4 out of 4 stars.

C’est très interessant!

Brooke Thompson has an affair with her older college professor in Andrea Dunlop’s “Losing the Light”. Once the teacher’s wife finds out she quickly rats out the situation to the university and it leads to the teacher being fired and Brooke on her way to study abroad to get her out of their hair. I imagine an underage girl is not a good look for them to take on a true suspension. Where do they send her? Nantes, France, a north-western seaside town. Not too shabby. Before the trip, she is introduced to Sophie. A girl who seems like she has everything; blonde hair, athletic, and sociable. She is definitely not someone who Brooke would imagine would be interested in her. However, they become fast friends. They make a pact to share all their secrets and anything of value to them. All good until a slick-rick Frenchman walks into the picture. Would seem like all harmless young girl nonsense until someone winds up dead..

I love France so that helped with my addiction to quickly reading through this book. The scenery is gorgeous that this book is set in. Dunlop does such a wonderful job of describing the warm and cold breezes I feel like I am going through each season with them. Also, the characters are all so relatable. Due to the ending it is clear that there is some unstableness going on with them, but I still feel as if I can identify with each and every one of them. Overall, it is hard to believe this was a debut author. The writing was so easy to go through but also descriptive and captivating. A hard mix to establish. It has been a long time since I stayed up reading a book past my bedtime but this one I just could not put down.

I recommend if you like books to take you to some place beautiful, characters that feel like friends, and a plot that keeps you continuing to guess!