I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Net Galley.

This book came highly recommended to me by another early reader. But I didn't connect with it at all. I found the characters to be vapid and it all to be so depressing.

I can't recommend this book.

This was a average read for me. I just couldn't get fully into the story. My interest picked up at teh ending, but I just didn't find the characters particularly engaging.

I had a lot of trouble with this book. The characters were the worst? But I kept reading it anyway to see what would happen next. They kind of kept being the worst. There. Done.

Just a gripping, modern take on a love story that begins around 9/11 and tells of all the hope and betrayals along the way until reaching the present. It was heart-wrenching, but wonderfully written. I really fell for these characters!

This was a very good audiobook. I don't always like when they're read by the author, but she did a good job. This was a poignant love story, a bit soap opera like, which the author even alludes to in the story, but well done. I very much enjoyed Lucy's story.

While this book kept me interested and I wanted to know what happened, I had some major issues with the main love story. I got super frustrated with the main character and felt like she was doing everything she could to throw away potential happiness.

Let’s begin with the simple review: I loved this book. I loved it so much that I couldn’t sleep the night that I finished it because I could not stop thinking about the characters. I just loved it, and I dearly hope you read this so that we can talk about it.

Lucy and Gabe meet on a day that alters their lives forever. If it had been any other day, perhaps their story would have turned out differently. But this particular day, this particular time, impacts them profoundly.

Theirs is an insta-love kind of thing. They know, immediately, that they have a connection they have not, will not, and cannot find in anyone else. Yet life is strange, and sometimes we do lose the titular light. They reconnect about a year, and it seems like destiny finally sorted itself out.

The thing about love, though, is that it rarely turns out the way you think it will. For one thing, Lucy and Gabe have diverging life dreams. What if the person you love has a dream he or she loves just as much? How can the two be reconciled? Gabe and Lucy make choices that may not keep them together, yet Jill Santopolo shows you that they are ever aware of each other. The love they shared together at the beginning of their relationship was so passionate, so affirming, so deeply charged that it cannot evaporate. It remains, even if it does not occupy all of their hearts.

Santopolo asks you what you would do if you were Lucy and Gabe. Would you sacrifice your dreams for someone else? Would you sacrifice moments of what you know are temporary happiness if they jeopardize the steady, secure happiness you have elsewhere? How can you open your heart to love someone else if you feel like you gave it away to another?

Lucy narrates this book as a letter of sorts to Gabe, showing him the cycle of how they found, lost, found again, and lost again their light. Despite the title, though, Santopolo lets you see that some lights cannot be fully extinguished. Some lights will shine forever.

As trite as this sounds, Jill Santopolo shows you that you must, indeed, make the most of every minute. You need to let light shine, however temporarily, and you also need to see that lights have different flames. Some shine brighter, some stronger, some briefer, some longer.

Grab some tissues and immerse yourself in this poignant, beautifully written book.

This was a wonderful read. It was a fast paced wonderful love story.

Review: The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo
I read this books months ago, I decided to hold off on writing a review until closer to publication date and then waited too long. Now I feel compelled to finish the review because I'm seeing this book everywhere. I didn't enjoy this book much at all. I found the love story to be weak and the story line to be very predictable. I was describing the book to someone else, and they kept guessing what happened, and they were right each time.

Sometimes I read a love story, and I find myself thinking I may be missing out in life because it all sounds so wonderful, even if things do end badly. (My favorite love stories are those that end badly - Wuthering Heights, Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, English Patient, you get the idea.) But other times, I read a story in which the primary love story is so unsettling, it gives me a brand new appreciation for my single status. This book falls into the latter category.

I was looking for something romantic and tragic, and hoped this would be it. But for one, while I understood that the events in the story were pretty dreary, I never felt a strong emotional connection to the characters or their situation. The love, which seemed like more of an infatuation, seemed very one-sided.

The main character, the person telling the story, was such a weak character. Throughout the entire story, she continued to allow things to happen to her, never taking control of the situation. She meets Gabe in class, and it's a very intense situation. They share a moment on a day they'll never forget, and she thinks she's met the love of her life. Next time she speaks to him, she learns he's returned to his ex-girlfriend. They eventually do get together, but Gabe leaves her to pursue his career. For the next few years, they're in and out of each other's lives, but their whole history together seems to be about him turning to her when he's alone and can't find anyone better.

This character marries someone she doesn't love because she feels like she's expected to marry him, she has children because it's expected. I was so bothered by the situations in which she became pregnant. Despite being secure financially and loving her job (which her husband wants her to quit), she has a fairly awful life. So of course she continues to think the relationship that ended shortly after her college days is the ideal situation. To me, it didn't seem like a great love affair, but rather a desperate need to escape.

A lot of people seem to like this book. I'm not one of them.

I also don't like the way it's being marketed as "the next Me Before You." Seeing this, you know there must be some sort of tragedy. But other than that, there isn't anything similar.

I received a review copy via NetGalley.

This book really wasn't my type so I hesitate to rate it. It was well written but didn't like the story

The description for this book hooked me, but I had to force myself to finish it. I didn't find the characters particularly likeable and frankly didn't care much what happened to them. At least it was an easy read.

I loved this beautifully written book. I enjoyed the second person narration, although it lent a certain ominous feeling to the story, perhaps because the only other book I've read that was written like this was Lionel Shriver's "We Need To Talk About Kevin." Although it is true that Lucy did hang on a bit obsessively to her feelings for Gabe, despite the fact that both had ostensibly moved on with their lives and that significant time passed between each of their contacts with each other, I felt that both her feelings for Gabe and her relationship with Darren were understandable and rang true. I highly recommend this book. Many thanks for the publisher and NetGalley for the advance electronic copy.

This is a debut novel that is gut wrenching and will tear your heart out at the same time. For Lucy and Gabe who meet on 9/11 while seniors at Columbia University on the very day that changed our world as we knew it. Their love for each other is unquestionable but forces them to make decisions that will take them continents away from each other, face trials, betrayals and jealousy while looking for ways for their lives to have meaning on a journey lasting 13 long years-without losing their love for each other. This is a must read that will stay with you long after you've finished the last page.

This was a beautiful but sad romantic story. It was about first loves and the choices we make in our lives and how they come back to haunt us long after those choices have been made. The story of Gabe and Lucy's love is told over increments of time from Lucy's perspective. They first meet on Sept 11th 2001 and were able to find comfort in one another during this horrific event. This event had a big impact on both of them. Lucy and Gabe's connection was intense and each found it hard to let that connection go even though their lives took different paths. Jill Santopolo told a beautifully romantic but sad love story. I would definitely read another book from this author. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Comparisons to One Day and Me Before You are understandable but this novel stands on its own merit. It really touched me in ways I didn't anticipate. Even though it's easy to figure out how the story will unfold the emotional payoff is worth hanging on till the end. The characters and their experiences are relatable. I really loved liked this book and have hope for a sequel. There's so much more to explore with these relationships.

“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 11th 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.

I loved this book! The writing is excellent, the characters so real they leapt off the page and into my heart.

I could relate to Lucy and Gabe - - couldn't everyone? Doesn't everyone have someone in their past with whom they might have wanted a second chance? Love can be tricky and there are all different kinds of love - not that one is better or worse, just different.

This book made me FEEL. That's something magical. And when I finished, I wanted to know more - wished I could know what happened next That's the sign of a good book to me - - when I don't want it to end.

On 9/11, life changed for many people, including Columbia University students Lucy and Gabe, because this is the day they first met. Circumstances separated them until a year later when they meet again in a bar and this time it seems like nothing can keep them apart. But, while Lucy is happy with her job as a TV producer in New York, Gabe is restless and wants to do something that will change the world. So he takes his camera and goes to Iraq to capture the war, leaving behind his life with Lucy. Over the years, as Lucy goes on with her life, marrying Darren and having children, and Gabe travels all over the world with his camera, they will keep in contact and meet again, their love for each other never really fading.
This book broke my heart - it’s such a beautiful and heart-breaking love story. I loved the character of Lucy, even though I didn’t always agree with her choices. As much as I liked Darren (although I wanted to hit him when he said that a mother should give up her job to stay at home with her kids), I am team Gabe. He is a bit selfish and self-centred, but how can you not love a guy who quotes Shakespeare? Beautifully written, consuming and romantic, this unforgettable novel will take you on an emotional rollercoaster so, before you start reading it, stock up on tissues because you will need them.

This was a pretty heart touching book about a girl who met a guy she could never forget. He had dreams to travel as a photographer and make the world a better place. His dreams were the most important thing to him, so he left to the Middle East and became a famous photographer. The girl never forgot him even as she moved on, got married and had kids. Occasionally they would reconnect and it would always be a huge deal to her.

The one bad part about this book is the style in which it was written. It is told as a story from the girl to the guy, but with all of the references in the past tense, so we know that something happens to boy eventually. I almost had to give up because the style was grating to me, but I'm (kinda) glad that I kept going.

This book. Oh my. The Light We Lost is one of those books that everyone will relate to. Jill perfectly describes the pain of losing your first love, but also all of the joy that comes with it. This book will break your heart in the very best way. I highly recommend.