The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo

The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo

The Light We Lost is a New York Times bestseller, was chosen as Reese's Book Club's pick of February 2018, and went viral on TikTok. It's a story of choices and loves lost, it partly follows a photographer who goes into areas of upheaval, so we deal with child death and adult death, infertility, infidelity, violence, grief, death of a parent, pregnancy, war, and injury detail.

Lucy and Gabe speak for the first time on 9/11 and their connection is immediate, but circumstances separate them. Later, after they've graduated from college, they run into each other at a local bar and immediately become inseparable. Their love is the kind people write stories about: frenzied, all-consuming, and hot. Like a wildfire. But they both have dreams that they cannot let go of and Gabe makes a choice that will tear them apart, taking a job that will allow him to photograph the areas and the events that the world needs to see. He leaves Lucy and New York behind. They both move on with their lives, excelling in their chosen careers, finding new partners. Lucy marries Darren and they start a family together, but Lucy's life with Darren is far less exciting: a steady, solid, reliable sort of love. She always wonders what her life would be like if she and Gabe had made different decisions, and the two of them can never quite give each other up. Was it fate that brought them back together that day at the bar, and is it fate that is keeping them apart now or should they be together?

I have never felt so old as I did while reading this book. Over the course of 13 years, Lucy can't seem to move on from Gabe and embrace her life with Darren. Does Darren have faults? Yes, he does. Faults that perhaps he, and they, should work on, but it is certainly not helped by Lucy setting google alerts for her ex-boyfriend. Gabe seems exactly like the person you want to date in your early twenties. He's exciting, he's beautiful, he's charming. He does not seem like someone who would make a great life partner. All I'm saying is that if you're unhappy with Darren, it doesn't mean that Gabe is necessarily the answer! The writing in this book was good, the story was fine and went somewhere unexpected at the end that I really liked, but I found the indecision that Lucy constantly displays incredibly annoying. I'm probably giving this book a worse reputation than it deserves, I didn't dislike it. It kind of reminds me of The Notebook but without the heartbreaking Alzheimer's diagnosis. Just be aware, Lucy is super irritating at times.

I'm giving The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo 3.75 stars out of 4. A story of fated romance that ends in a way I did not expect. I just found out that there is a second novel that I am sure I will read, just because now I need to know how Lucy handles the news at the end. I'm sure the next book will make Darren look even worse. Check back to see if I'm right when I review The Love We Found, the sequel.

For more from Jill Santopolo, go to her website at https://jillsantopolo.com/

Pairs well with waffles and making a bucket list.