The Light We Lost Hardcover – May 9, 2017

Poorly written in an awkward and distracting first person point of view.Author is never able to establish the central premise. These characters are supposed to have an intense, tragic romance that moves us to tears and sadness. But this is not portrayed by the book or characters. Rather, the author just tells us that it is an intense and tragic romance. She never convincingly shows us. The characters are unlikeable and selfish. Because of the first person point of view I never even remotely understood the main male character's motivations. The characters never have a serious discussion regarding their relationship. No depth whatsoever. We are just told to believe their romance is amazing and worth the constant betrayal of the main characters wonderful husband and children. Emotional and physical adultery are portrayed as hopelessly romantic. Finished and could not have cared less about the "tragic" ending. Last punch of the book was Lucy ruining her third son's life with another first person (lol) letter saying what an amazing guy Gabe was.

Maybe I wouldn’t have hated this book as much if I didn’t hate the selfish, self absorbed, delusional narrator so much. I also couldn’t get past that this “love story” began after the twin towers were bombed by terrorists on 9/11. Maybe because I lived through that (like anyone else born before that date) and remember clearly it was not a time for romance. This story read more to me like a cautionary tale on the importance of LETTING GO as opposed to obsessing over lost first loves. I almost feel sorry for anyone who would actually identify with Lucy. Please, move on. You deserve better and I promise you better IS out there.

I found the book ok, but I have to say that I think that is biased because of my age. I thought Gabe was a selfish prick who did not care about the havoc he wrought in Lucy's personal life. He cared about people but only from afar. Lucy was willing to ruin her family, cause upheaval in her children's lives, hurt a man who had done nothing but love her. If she had truly loved Gabe, she would have left with him the first time. Now that is from a perspective of 66 years. If I was 23, I would have loved this book. So go figure.

I found this book unbelievably boring and slow and o.m.g. so many moments I thought like Phoebe from Friends, ‘Get yourself together, woman!’ towards Lucy. I cannot in good conscience recommend this book. For shame, RW. One of the reviewers had it right when they said it was more like a mental issue-obsession than love.I also did not like the justification of infidelity. The worship of “true love” and its ideal is so blown out of proportion. I sometimes wonder how much detriment and disservice Hollywood and the Westernized way of thinking does to us.But then again, that’s why we read books... to escape reality.I just couldn’t get into the story. I didn’t feel the main character was strong enough. Or well developed.

Mild spoiler alert!! I won't tell the ending, but my opinions on the plot are hard to explain without some examples from the book.I had heard a lot of hype about this book. It has a good premise, and the writing was very clean and straight forward. No bells or whistles, but had a way of cutting to the point very succinctly. I appreciated the writing. With that being said, it was conversely very dream-like, partially due to the 1st person voice retelling a story in flashbacks that started college in NYC during 9/11 and went to somewhat present time. The perspective was unique, in that although it was first person, Lucy was telling the story TO the other character, her first love, Gabe. So there were a lot of random "But you remember that I'm sure" kind of lines thrown in that caused brief confusion to me as the reader. About halfway through I got tired of the entire premise. Each chapter ends with a mysterious cliff hanger sentence of impending doom, and it builds and builds. The reader is waiting for this huge event/climax to wrap it all up, and it just never really happened. That part fell flat. The other thing that started to bug me was I felt less like this was sweet first love and more like this was obsessive-mental-disorder love. There is a time to grow up and move on, Lucy. Still contacting your college boyfriend after you are married with kids is not only stupid and selfish, but what husband outside of an unrealistic book is ok with that? It just lost some of its realism to me and I lost more respect for Lucy with every page I turned. If she were my friend I would tell her to grow the hell up and move on. It was kind of pathetic, really. I wanted her to tell Gabe to lose her number and focus on her two children rather than spend what was by all accounts a wonderful life mooning over some selfish college love who dropped you like hot potato over and over again. It's called closure, Lucy!The three stars is for the concise, clean writing, and the fact that I did have a visceral reaction to the plot, even though it was wanting to smack them both and roll my eyes at the ending.

I'm shocked at how many 5 star reviews this got. This "love story" was nothing more than a story of infidelity. From the moment Lucy meets Darren (not far into the story) the book is entirely about how unfaithful she is. I did not find this romantic in the least bit. She disgusted me. Also I predicted the ending early on, it's pretty obvious.

I would give this a minus 5 stars. I wish I could get a refund. What a waste of time. I could not stand either of the main characters. Shallow, self-absorbed, selfish. To compare this to "The Notebook" as an epic love story that will make you cry your eyes out? I could not wait for it to be over. It was an easy read, and I only finished the book because I paid for it and thought that maybe there would something epic that would happen. Such a disappointment. I should read the 1 star reviews first from now on.

I started this book with high expectations, and did really enjoy it for a good half of the storyline. Lucy meets Gabe on September11 2001; As their city crumbles, they fall in love. Unfortunately, for me, I couldn't quite understand just what Lucy saw in Gabe, past the passion of youth. I felt Gave was a selfish character, and I struggled to understand why Lucy would continue to forgive him and be besotted with him. Especially after her marriage. I don't really want to give away the storyline, but for me it was ultimately disappointing and cliched - and by the end of the novel, I had very little sympathy left for Lucy. Yes, we have all felt loved first bitter sting, but then we grow older and wider and appreciate the deeper love we find. I am sad to say, I feel rather let down by this story, after such a bold beginning. Less Romeo and Juliet for me, more Hamlet.

This book was an okay easy read, the story line was catchy and I found myself reaching for it whenever I could spare the time to read. However, the characters were extremely unlikable. I just could not understand them and found myself hating Lucy and Gabe. I didn't read the last chapter as I saw no point, the story line kept on repeating itself, so I just skipped to the last few pages. People have compared it to One Day by David Nicholls but I would say it does not compare in the slightest. Don't waste your time reading this.

Ive been trying to read this for about a month now and only a quarter of the way through. I just can’t get into it but I’m loath to put it down unfinished. To put that into persoective, the last few books I really enjoyed, I got through in a couple of days.I bought it based on excellent reviews and recommendation from other purchases but I’m underwhelmed so far.

Really captivating, I read it in only a few sittings.It’s about really imperfect people being faced with big choices and having to live with their decisions and mistakes. And it’s about the things unsaid and undone as much as actions. Love in this book is wonderful and awful and complicated.I really loved the short chapters, even though one more turned into ten more quickly

I really enjoyed this book because it was a nice, easy read. I found myself turning the pages and didn’t want to put it down. I was a little underwhelmed towards the end and I felt it was quite predictable, but I’m sucker for this kind of story! I wasn’t too sure about the characters, but grew to like them in the end! Definitely recommend to take on holiday for an easy read.