate dependency" They said this like they knew they weren't going to fall in love...

"Lilah, the whole way along you've been missing one important factor here." "And whats that?" "That I love you. And I'll love you forever, whether you're sick or well, or here or... not." My eyes filled with tears, and then hers did too. "I love you too," Lilah whispered.

"Goodbye, my beautiful baby," she whipered (her mom). "I'm so proud that you've done this your way."

Lilah, my sweet, unique Lilah, had gone with the sunrise.

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for granting me access to the ARC of this heartwarming, heartbreaking story. It is a beautifully written account told by both Callum and Lilah. They met on the ferry on their way home from work one evening and their journey began from there. They were both workaholics, yet so different. She was an environmental lawyer and he was in marketing. They disagreed on almost everything. Callum called Lilah a crazy vegetable-loving weirdo and Lilah said Callum was a perfectionist who would rather be single than stuck with the wrong person. Even with all that, they shared a few amazing months together and there was a reason they kept coming back to one another. Callum became hopeful for a future together but that all changed because of a secret Lilah was keeping from him.
I loved the development of the characters and rooted for them the whole way through the book. Keep your tissues handy for this one as their story unfolds. This was 5 stars from me and I will be reading more of Kelly Rimmer's books as I enjoyed her writing style in this one.
Publication date: October 10, 2023

This is an excellent read. The characters are well drawn and sympathetic, and the plot is complex and paced to keep readers’ interest. It’s both heartbreaking and inspiring - a very touching relationship story.

Thank you to NetGalley & Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for giving me the opportunity to read this book and provide and honest review. When I obtained this book via read now, I had no idea that it was a rerelease, originally published in 2014.
An environmental lawyer, Lilah, and a marketer, Callum, meet by chance on the ferry. Their romance gets off to a promising start until one day all things come crashing down. This book has love, heartbreak and tragedy.

I did only give it 4 stars. I felt that something was missing. I don't know if it was the fast pace that I didn't like since the subject matter was so heavy or just the writing style in general. It is a DPOV and Callum's chapters were too long. IMO.

Callum fell in love when he first saw Lilah on the ferry. Little by little, she taught him to love again. But she had a secret that would break his heart.
I have seen this compared to Colleen Hoover and Mia Sheriden, so I knew going in. It was gonna be a hard and heartbreaking story. Even though it's instant love at least on Callum's part, I loved the opening scene on the ferry. It was so good and the banter was great. Especially with bystanders joining in that was amazing. The chapters and paragraphs are a touch too long to my liking. And I felt that there were way too many words to say very little. This book could have been half as long as it was. I don't get why Callum is so infatuated with Lilah, she was so annoying, going on for pages and pages because she was so passionate about something. But she was passionate about many things. Which I guess can be a good thing in a character, but when she's trying to make a point, it feels like rambling and moralizing. All of that really kept me from enjoying the story and really diving and sinking my teeth into it enough to really care about either of the characters and what was happening to them. I ended up skimming most of it, because I wanted to know what was happening, and I didn't feel like I kissed much, and I just didn't care. I did read many good reviews about it, so it may be more for you than it was for me!
I received an advance review copy of this book for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

THIS.BOOK.WRECKED.ME! Me Without You Me by Kelly Rimmer was amazing! Disclaimer get your tissues ready this book is going to hurt your heart. Lilah and Callum were amazing characters that had me rooting for them. Kelly's storytelling of Lilah and Callum's journey was completely amazing and beautiful.

I am a huge Kelly Rimmer fan, so I am shocked I never read this one. Thank you for republishing it!!!

This one is entirely a me issue - content matter is too sensitive for me. This brought me back to "Me Before You" which absolutely WRECKED me and my heart is not up for reads like this anymore.

What a beautiful, slow paced, well written book about falling in love, grief, loss and human emotions. While I wouldn’t say I was on the edge of my seat, I will say that I enjoyed the journey that Kelly Rimmer put the reader through in this novel. The characters were lovely and her research, as always, was impressive. My first non-historical fiction novel of hers. I have a feeling I will be thinking about it for a long time to come.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC of this re-issue. Kelly Rimmer continues to be one of my favourite authors.

Me Without You by Kelly Rimmer is definitely the kind of book you shouldn't start without a full box of tissues within reach. Lilah & Callum- oh my. These two are pure soulmates. Highly recommend this beautifully emotional novel.

Check your reading lists- this is a reissue of a 2014 novel with a new cover and a new publisher. That said, if you haven't read it (or even if you have), you're in for an emotional tale of two people who meet by chance on a ferry and fall in love, even as they are shadowed by a secret. Callum and Lilah aren't looking for love but their relationship changes both of their lives. Lilah, however, well, no spoilers. You might not be surprised by how this goes but that doesn't mean you won't keep reading, Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Rimmer's a good storyteller.

I have always been a sucker for a book that will make me cry and this one was heartbreakingly beautiful. Callum and Lilah meet on a ferry, neither specifically looking for love or even wanting it in their lives. They weren't prepared for each other and Lilah will go to great lengths to protect them both from her secret. Is finding each other and the feelings that they develop enough to break down their original feelings towards love? I couldn't wait to find out and read this book cover to cover, with a box of tissues in hand. If emotions that dig deep into your heart are what you like when reading, check out Me Without You.

Thank you Kelly Rimmer, Forever and NetGalley for a copy of the book in exchange for my hoenst review.

I didn't know that this was a re-release but overall it was a good read. I didn't think it was incredibly memorable, but overall it was a good and entertaining read.

Thank you to Hatchett Publishers for a copy of Me Without you by Kelly Rimmer. Me without you was published several years ago but, since it had a new cover they rereleased it. I am a fan of Kelly Rimmer this book was on my ever growing tbr list, and this encouraged me to read it sooner. I have previously read Kelly Rimmer historical fiction books but this was my first romance book by this author. This book was a romance about two characters who fall in love and are there to help with hardships. The beginning of the book took a little while to get into but, I was rooting for the success of the characters. While reading this book have a box of tissues ready for a good cry.

I am a big fan of Kelly Rimmer’s Historical fiction, so I was excited to read something different from her.

However, I didn’t feel personally connected to Lilah or Callum and their story. It was also quite predictable. Predictability is something I’m used to in a romance, but I love the journey of getting there— the tension, angst, character backgrounds, development and growth. That’s where I feel like this story was really lacking for me, as I didn’t feel like I knew Lilah or Callum that well, and overall it just felt a bit flat to me. I wanted to feel things!! But I didn’t.

I did not finish this one, it was not for me, I couldn't relate to the characters, and just did not care for the story.

The beginning starts a little slow, but stick with it because all of a sudden my emotions were catapulted into an entirely different universe of tears and heartbreak. The chemistry and love between the main characters, Lilah and Callum is palpable. I definitely enjoyed the second half of the book much better than the first. At the end I wasn't sure whether I should be sad or hopeful. The emotional depth and intensity of the story is what makes this book truly exceptional. It's not often that a book makes me cry, but this one did.

Thanks to Netgalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing), Forever for a digital copy.