Fisher's Light

I just read this again for the first time! At least it felt that way. I got emotional and cried and felt so much. This writer simply makes you feel. And while there are painful parts it really satisfied at the end. Young couple marry he goes to war, gets PTSD bad and pushed wife away and actually divorced her and he went into rehab because he was also an alcoholic. The scene where she sees him with the OW wannabe is sad. Trip his Grandfather was the best character. He was awesome.She saw another woman on his lap the night he went into rehab and he grabbed her bottom and almost kissed her because he was drunk and thought it was his wife but she actually dated a man for a couple of months and after the divorce was final and kissed and made out with him and he got to 2nd base and she continued to date him after Fisher was back. I didn't like that but he was awful to her before he left. She thought he had cheated on her many times and he just had lied and said awful stuff. He never contacted her for that year either.He was an awesome hero once he was treated for ptsd and drinking. Really liked him then. Very good emotional read. I am getting to read the after-quel about Trip the Grandfather. I think it's going to be a sad one. 😢

This book was mentioned on a few readers “favorite books” list. My mistake for not reading the critical reviews. I dislike books that go back and forth past and present. I find it difficult to get into the flow of the story. I found the heroine Lucy weak and annoying. Her behavior was immature for someone of her age and the length of time she was married. I don’t know enough about PTSD to comment on Fisher. The only thing I can say is if you’re looking for your next book boyfriend keep looking. I read to be entertained. I am entertained by many romance genres. I love my MC men, Mafia men, bad boys, arrogant Dukes and a few rom com men-Beautiful Bastard. This book seems like one of those ridiculous Hallmark movie stories. I realize I’m in the minority so my advice is read the critical reviews carefully.

Well...I didn't cry! Don't know what that says about me though!To begin, I have loved Tara Sivec for a long time as no one can bring the heat and the LOL quite as well as she can. This book, however, is quite a departure from what I have come to expect from her.Fisher's Light is deep emotional read. A forever kind of love that NEEDS a second chance. This is one of those reads that is beautiful yet broken. This is a story of young love, a real hard fought war, and survival against all odds. This is the story of Fisher and Lucy...While many people LOVED this, I found myself a bit on the fence. I start by saying that I liked the read, a lot. The story was moving and profound. I really connected and felt the pain of Fisher. His character was so sad and so traumatized that I shudders at his thoughts.I guess my main con would be the "second chance" of it all. While I do understand the idea of one true love, one soul stealing connection...I struggled a bit with the harsh events that destroyed Lucy and Fisher and the ease in which his return came about.I was completely in invested in the pain both characters were going thru. Yes, the angst was over the top, but I did not care. I felt the craziness and I could just feel the tears both Lucy and Fisher were dropping. Couple that with the author's awesome flashbacks to "happy beginnings" and I was moved.Maybe I'm just a mean girl. I know I am a terrible grudge holder, so I wanted Lucy to stand firm a bit more. I wanted more...but hey I do understand the SEX was GOOOOOOD! A girl can only hold out so long right? Oh well, I liked it. I thought it was written well. It had steam and angst. It had an epic love feel to it that was Good for me...just not great!

“No matter what, I will always find my way back to you.”The hardest thing to do when you find a book you end up loving body and soul is not to turn your review into an ode to the author and all the ways her words have moved you, thrilled you, inspired you, but I fear that I will fail miserably by the end of this review because this book took my breath away, and made me fall in love all over again with Tara Sivec’s spellbinding writing style. Heartfelt, gut-wrenching, romantic—this is a story that enthrals you completely, shutting out the world around you and overwhelming you emotionally until you cannot think of anything else. An epic love story like no other, Lucy and Fisher’s tale will forever hold a very special place in my heart, and it still brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it.“My life has been spent waiting for this man to come back to me.”Lucy and Fisher are high school sweethearts, each other’s first loves, each other’s only loves, but after Fisher’s five tours of duty over a fourteen-year span, the bulk of their marriage has effectively been spent living apart. Every single deployment has left Fisher just a little more broken each time, the horror of his memories continuously tormenting him and stripping him of his ever-waning grasp on reality. Until his terrifying fantasies start bleeding into his everyday consciousness, completely blurring the line between his past and present, thus putting in danger his very reason for living—his beloved wife.“She is my heart, my soul, my everything and I know it’s only a matter of time before I do something that could possibly kill her.”Lucy has spent her entire adult life as a military wife waiting for her husband to come back to her after his many deployments, making sure he had a loving place to come home to. In her early thirties, the owner of her own business, she has always worked hard to stay independent from her husband’s family legacy and wealth, the only thing she ever wanted out of life being her husband’s safe return and his love and devotion. But war has slowly changed the man she has loved since she was sixteen years old, chipping away at his sanity and the man who eventually returns after his last tour of duty is not the man she once knew.“I’ve never felt so alone, even when he was halfway across the world. I’m living in this house with my husband and I get to see him every day, but it feels like I’m living with a ghost.”As their past is revealed to us in snippets, their present and their past interlaced with one another and told simultaneously, we see their marriage as it came to be, we watch it survive distance and separation, and eventually succumb to the effects of the many traumatic events Fisher has lived and survived through, not to mention how little they know of one another by the end of it. With astonishing insight into the darkness of his mind and his struggle to keep it rooted in reality, we get to hear not only Fisher’s voice as he tries and fails to break free of the prison in his mind, but also the magnitude of Lucy’s heartbreak from the demise of her marriage and the gradual loss of her one and only love.“I want to take away his pain, to stop the hurt that fills his heart and his mind, but I feel like I’m so far out of my depth that I’m drowning.”And eventually, we see them lose it all. But this is not a story of lost love—this is a story of two people who have fought hard to stay together, to expel the demons tearing them apart, and who are forced to fight even harder to find their way back to one another. This is a story of second chances, of remembering the good and the bad that brought two people to a particular point in their relationship, and of never forgetting the great, once-in-a-lifetime kind of love that never allowed their bond to be truly broken.“How many people get a second chance at love with the only person they’ve ever held in their heart?”With impeccable, emotionally inspiring prose, Ms Sivec caught me by surprise with this novel, her once witty and entertaining voice now replaced by a more mature, confident writing style that made me regretful of having missed all the undoubtedly brilliant steps in the evolution of her craft. Even though this story is told in constant and often disjointed leaps from past to present, we are never distracted or confused by those leaps, as their tale becomes a puzzle that forms effortlessly in our minds, each new fragment of their past adding new layers to our perception of their present. By giving us a window into the psyche of both these characters, we grow attached to both of them in equal measure, our hearts breaking at their lows, and rejoicing at their highs. We get to feel the powerful love between them, and all they are willing to give of themselves in order to never let their bond wither away. This was one of the most intense, heart-wrenching stories I have ever read, as well as one of the most exquisite ones, and I wish there were a way to read it for the first time all over again.“I’m going to remind her why we’re perfect for each other. I’m going to show her that there’s no one else on this earth that can love her like I can.”

Omg I've had this book on my tbr for a few weeks now after buying it on the recommendation of authors and book blogs so before I decided to dive in to it I read some of the reviews on Goodreads which a lot of the time I rely on....there was a couple of 4 & 5 star reviews but there was also some bad reviews and I really don t understand why!!!This book was amazing since starting this last night I've had to put it down 3 times and it killed me to do so.....Fisher and Lucy..omg wot can I say they were such good characters I absolutely devoured it, Fisher completely tore my heart out, stomped then smashed it to pieces but I couldn't help but love him!!PTSD is a subject we all know nothing about unless you've lived it...Lucy was such a strong woman and I'm so glad they found their way back to each other I was rooting for them so much all the way through!!!This is the first book of Tara Sivec I've read but believe me I'll be reading more now after this but it's gonna take a bell of a book to beat this one.A huge 5 stars a must read if you like military romances I bloody love it....an angsty heart wrenching second chance romance!!!!

I didn't like this one as much as I thought I would. Was so looking forward to reading it after having checked out the four and five stars reviews. It started well; I did feel for both the husband and wife in the beginning. But at some point, my sense of connection with them wore off. I began to disengage from the issues facing them. It didn't help that I started to dislike the 'hero' in the story. He was supposed to be this husband with an unequivocal devotion to his wife. But he was always able to SHELVE her and their marriage while he volunteered for deployment FIVE times over the course of many years.Going off to fight in a war that he was passionate about in the first deployment was commendable since he believed in it. But to do it again and again when he didn't have to; and even after the last tour of duty he would have STILLl continued in this fashion, showed a distinct lack of regard for his wife. It was his shoulder injury that had ultimately brought him back home to her - to finally stay. THAT did not say much for his depth of feelings for Lucy. Bearing in mind that each time he was deployed in a war that could have snuffed out his life, I would have thought that enough was enough after the first couple of deployments - that he WOULD want to return to civilian life and be the devoted husband that he was described to be. See, I didn't get the sense that Lucy was as 'necessary' to Fisher, at least not in the same measure as Fisher was essential to Lucy.Then there was the other instance - when he was too quick to put an end to their marriage. How easy it was for him to cut the legal ties. It was an irrevocable act as far as he was concerned at the time - and yet he acted on it just the same.I also didn't like his attitude when he returned a year later. Their first coming upon one another in a bar - and Fisher, after exchanging a few words with his ex-wife, had thoughts running through his mind that she was still 'his', that he would be able to reclaim her. He was so very sure of himself. He was smug and over-confident. I didn't like that his one and only reaction to Lucy's new love interest was a snarly one. It wasn't as though the new guy had taken Lucy from him. He divorced her over a year ago! His uncharitable thoughts towards the new guy didn't go down well with me either. And then of course there was Lucy herself; the public humiliation of the new boyfriend wasn't kind. Sure, the boyfriend was a tool device - but it wasn't necessary for her to strip off her top as an act to refuse his marriage proposal. To Lucy, the poor guy was considered to be good enough as a potential new love, as staid as she knew him to be. She needn't have rebuffed him with so much haste in the way that she did, by mocking him for his 'staidness'; and by tossing his ring back at him together with the top half of her discarded clothing. Didn't like Lucy in that scene.I also felt that she should have made Fisher work to EARN her forgiveness. His war-related trauma notwithstanding, he DID put her through too many years of neglect. I never like to read a romance wherein the heroine had to do the major part of the pursuing. He was the one to throw her out, the one to divorce her; the one who wounded her with cruel words ... and what did Lucy do not long after Fisher returned to the island? She felt the need to say sorry to him because she had 'wrongly' misjudged him over a money-related issue. It is said that in any relationship, one partner loves more than the other partner. In this story it was certainly Lucy who did much of the loving and giving.While I found myself feeling for the neglect of Lucy in a way, I didn't find this book an emotional read. The only character who moved me was Fisher's grandfather. It was only he who came across as a genuinely decent character in the story. He wasn't even in too many of the scenes, so that's saying something about the two main characters, that what they said, how they acted, felt like scripted scenes that never did make any inroads to my heart strings - certainly not in the way that this book had 'moved' other readers. No Kleenex tissues were ever required to accompany the reading of this story.In too many scenes, Fisher's internal thoughts about Lucy didn't feel like those of a man who, although young, was not THAT young. Thoughts about Lucy being 'his', that she belonged to him, that the other guy was a prick and so on and so forth, were meant to depict Fisher as an alpha male marking his territory ... but considering their past history, his sense of entitlement to her was misplaced. It also didn't feel natural that he would call Lucy '"my Lucy" when he found her on the beach in the middle of a hurricane storm. He shouted to her "Lucy, my Lucy, what are you doing here?". That was one of the instances when the book felt like it was a script and the character was made to 'read from it'. In the middle of life-threatening danger, Fisher's reaction to finding Lucy there was to call attention to the fact that she was "my Lucy"? ? ?The sex scenes were hot, but they were also far too many. They took something away from the issues that mattered in the story. This was a well written book. But I struggled to believe that Lucy was indeed Fisher's light. Too many tours of war duty, too many years of being willing to risk his life on the battlefield for me to believe that she was his one and only 'light'.A minor detail; but I thought I would mention it because I am sucker for details. In the story Lucy was born when her mother was forty-five. Now Lucy was thirty ... and her mother was in her late sixties? Wasn't mathematically possible.

Fisher’s Light by Tara Sivec5 stars!!“War changes everyone, son, there’s no shame in that. If it doesn’t change you, you were already too effed up to begin with…”Tara, Tara, Tara what have you done to me!! As much as I love whatever Tara Sivec deems to write I do have a favourite and that is Watch Over Me. This was one of those books where Tara poured out the emotion and I had such an intense connection with the characters that I didn’t want it to end and Fisher’s Light is on the same scale, I loved it just as much, cried just as much and am sat in awe just as much. I totally and utterly loved it.Tara is one of the most versatile authors I have read, she can write funny, she can write suspense and she can also write contemporary and no matter what Tara turns her hand to, she always delivers. Fisher’s Light was such a beautiful story that I just didn’t want it to end, I wanted to stay on Fisher Island, and I didn’t want to read the last page.Fisher and Lucy’s story covers a decade, a decade of highs and lows, when there were highs it was euphoric and when there were lows it was pitiful and woeful. We are treated to the present, the past as teenagers and the past in times where they were facing their biggest battles. A time that they both wanted to forget but it was a battle that needed to be won and a time they both needed to come with terms with none the less.“I should have realised that she was my light. She was everything bright and beautiful about my life and it went to s**t after she left.”Fisher was from a privileged family, Fisher Island having been in his family for years and still owns the island and the majority of property and businesses on it. For Fisher life was never about the money, he didn’t really get on with his family that well but had an incredibly strong and loving connection with his grandfather. When Fisher grew up, he wanted to get away but do something worthwhile, so he joined the Marines. The Fisher that came back was not the same Fisher that left. With every deployment a little less of Fisher came back, until the last time, when Fisher never really came back at all.“I don’t know if I’m strong enough to get him through this. I don’t know if I’m enough to make him forget.”Lucy was a beautiful character inside and out, always putting everyone else first and trying to be the best person and wife she could be. With every deployment, Lucy could see the husband she knew fade away, being a marine’s wife she could cope with, but when your husband comes back with a severe case of PTSD and won’t let you in, makes it all the more hard to manage.“You don’t want anyone else fishing in your damn pond, but you seem to forget that YOU tossed me back in that effing water! You always said you’d find your way back to me and you EFFING LIED!”This was a truly beautiful story bringing PTSD once again to the forefront but dealt with sympathetically and empathetically. You couldn’t help but be drawn into Fisher’s plight and taken on a journey of just how hard and difficult this illness is, how it affects the person and how it affects those people around them. I am no specialist when it comes to PTSD but the way this story was written felt personal and drawn from experience rather than research. The emotions that this book drew out of me had me sobbing with tears in some instances and yet laughing, smiling and swooning in others. This book was perfectly balanced, as I said above there were highs and lows and while the lows were hard the highs more than made of for it.This is a book about forgiveness and second chances a book that screams no matter how low you are the love and support of family and friends can pull you through, a book about healing, learning to live and love again and most importantly realising that you are worthy of that love in return. No matter the past, live for the present and the future, leave the past behind you, and only look forward.“To get to the good, sometimes you have to live through the bad.”This is one of those books that will stay with you long after you have read the last word; this is one of those books that you cannot help thinking about and one that I will definitely be reading again and again and again. Tara Sivec, I salute you, I bow down to your awesomeness, you have managed to decimate me once again and I cannot wait to see what comes next. You must read this book!

Omg why did I wait so long to read this!?!What a beautiful story about second chance love and about to find a way back to yourself and the women you'll always love. You couldn't help but feel everything Fisher and Lucy felt, the sadness, sorrow, the love the happiness and the laughs.Fisher is a broken retired Corps Marine and what he went through on each tour broke him even further with each one,So not wanting to punish Lucy as well he divorces her and sends her away as he thinks it's for her own good,Believing it's better to deal with everything own his and not hurting Lucy any more.However, Lucy is this strong stubborn woman who wants no more than to help and understand what happened and to be the strength Fisher needs to get through this tough period of their marriage, so the divorce rips her apart.But when two people are so right for each other they fight their way back to each because they realise true love never dies and omg Fisher and Lucy are so right and good together, but sometimes when things or people are broken sometimes you just need to take a break, get help and re-evaluate. So you can make your promise to your soulmate. "Meet you at the Lighthouse"Lucy will always be Fisher's Light, it just needs communication and hearing why Fisher did what he did, breaking her heart and trust to make her come back to him wholly again.I really love second chances and this is one of my all time favourites,and even though I've just finished I want to start it all over again and read the heartbreaking story that invoked so much feelings that you go through with both Hero and Heroine. I loved both equally and Trip made me love the story even more, I wish I could live on Fisher's Island. This is truly an amazing beautifully well written story of love.

When this came out people went crazy about it...so I avoided it because I hate it when people hype a book and you end up disappointed. My friend eventually persuaded me to give it a go.Happily I was proven wrong!I really did enjoy this book. I thought it was going to be sad and tearful but to be honest it was a beautiful balance of funny than tearful.The author was very creative the humour was fantastic I giggled all the way through to 80%I like the fact that it moved from past and present like a puzzle that you were piecing together as you read. which was a great effect.I have given this 4 stars rather than 5 because Unfortantly I found the last 20% slow and painful. I put it down twice. My friend had to encourage me to finish and I was happy it was over when it was.Over all it's a good read