It’s been almost a decade since Jill Santopolo published her hugely popular adult debut, THE LIGHT WE LOST, which is about a couple whose decade-long series of near-misses and reconciliations ends in tragedy. The novel’s many fans --- who certainly didn’t want Lucy’s story simply to end in heartbreak --- will be ecstatic to be able to revisit these characters and relish once again Santopolo’s thoughtful meditations on love, loss, and the ways in which both fate and free will play roles in our lives.

Much like in “the real world,” nearly a decade has passed in the world of the novel. Now divorced and sharing custody of their three children with her ex-husband, Darren, Lucy continues to throw herself wholeheartedly into parenting her kids and into her career as a producer of children’s television. She certainly hasn’t had any time for love or romance, though she thinks of her lost love, Gabe, almost continually. In fact, the whole narrative is written from Lucy’s perspective but addressed to Gabe’s absent “you.”

"Readers already familiar with Lucy’s story will be thrilled to reconnect with her, to see how far she has come on her journey, and to root her on to take the next step."

But Gabe is not entirely absent; he lives on in Lucy’s youngest son, Samuel. Sammy is actually Gabe’s biological child --- conceived in a moment of infidelity when Lucy’s marriage to Darren was on especially shaky footing --- though Darren has insisted not only on raising Sammy as his own child but on keeping the truth a secret from Sammy and everyone else. As Sammy gets older, however, Lucy feels like he is owed his whole story --- and Darren’s reluctance to share the secret resurfaces old tensions.

Gabe’s legacy is especially on Lucy’s mind after his former editor at the Associated Press reaches out to her. With the 10-year anniversary of Gabe’s death in Gaza approaching, they want to sponsor an exhibition of his photographs and reissue his book with updated material. Lucy is moved by the gesture, but when she opens up Gabe’s boxes to find some photo files, she discovers an old envelope she has never seen before. The return address in Rome is unfamiliar to her but calls to her. In a rare moment of spontaneity, she books herself a trip there to track down the letter-writer --- and winds up changing the narrative not only for Gabe’s retrospective but also for her own future.

While in Italy, Lucy follows clues to the island of Lampedusa, where she discovers a whole chapter of Gabe’s life that was previously unknown to her. She also encounters Dax Armstrong, an American pediatrician who’s spending six months there, working with an NGO to address the medical needs of the many migrant children traveling through Lampedusa on their way to find asylum in Europe. She is moved by Dax’s empathy and kindness. Is it possible that her heart is ready to find love again?

Readers already familiar with Lucy’s story will be thrilled to reconnect with her, to see how far she has come on her journey, and to root her on to take the next step. Santopolo also has built plenty of backstory into the narrative, in a way that will be reassuring not only to those who didn’t read THE LIGHT WE LOST but also to those (like myself) who remember the broad outlines of Lucy and Gabe’s love story but not its details.

If the romance plot in THE LOVE WE FOUND lacks some intensity and chemistry in comparison with the first novel, the rest of the book’s richness definitely makes up for it. In many ways, this follow-up is less about Lucy’s particular romantic relationship than it is about her ability to make space for it. And it’s at least as much about her relationship with her children and, more abstractly, with her memories as it is about falling in love. In that way, this is a more mature, gratifying novel that will resolve many readers’ questions and satisfy their hopes for Lucy and her family.