Review: The Light we Lost by Jill Santopolo

The Light we Lost by Jill Santopolo
Publisher: HQ
Publication Date: May 18th 2017
My rating: 5 stars 

He was the first person to inspire her, to move her, to truly understand her. Was he meant to be the last? 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 both of their lives 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. What follows is a thirteen-year journey of dreams, desires, jealousies, betrayals, and, ultimately, of love. Was it fate that brought them together? Is it choice that has kept them away? Their journey takes Lucy and Gabe continents apart, but never out of each other’s hearts.

“And if you do find that love, embrace it. Hold on to it. When you give yourself over to love like that, your heart will get bruised. It will get battered. But you will also feel invincible and infinite.”

The Light we Lost was a poignant story of a beautiful romance, a one of a kind romance, that consumes you, that’s crazy and has you double checking yourself, but you know is one that you’d never give up. Gabe and Lucy’s first meet up came about on September 11^th 2001, with the atrocities taking place, they were able to find comfort in each other and it was something that had a big impact on both of them. But although events got in the way and took away what could have been from their grasps, it was apparent that this first meeting of Gabe and Lucy would not be the last.

We’re told of Gabe and Lucy’s story over increments, in months spent together, years apart and chance meetings that brings their paths together once more. The Light we Lost was truly a difficult read for me at times, because it was clearly apparent that despite what had gone on between Gabe and Lucy, they were meant to be together and that is what I wanted the most. I hated that things would take them away from each other, or wrong decisions were made and secrets were kept, and although at times things had been turbulent and heart breaking for them both, the fact that all these years their paths kept aligning gave hope that deep down, they still had feelings for each other and that there would be a right moment for them to be together.

I don’t really want to give anything away and reveal how things end up for Gabe and Lucy, but it really is a story that all readers should read. It’s a story which broke me, stitched me back up and gave me the hope that everything would be right in the world. It made me fall hard and fast for Gabe and Lucy’s characters and wish that I never had to let their story go. Santopolo wrote a majestically beautiful story in The Light we Lost; it’s one that I won’t be forgetting for a very long time.