The Light We Lost

The Light We Lost

by Jill Santopolo

Genre: Romance

Synopsis:  Lucy is faced with a life-altering choice.  But before she can make her decision, she must start her story-their story-at the very beginning.

Lucy and Gabe meet as seniors at Columbia University on a day that changes them forever.  Together they decide they want their lives to mean something, to matter.  When they meet again a year later, it seems fated-perhaps they'll find life's meaning in each other.  But then Gabe becomes a photojournalist assigned to the Middle East and Lucy pursues a career in New York City.

What follows is a thirteen-year odyssey of dreams, jealousies, and ultimately, of love.  Lucy will begin a new life with handsome and reliable Darren, while Gabe will travel the world.  Their journey will take Lucy and Gabe continents apart but never out of each other's hearts. And Lucy will find herself asking: Was it fate that brought them together?  Is it choice that has kept them away.

Lucy's powerful voice brings to life the universal truth of first love, of being completely understood for the first
from the book jacket

Review:  This is a love story between Lucy and Gabe that spans over many years and across countries.  Lucy and Gabe first met in college but didn't start dating until a year later.  They really only dated for a few months before life took them in different directions but somehow they continued to love each other while being with other people and being far apart from each other.  While I enjoyed their love story and the passion they felt for each other I had trouble liking Lucy because of how she treated Darren, her husband.   I felt that Lucy wasn't being fair to Darren who truly was a great guy who loved her.  Lucy clearly couldn't get over loving Gabe even though she knew she needed to and Darren was her fall back and not her true love.  I felt bad for Darren the whole book.  I also wondered the whole time of how much Lucy and Gabe really loved each other if they weren't willing to sacrifice anything for each other.  If their love was truly all consuming and burned like a wildfire (a metaphor that the author uses), then why wouldn't they have given up careers for each other?  All that aside the story captured my attention and I needed to know why Lucy was writing this whole story to Gabe.  We know something happened but we don't know yet until the very end.  I'm going to be honest, half way through I almost skipped to the end to find out what happened but I restrained myself!  This story definitely pulls at your heart.

Rating: 4 stars