There’s a lot I’ve never told my best friend. The fact that I love him. That I miss him every day he’s gone. That, sometimes, I ache for him with a ferocity that leaves me breathless.

Lucky Buchanan tore into my life as a boy, wild and daring, my opposite in every way. He drew me in, stole my heart without trying. He hears me, even though I rarely speak a word. But I always knew this place wouldn’t be enough for my free-spirited friend. I knew he wasn’t mine to keep.

So why, when I finally try to get over him, does he sweep back into town? Why is he upset? Why is there tension between us for the first time in years?

I never saw a future where Lucky could be mine. But now, unless I want to lose my friend, I might not have a choice but to tell the truth. My heart belongs to him. It has from the start.

If only I knew how to hold onto a creature that’s meant to fly.

To Catch a Firefly, by Emmy Sanders

Rating: 5 out of 5!

It’s been a while since a book thoroughly destroyed me, but this one achieved that. Not in a bad way, but in a way that just left me a weeping mess because the story was so beautiful.

Ellis and Lucky are seemingly opposites when they meet as young children in rural Nebraska. We have Lucky, who is outgoing, excitable, and always looking to escape the small town in which they grow up. Ellis, though, is quiet, steady, and at ease with his lot in life. He is content to stay home and care for his ailing mother while Lucky strikes out into the world as a nature magazine photographer.

Although Ellis is neurodivergent and rarely speaks much, he and Lucky have a bond and an understanding. Lucky knows all of the words that Ellis doesn’t say, and the communication between them is (usually) easy for all that. Lucky calls Ellis frequently when on the road, excitedly telling Ellis about his adventures as he travels around the world. The emails that Ellis writes to Lucky in turn, though never sent, are beautiful, though. He expresses all of the care and love that he cannot say in fear of upsetting their close friendship. It takes a while for Lucky to figure out that the true love of his life has been there all along, waiting patiently, but once he does it’s wonderful.

This book is so good and so well-written. If you’re looking for lots of action it may not be for you. This one is character-driven, but we learn to know Ellis and Lucky so well that when they find their happily ever after it is all the more appreciated. Observations made in passing stuck with me, and the truth of them struck home – and at times left me in tears.

Maybe that’s what makes love—all the moments, big and small. All the memories piled up one on top of the other, just like those Northern Lights that paint across the sky at the edge of the world. Maybe, when it comes down to it, love is in the act of living. It’s choosing—breathing—that person every single day.

I loved this book so much, and highly recommend it.