This is book 2 but a prequel to the book Me Here Without You Now that I read last year. MHWYN was about Louise finding love again after the death of her husband, Mat, and from what I remembered of what we heard about her and Mat I was expecting this prequel to be a really cute romance of her and Mat's love story. I was certainly not expecting such a heavy book, even though I knew some aspects of what to expect, there were others I didn't know about (or at least weren't mentioned much in the first book and so I'd forgotten about). So I will reiterate my statement from that review and say PLEASE read the trigger warnings if you have any triggers because there are a lot covered in here, although I think they're dealt with well again for the heavier ones.
I remember liking Louise in the last book but I sadly really couldn't connect with her in this one. There were just some things that I think she handled really badly and sadly I'm not sure how Mat managed to forgive her in the end. However, having said that, I did still enjoy reading her story, and since there was lots more covered than just her relationships I think this was good if you go into it expecting more of a character-driven story about Louise's life during that age rather than a romance. Because then it doesn't really matter whether you agree or disagree with the things she does, it's just a journey for you to go on alongside her as she navigates those years of her life. One aspect I did really like was her friendship with Marja though; that was such a lovely friendship.
Overall I enjoyed reading about Louise's earlier life after seeing her later life in the previous book, but just prepare yourself to not always agree with everything Louise does (and that you've checked the triggers if you need).