** spoiler alert ** I loved getting to continue Lucy’s story from The Light We Lost. Ten years after losing Gabe, Lucy is still struggling with the love of her life being gone.

The story tells us of how her marriage fared, the consequences of her actions and the ways she hasn’t coped with losing Gabe. For the 10 year anniversary, Gabe’s book is being re-released and his boss at the AP wants to include his old photos. While looking through them, Lucy finds a slip of paper with an address in Rome. She can’t let it go and decides to visit.

The visit is a turning point in her life. She learns even more about Gabe, and discovers a new love interest when she meets Dr. Dax Armstrong who also happens to be from New York.

We get to see how Lucy navigates old feelings, new feelings and hard decisions that have haunted her for years. Some novels just need a follow up, and The Light We Lost definitely did. This was a really moving story and I’m so glad I got to read an advanced copy. Thank you net galley and publisher for selecting me to read this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Putnam Books for the ARC of The Love We Found. The Light We Lost continues to be one of my most loved and most recommended books and I loved getting the continuation of Lucy’s story. This one continued with the same heart and emotional depth and really dug in to managing grief and letting people you once loved go so you can truly move on. It was a beautifully written story and anyone who loved The Light We Lost will also love this one.

4.5/5

This book was great. I re-read The Light We Lost before reading this one so I was fully remembered everything. This was the perfect follow up for Lucy. It’s well written and I couldn’t put it down. I loved seeing how Lucy’s life progressed and how she was able to get through her grief and find love again. I liked how she stood up for herself to Darren when dealing with a tough subject.

If you liked the first book. You’ll like this book!!!!!

Santopolo revists the world of THE LIGHT WE LOST in this beautifully emotional novel. It will leave you hopeful about second chances. Make sure tissues are nearby!

ARC REVIEW

The Love we Found
by Jill Santopolo

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 ( 5 out of 5)

Publishing date: 3/18/25

I want to start out by saying I had to slice the book cover image and piece back together due to cropping and sizing issues.

Next....this. was. incredible.


Now this is a follow up book to "The Light we Lost" which was one of my favorite books of 2024. I read it this time last year if you want to scroll and find my review. You should definitely read that one first before reading this new one. The author does a great job of recapping the previous book, but to feel the raw emotion of the characters, you should read the first book.

I loved this. I read it in a couple sittings and read 55% this morning. I don't want to spoil it or the first book so I will keep this vague. But it was beautiful. The feelings the conversations, and characters are so well written and realistic. It tackles real issues regarding marriage, romance, parenthood and grief-which is hard to do but was done perfectly. I cried numerous times and felt so many emotions.

I also want to add... The sexual encounter that happens in Italy was one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever read. It was not vulgar or obscene but alluring. Perfection, I swear.

Read this. Actually read the first book first, then this one.

@netgalley and @putnambooks - a million thanks for this opportunity!
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great start to 2025. the light we lost is one of my favorite books of all time. i was absolutely thrilled when i learned that there would be a sequel.

when the light we lost ended, i had so many unanswered questions. would lucy ever tell her darren he was not the father to their son? would lucy ever tell her son about gabe? would lucy ever truly get over gabe and move forward?

the light we found answered all those questions and gave me the closure i needed.

thank you so much to net galley and penguin group putnam for the arc. it was truly a pleasure to read.

The Love We Found by Jill Santopolo is the long-awaited follow-up to her bestselling novel, The Light We Lost. The story picks up ten years after the events of the first book, following Lucy as she discovers a mysterious address in Rome while going through old photos of her late partner, Gabe.
Driven by curiosity and a need for closure, Lucy impulsively travels to Rome, where she meets Dr. Dax Armstrong, a New Yorker working with an NGO. As Lucy delves into Gabe's past and navigates her growing connection with Dax, she faces difficult decisions about her current life and family.
It's a poignant tale about love, loss, and the choices that shape our lives.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Putnam for this ARC. I was so happy to see this pop up as the sequel to The Light We Lost. The continuation of Lucy's story, and wrapping up of Gabriel's, were the perfect conclusions to their decades long love story. A new adventure and love interest for Lucy while memorializing the 10 year anniversary of Gabe's death and navigating daily life as a divorced mom of 3. Heartbreakingly beautiful.

Unfortunately this one didn't work out so well for me. I had a really hard time with the writing. The author's prose felt like it was trying to hard and came across as a little pretentious. I had to DNF.



Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced digital copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I really liked this sequel to “The Light We Lost.” I loved the first book and was thrilled to learn there was a sequel. I loved Lucy and Gabe’s story and loved reading more about them but also more about Lucy coming into herself and battling with secrets and her family.

This was the sequel to “The Light We Lost” and it was as magnificent as the first. This book is written from Lucy’s point of view as a love letter to Gabe, and Jill Santopolo did a beautiful job at capturing the immense grief behind Lucy’s words. Lucy details what has occurred in her life over the ten years since the prior book, how her secrets have affected her and family, and how bringing everything into the light can be so hard but yet ultimately leads to healing. I loved how easy it was to connect with the characters and to feel a part of their stories - this is a gift that Santopolo has, which is not easy for authors to do. As much as I loved embarking on Lucy’s journey of both discovery and closure, I wish we’d gotten to see more of this next chapter of her life with Dax. Other than that, I thought this book was completely flawless.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read a digital ARC in advance of publication in exchange for an honest review.

This was a beautiful, moving and well executed sequel to one of my favorite books of all time, The Light We Lost. It's been 10 years since Lucy lost Gabe forever and she's still trying to put her life back together. She's separated from Darren and is focused mainly on her kids and work, barely surviving the weeks she doesn't have her three children at home. When Gabe's editor calls her to put together a book on the 10th anniversary of his death, she agrees to help. Little does she know it will lead her to her next great adventure where she meets people who were connected with Gabe and just maybe will lead her to someone who makes her feel alive again. It also leads her to digging up a secret from her past and it's time that secret became known to her family.

While the first book was more surrounding young love and roads not travelled, the sequel focuses more on Lucy as a mother and how she keeps her family glued together and puts them first, even if it means giving up the things that make her happy. I think as I get older I will appreciate the sequel even more. In the first book I felt a deep connection to Lucy, as I've felt the things she's felt, thought the things she's thought and have had similar experiences to her. As I'm not yet married or a mother I didn't connect as much to her in the sequel but that's just because I haven't reached those seasons in life yet.

Highly recommend picking this up and make sure you give the first one a reread before you do! You'll be able to pick up on little tidbits you might miss if it's been years since you read the first book.

Fans of The Light We Lost will find much to love in this heartfelt continuation of Lucy's story. Jill Santopolo beautifully explores themes of healing and rediscovery, showing Lucy’s journey toward finding new love while honoring her past. The emotional depth and relatable struggles make this story both moving and uplifting. While a few moments were a bit predictable and felt rushed, the overall narrative shines with hope and resilience. A wonderful sequel that leaves readers rooting for Lucy’s happiness!

⭐️⭐️.💫/5. The Love We Found by Jill Santopolo. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this advanced reader copy. Publication date is 3/18/25. This is a sequel to the Reese Witherspoon hyped novel, The Light We Lost. I read that one recently. It’s the one with the 9/11 meet-cute story. 😬. I found the protagonist Lucy to be incredibly selfish and she hasn’t really changed in this novel. Lucy is a single mom, living in a massive Brooklyn brownstone with her three children, the youngest being the product of her affair with photojournalist Gabe, the main love interest in the first novel. She’s divorced from Darren, and they are sharing custody. Gabe’s former publisher wants to do a retrospective gallery show of Gabe’s photographs. Lucy hops of a plane to Italy to do some research. There she meets the handsome NY doctor, Dax. Of course, nothing with Lucy is easy. Everything is complicated, and quite frankly, do we really care? Then there’s the drama about whether they will tell her youngest who is really his dad. Again, I didn’t like the main character, and that made both of these novels hard for me. Romance isn’t my thing! #eh #netgalley #thelovewefound #bookstagram #bookgram #reading #jillsantopolo #bookworm #whatiread #skipthisone #romance #goodreads

I did really like The Light We Lost and how it wasn’t your typical romance. I think it ended perfectly and we didn’t need this sequel. What bugged me the most were the kids actually. At times they spoke and acted like adults and then the next chapter they were like toddlers. It didn’t make sense to me. Overall I just didn’t think there needed to be more to this story.

Thank you, NetGalley, for this arc.
I loved the first book, maybe not as much because Lucy’s complicated love triangle was having me feel mixed emotions towards her. Now that it’s 10 years later, I can see how conflicted she was in the past and she has been making better decisions. I truly enjoyed each chapter and it was pretty suspenseful towards the end, just like the last book was. I definitely appreciate the closure I got from this book. I hardly ever like the second book more than the first, but I just felt full circle on this one!

Han pasado 10 años desde la muerte de Gabe y Lucy sigue igual de obsesionada, incluso creo que más, ya que, debido a su muerte, de repente lo coloca en un pedestal, como si él fuera la mejor persona. Todos sus recuerdos son ahora solo momentos bonitos, en los que Gabe jamás hizo nada malo.

Sin duda, estuvo mejor que el anterior, pero aún así, ella sigue cayéndome mal. Aquí vemos cómo enfrenta el hecho de que Sammy fuera hijo de Gabe, y la verdad me dio mucha pena Darren, porque la cobarde no le dijo que no era su hijo biológico hasta meses después de su nacimiento. Eso sí, me gustó cómo él reaccionó al decir que era su hijo y que nada cambiaría eso.

Finalmente, después de estar sola por años, de repente conoce a alguien de quien se enamora a primera vista. Esta parte del libro me fue indiferente.


Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I eat up anything written by Jill Santopolo, so I was thrilled for a chance to read and review “The Love We Found.” To read the sequel to “The Light We Lost?” It’s Christmas morning.

We pick up with Lucy ten years later who is approaching the tenth anniversary of Gabe’s death. While looking through Gabe’s belongings for pictures, she discovers an address to a place in Rome. Of course, she is going to board a flight to follow this lead. But what she discovers is much more than more information on who Gabe was. And of course, what happens in Italy leads Lucy to realize you can have more than one love.

“The Love We Found” tenderly focuses on grief and how to move forward after such a heart-aching loss. There isn’t as much movement forward in this novel as there is character exploration. I struggled a lot with remembering what happened in the first book (which I should have reread before starting this one). Like many sequels, this book is not as good as the original but you will still enjoy it.

Four out of five stars.

Thanks to the author, the publisher and Net Galley for a chance to read this book.

It’s been almost five years since I read the first book in this series, and I honestly couldn’t believe how quickly I was able to slip back into the world and the characters I’d loved so much. The first book touched me deeply, and even after all this time, I can still remember the emotions it stirred up. So, when I picked up this sequel, I was beyond excited to see what would happen next. I wasn’t disappointed—it was just as gripping and heartfelt as the first.

The healing process in this book really stood out to me. It felt deeply personal, and I could relate to it in ways I wasn’t expecting. Life isn’t perfect, and I don’t expect stories to be either. The ups and downs of the characters made me feel like I wasn’t alone in my own struggles. I love how impulsive decisions, even when they don’t lead to the best outcomes, still move people forward.

It was comforting to watch the characters grow and change, even through their mistakes. I saw a part of myself in their choices—acting on impulse, even though I know sometimes it’s not the best solution. Yet, like them, I keep moving forward, learning from those moments. The story stayed with me long after I finished, reminding me of the emotional depth and personal growth I experienced while reading.

I love this cover! The book was just okay. To be honest, I think it would have been better if I had just read the first book, but I read the first book when it first came out (and I LOVED it) and so it had a huge disconnect for me. It just didn’t live up to the expectations that I had for it. It was still a decent story, but I probably would have enjoyed it more right after the first one and would highly recommend reading them together.. I love watching the main character come into her own and finding her own way, but it fell a little bit flat, I still enjoy Jill Santopolo and would happily read another one of her books in the future.

Thanks NetGalley and G.P. Putnam’s Sons for the ARC.