{Review} The Sight of You by Holly Miller (@ByHollyMiller @PutnamBooks)

The Light We Lost meets How to Walk Away in this romantic and page-turning American debut that poses a heartbreaking question: Would you choose love, if you knew how it would end?

"Unique and breathtaking and painful and broken and perfect . . . just like love. I'm still crying, yet all I want to do is settle down and read it again." --Jodi Picoult

Joel has sworn off falling in love. But when he meets Callie, he can't help being drawn to her. In Callie, he sees a second chance at life. And in Joel, Callie discovers the kind of love she'd always hoped was real. They challenge each other to take chances, to laugh, and to trust that no matter how hard each falls, the other will be there to catch them. 

But Joel has a secret. He dreams about the people he loves, and these dreams always come true. One night, Joel has the dream of Callie he's feared the most, and each must decide: Can Callie stay, knowing her fate? And if her days must be numbered, is there a life she is meant to live?

Told in Joel and Callie's voices, The Sight of You is a sweeping, romantic, and unforgettable American debut, about the bravery it takes to love, especially when we think we know how the story will end.

Joel is okay with living a solitary life. It’s the only way that he can keep others from finding out about his strange ability.
 
He can see the future of his loved ones in his dreams.  Sometimes, it’s as simple knowing when they will get stuck in traffic.  Other times, it’s a matter of life and death. He’s always been able to keep everyone at arm’s length. Until he meets the beautiful girl at the neighborhood café.

Because here’s the thing: almost my whole life, I’ve been having prophetic dreams.  The kind of lucid, lifelike visions that startle me from sleep.  They show me what’s going to happen, days, weeks, years down the line.  And the subjects, always, are the people I love.

The dreams come every week or so, the ratio of good to bad to neutral fairly even.  But it’s the dark premonitions I fear most: the accidents and illnesses, pain and misfortune.  They’re why I’m constantly edgy, always on high alert.  Wondering when I might next have to reroute the course of fate, race to intervene in someone’s best-laid plans.
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Or, worse, save a life.

​Callie longs to travel to places and to experience things that she’s only been able to read about in books.  She’s been biding her time working at a café.  But after getting to know Joel, she’s found the courage to finally apply for the job she’s always wanted – one that feeds her desire to be close to nature.  He also feeds her desire for something far more.
 
Every day, their bond grows stronger and life couldn’t be more perfect.  And then the dreams return.
 
Joel knows what he must do.  He’s going to sacrifice his own heart because it means that Callie will learn to spread her wings and fly.

That night in bed my hands find him, desperate to stop us spiraling off onto opposite flight paths.  His mouth is on mine straightaway, fierce and tender all at once.  But it’s a sad sort of tenderness, the kind you see in black-and-white films.  Like we’re kissing through the open window of a steam train, just before the whistle blows.

In The Sight of You, Holly Miller dazzles with a writing style so lush that readers will be able to smell the English rain and experience the soul deep longing of her characters.  Even still, she weaves a tender thread of hope through every chapter and I found myself holding on to it tightly all the way to the end.
 
It begins with a whisper of loneliness and builds to a heartbreaking crescendo.  And I cherished all the tears…

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