Everything After by Jill Santopolo

336 pages

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Light We Lost mixes with a touch of Daisy Jones and the Six in this novel of first love, passion, and the power of choice--and how we cannot escape the people we are meant to be.

Two loves. Two choices. One chance to follow her dreams.

Emily has come a long way since she lost her two passions fifteen years ago: music, and Rob. She's a psychologist at NYU who helps troubled college students like the one she once was. Together with her caring doctor husband, Ezra, she has a beautiful life. They're happy. They hope to start a family. But when a tragic event in Emily's present too closely echoes her past, and parts of her story that she'd hoped never to share come to light, her perfect life is suddenly upturned. Then Emily hears a song on the radio about the woman who got away. The melody and voice are hauntingly familiar. Could it be? As Emily's past passions come roaring back into her life, she'll find herself asking: Who is she meant to be? Who is she meant to love?

Jill Santopolo has a gift for writing poignant, and a little heartbreaking, stories. It is the case with this new book as well.
Everything After is the story of Emily Salomon and the ways her life has change, the decisions she had had to make and how they have taken her to different paths. It is a love story but it is a story about loss, about sadness and about happiness too.
The characters, especially Emily are complex and well built. It is easy to empathize with her and to feel the need to be there for her. I like how strong she was but that she was not perfect either.
I think the story deals with important topics sch as marriage, therapy, miscarriages and I liked how music takes a part in everything.
The story has flashbacks to the past in the way of a journal Emily wrote, and I enjoyed reading her previous story but sometimes it was confusing to change narrator.
-MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS-
I believe the story ends up in a nice way, something realistic but to be honest I was expecting more. Rob was an interesting character and even when I appreciate this is not just another story where someone leaves their previous life so easily I felt there was a lot of build up to Rob and Emily’s relationship and connection and then just… puff. They did not really talk, and then everything was going right. I am not saying they should have ended up together; just that maybe there was something missing there to have closure in that part.
Nevertheless, the story is beautiful and captivating. I do not usually read books about married couples wanting kids, because I cannot relate but in this case, I believe that since the story is much deeper, it works and it is something many people should read.

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 DRC Thanks to Netgalley and Publisher