About the Book:
The Light We Lost mixes with a touch of Daisy Jones and the Six in this novel of first love, passion, and the power of choice–and how we cannot escape the people we are meant to be.
Two loves. Two choices. One chance to follow her dreams.
Emily has come a long way since she lost her two passions fifteen years ago: music, and Rob. She’s a psychologist at NYU who helps troubled college students like the one she once was. Together with her caring doctor husband, Ezra, she has a beautiful life. They’re happy. They hope to start a family. But when a tragic event in Emily’s present too closely echoes her past, and parts of her story that she’d hoped never to share come to light, her perfect life is suddenly upturned. Then Emily hears a song on the radio about the woman who got away. The melody and voice are hauntingly familiar. Could it be? As Emily’s past passions come roaring back into her life, she’ll find herself asking: Who is she meant to be? Who is she meant to love?
My Review:
CW: Miscarriage
Another fabulous and heartfelt story from Jill Santopolo! She has a gift for capturing raw emotion and the powerful twists and turns life can take. I love “what if” stories, and the author takes that theme and runs with it here.
Emily and Ezra are at a tumultuous time in their relationship. Emily is a New Your City therapist suffering from the grief of a lost pregnancy. Her wonderful partner Ezra, a pediatric oncologist, deals with the loss in a very different way. Emily is struggling with her feelings but at the same time she must remain on an even keel so that she can continue to treat her patients. When she hears a new pop song playing, she is stunned to realize that it is performed by her first love from college, Rob (now Austin). Re-connecting with Rob awakens Emily’s old feelings for him as well as her passion for music, which she had somehow lost along the way.
Emily and Rob played music together while in college but a tragedy drove them apart. Their lives then took very different paths. Emily always wondered what would have happened had she and Rob stayed together.
“Everything that happens is what’s meant to happen.”
Once Emily and Rob reconnected, I could not wait to see how their renewed relationships would play out. Emily seemed reinvigorated by her renewed passion for her music. What path would her life take once she began playing music again? Would Ezra fit into her newfound passions?
“And she knew it, deep inside her, she knew that something had shifted, that no matter what happened, her future today was different than her future yesterday.”
This book is really the story of two separate but interconnected love stories. It reminded me of Taylor Jenkins-Reid’s books in many ways. I love the journal entries in between each chapter, which are told from Emily’s perspective. They become all the more poignant when you reach the conclusion of the book.
I highly recommend this book! It is a wonderful exploration of the power we all hold over our own lives and the power of forgiveness as well. The ending was perfect (and surprising!) Overall, a beautiful story with realistic, relatable and flawed characters.
(Thank you to the publisher for an advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review.)