Lucy and Gabe meet in Shakespeare class in college and share one kiss as they *gasp* watch the Twin Towers burn on 9/11. Sure...

Gabe gets back together with his ex that same day (what a guy), but they eventually reconnect and have a whirlwind 5-month romance before Gabe leaves to live his best life as a war photographer. They both promised to honor each other's dreams, but Lucy is still devastated as Gabe leaving her behind to allow her to continue pursuing her easily attained dream job as a children's TV producer was not really what she had in mind.

From this terribly schlocky premise, we follow Lucy as she tries to get over Gabe but always carries a torch for him as he will unexpectedly drop her a line and reel her back into his curly haired, tortured artist, formerly abused child drama. Lucy finds find a new guy, but he is just too nice and NOT Gabe. Instead of being honest, she gets sucked into the new guy's life plan. She's "happy" but it again isn't exactly what she really wants. Honestly, people, use honesty.

Of course, the book promised a shocking ending. Spoiler alert, not shocking, someone dies. It is meant to break your heart but really I just felt relief the whole thing was over.

Overall, Gabe is a complete turd, Lucy is a wet blanket who should tell people what she really wants from life, and her new husband is a "Nice Guy" who smothers her with surprises and gets mad when she doesn't react the way he expects. He also calls her a "paper doll," and that is so sick. Basically, she met all of his checkpoints on his list, she looked good on paper, so he went for her. Gross.

I gave this book two stars because I did finish it, and the prose was lovely.