Me And You By Claudia Carroll

[amazon_link id=”1847562744″ target=”_blank” ][/amazon_link]’Me and You’ is the latest book by Irish author, Claudia Carroll.

Angie knows a lot about her best friend Kitty, she knows Kitty is mad and wild and loves to wear clashing colours. She knows she’s incredibly funny and generous but also very unreliable. And she knows that there is a perfect explanation for Kitty standing her up on her boyfriend. She thinks she knows everything about Kitty, except she doesn’t. Kitty’s knows that she’s the happiest that she has ever been. She knows she’s so lucky to have a lovely boyfriend and a best friend like Angie. But what she doesn’t know is that on this night, her past is finally going to catch up with her and change everything.

‘Me and You’ is quite a unique tale that certainly made for a gripping story. The story is mainly told through the eyes of Angie, beginning on the day that her best friend, Kitty first disappears and immediately we are thrown into the panicked and distraught world as Angie discovers that her flighty although normally reliable friend is missing. The story follows on, in almost a diary entry style, as Angie records times and places as events happens. The story then follows on over a two year period, as Angie and Kitty’s boyfriend Simon deal with the aftermath, uncertain of the future but somewhat clearer about the girl that they thought they knew. Through a series of heartwarming and quite graphic flashbacks, we see the history of Kitty and how she turned out to be quite a flamboyant character with a vibrant spirit and a lust for life, but what happened on that day for her to magically disappear.

The main characters in the story are all quite likeable and charming, Angie is almost like the mother of the story, taking on the maternal role looking after Simon deal with his heartbreak, her soft caring nature is sweet to read and as the story flowed along, I found myself hoping that she would get the happiness that she so rightly deserved. Simon was the the heartthrob of the story, a quiet and brooding man, it was hard not to fall for him as his world was so cruelly torn apart with a sensitive and gentle nature, regularly I wanted to reach out and give him a hug. Kitty herself is quite a complex character, as the story develops, we see more about the young wildcard and how her life wasn’t as easy as she led others to believe. One character in the story that I did find quite delightful was the leading policeman in Kitty’s case, Detective Sergeant Jack Crown, a loveable, masculine rogue that was easy on the eye and added a sense of control to the situation.

‘Me and You’ is a courageous story that had me hooked from page 1. Although it is filled Claudia’s trademark humour, wit and distinctly Irish dialogue there is a somewhat of a darker nature to the story as it deals with the issue of control and domestic abuse. A story of courage and friendship, ‘Me and You’ is a remarkable and commendable story, that will hopefully inspire and encourage women to do the same and that there are most definitely other options available. With a prettily illustrated cover, this is a wonderful and emotional story about how hard it is to leave the past behind from one of my favourite Irish authors.

You can [amazon_link id=”1847562744″ target=”_blank” ]Me and You on Amazon [/amazon_link]