Fisher,
I guess this is it, huh? After fourteen years together, starting a life of our own on this island, five deployments and countless letters I’ve written you through it all, I finally go out to the mailbox and see something I’ve always dreamed of: an envelope with your handwriting on it. For one moment, I actually thought you’d changed your mind, that all the awful things you said to me were just your way of coping after everything you’d been through. I was still here, Fisher. I was still here, holding my breath, waiting for you to come back even though you told me you never would. You always said you’d find your way back to me. Out of all the lies you’ve told me, this one hurts the most.
Enclosed you will find the signed divorce papers, as requested.
I hope you find what you’re looking for. I’m sorry it wasn’t me.
Lucy
To get the ending they want, Lucy and Fisher will have to go back to the beginning. Through the good and the bad, they’ll be reminded of why they always made their way back to each other, and why this time, one way or another, it will be the last time.
Contemporary Romance
“I should have realized that she was my light. She was everything bright and beautiful about my life and it went to shit after she left.”
Tara Sivec delivers her best non-comedic novel (and arguably best work to date) in this heart-wrenching tale about love, war, second chances and forgiveness. The story gripped me immediately, drawing me in to the swirl of sadness and regret that bled off the page. Fisher and Lucy’s story is rife with complication. It’s the story of a love interrupted… a love broken by the brutal memories of war, of blood and bombs and fallen friends and things that wholly change a man to his core. But it’s also about a love that keeps fighting, keeps burning, keeps hoping. I loved the emotion it evoked, the message it imparted and the way the story came to life with past and present chapters, with letters from a journal that conveyed truths hidden beneath hurtful words.
“I love her so much and all I’m doing is hurting her. The one person in my life who never lets me down and all I keep doing is breaking her apart.”
Fisher and Lucy fell in love in high school. He was the popular boy surrounded by friends, sought after by girls, but when he saw Lucy, a girl who deflected his charm immediately, who was quiet, but feisty, he never again had eyes for another girl. But Fisher was ready to leave the small island community where they lived to go make a difference in the Marines.
“You’re my light and my life and all I need is your love to guide me home, no matter where I go.”
Immediately we learn Lucy and Fisher are divorced in present day and it’s obvious that Fisher hurt her in a way that cut deep. By going back in time and seeing their love slowly uprooted, we’re able to understand how Fisher’s multiple deployments changed him, how it affected their relationship, how it warped the very real life they built with each other.
But thirteen months of living with hurt can change anyone and sometimes even the best intentions cannot be repaired. Fisher left Lucy, and when he returns after more than a year to win back the life he treasured, the love of his life, he finds a Lucy that is stronger but still hurt… a Lucy that has moved on.
“I’m scared to death that he’ll break my heart all over again.”
This novel allows us to experience the highs and lows of their relationship and some parts are so hard to read, with words slung that are so hurtful that even I felt the burn. It’s really a story about figuring out if love is enough to survive the worst, if love can forgive what seems unforgivable, if love is so resilient that it can be mended when it’s been shattered and stepped on and seemingly forgotten.
“Loving you meant loving every part of you, the good and the bad, the easy and the hard.”
I loved that we had intensity and emotion, but we also had some of Tara’s trademark humor in places where levity was needed. I devoured the entire story in one evening… I just couldn’t stop reading. These are my favorite types of stories—second chance romances full of conflicting emotions and desire—and this one was a wonderful one to read. Don’t miss this very real, very compelling novel… you’ll devour it just as I did, I’m sure.
“You are always the light in my darkness. You’re the reason I’m alive, you’re the reason I’m here and you’re the reason I breathe, every day.”
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