Title: When We Chased the LightAuthor: Emily Bleeker
Publication: October 22, 2024
Genre: Historical Fiction
Find it on: Amazon
Rating: 4/5★
A Hollywood legend. A legacy of secrets. An epic and emotional novel about forgiveness, fame, family, and truly unconditional love by the bestselling author of When We Were Enemies.
Christie’s auction house, Beverly Hills. The effects of Hollywood icon Vivian Snow are up for bid. In the collection is a set of hand-drawn postcards spanning six decades. The sender is Antonio Trombello, a soldier, POW, priest, and Vivian’s confidant. Each postcard sheds new light on a deeply private woman the public only thinks it knows.
It’s World War II. Vivian is a USO showgirl traveling the world when her husband goes AWOL, disappears, and is presumed dead. Facing increasing suspicion, she leans on her dear friend Father Trombello for support. He’s her confessor, her savior, the elusive love of her life, and when it comes to her husband’s death, the keeper of Vivian’s secrets.
As Vivian rises from canteen dream girl to starlet to bona fide legend, she navigates the highs and lows of Hollywood, new romances, and tumultuous family relationships—all in the shadow of her past and the guilt, unmet longing, and buried truths that could still upend the lives of everyone she loves.
When We Chased the Light follows Vivian Snow’s rise to fame in Hollywood. The story starts in 1943 during World War II where Vivian is a USO showgirl traveling the world. As the stories moves on from the war into the following decades we travel along with Vivian as she falls in love, begins acting in movies with some of the most famous actors of the time and carves out a life that most would dream of. Every other chapter also features a postcard from Antonio Trombello, an Italian priest, who’s been Vivian’s confidant and friend for many years, and maybe even more than that…
Vivian wasn’t always the most likable character with some of the decisions she made. She wasn’t very active in her daughter’s early life because she had to travel a lot for her job, leaned a little too much on her younger sister for support and had a habit of picking bad men to be in her life. But these flaws also made her character very much human. I did feel bad for her at times, especially with all the loss she had to go throughout the book.
It was also my first book by Emily Bleeker and from what I gathered her book When We Were Enemies is supposed to read first but without having read it myself yet I think When We Chased the Light works perfectly as a standalone too. I don’t think there was much I missed, if anything, though I would like to read When We Were Enemies too at some point.
When We Chased the Light was a beautiful, emotional and at times very heartwrenching story. Emily Bleeker’s storytelling and prose shone throughout the book and made it quite the page-turner. I know historical fiction fans, especially those who enjoy WWII fiction as well as the decades that followed it, will devour this novel.
About the author:
Emily Bleeker is a Wall Street Journal and Amazon Charts bestselling author of seven novels. Combined, her books have reached over two million readers and counting. When she’s not writing or mom-ing, Emily performs on the house team of a local improv group in suburban Chicago where she lives with her husband, kids and kitten muse, Hazel.
Loving the sound of this, especially the way the postcards tie I with the story. I love elements like that😁
I do love WWII historical fiction! Vivian sounds like quite the character.
I think that’s a book I might like even if she was not always the most likable heroine!