Losing The Light by Andrea Dunlop

Brooke Thompson is an ordinary girl from an ordinary small city in California.  She longs for something more, something better.  College is her first taste of getting away but she doesn't really fit in.  She watches the other girls in envy, especially the tall, blonde, athletic girls that are always in the midst of every social occasion and who seem to know how to fit in effortlessly.  She knows she won't be part of their circles.  Brooke drifts through her year but when she gets involved in a scandal, the college offers her a year abroad in France.

She goes to France, determined to remake herself and become the person who gets the kind of life she's imagined.  She is surprised to find one of the other students is a girl from her college, Sophie, who was always one of the golden girls.  Sophie is bright and beautiful and popular and Brooke can't believe it when she is singled out by Sophie to be her best friend in France.  But the friendship seems real and soon the two girls are totally entwined.  They are determined to become as French as they can and ignore all the other American students in their program, spending their time together and plotting a future where they leave their pasts and live forever in France.

They meet a French friend, Veronique, through the program and soon they are part of her circle.  She is an actress and is surrounded with other friends in the arts.  There are artists, writers, sculptors and the girls feel that they can fit right in.  They meet Veronique's cousin and are fascinated by Alex who is a successful photographer.  Soon the two become three as they spend more and more time with Alex at his grandmother's house and then at his villa at the beach.  Alex has everything they ever wanted and he seems willing to share it all with them.  Can two ever truly become three?  As the two girls are drawn deeper into Alex's life, it all rushes to a tragedy that will tear their lives apart.

Andrea Dunlop has written a novel that will touch the memories and hearts of readers.  We each remember that first friendship that seemed would never change, one in which two people trust each other without reserve and share everything.  We all remember the first obsessive love we have, where every minute is consumed with the wonder of that person wanting us in return and the heady stuff of sexual obsession.  For most of us, these are pleasant memories but for a few, they are disastrous.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.