Can love be stronger than time and space?

Synopsis

From bestseller Zoë Folbigg comes this beautiful, romantic tale of finding love in the most unexpected places.

Under the midnight sun of Arctic Norway, Cecilie goes online looking for friends, and stumbles across Hector Herrera. They start chatting and soon realise that they might have just fallen in love. But there’s a problem: Hector lives thousands of miles away in Mexico. And he’s running from a tragic past.

Cecilie’s whole life has been anchored by sticking to what she knows and her job at the cafe in the town in which she grew up. Can she really make a leap of faith for someone she’s never met? And will Hector break free to change the path he’s on?

An unforgettable story about two people, living two very different lives under the same sky, and whether they can cross oceans, seas and fjords to give their love a chance.

Please note this novel was originally published with the title The Distance

My review

Cecilie and Hector meet online through a shared love for Depeche Mode. Slowly a friendship has been formed and they may have been falling in love with each other. There is nothing wrong with love, weren’t it that Cecilie lives in Arctic Norway and Hector in Mexico. And they have never met in real life… So with Cecilie sticking to what she knows, and never goes on a real adventure and take a leap of faith, and Hector being on a path he cannot step off, do they have a chance? And how exactly is Kate’s story linked to this pair, when she suspects that her own marriage is falling apart?

In this world where everything is digital, haven’t we all made friends online? Haven’t we all had a connection (romantic or not) with a person, even if we have never seen them in real life? But how often have we also been disappointed by these online people?

I have to admit, I did find it a bit of a strange love story. I could understand the attraction, the connection, but to fall in love with a person you have never met? To have your own love life on hold for an impossible love? I had my doubts for sure…

But this isn’t only the story about an impossible love, it is also a story about hope and truly believing in something, despite all the signals there appear to be.

Cecilie is the kind of woman that just *is*. And I don’t mean this in a mean way, but for me, it felt that Cecilie could be many women in the world. She doesn’t really step outside her comfort zone, Don’t many women, or just people in general, feel like life is passing by too quickly, and yet there they are, still standing still at the same spot. Well, I for sure know I feel like that sometimes too!

So while perhaps while having doubts, I was happy that Cecilie found Hector. What started as a shared love for Depeche Mode, becomes more. What starts as just friendly words of endearment, because words fully meant.

But not only distance and not having met in real life form obstacles, also Hector’s personal life does. And he for sure didn’t have an easy life when being younger, and still now he is struggling with the relations of his past…

Yet, no matter where life takes the both of them, they always find a way back to each other. And shows the strength of their bond, that isn’t being held back by the distance between them.

Now, there is also Kate’s story. A story that apparently had nothing to do with Cecilie and Hector; But that doesn’t take away that I was invested in her tale too…

I felt for her for the greatest part of this book. She loves her family, but she also struggles with it. Her husband isn’t the most present one, and his behaviour from the very start made me question him. And when he even gaslights Kate, I wanted to scream at her to trust her instincts.

Yet I admired her growing stronger in this story, her determination to find out the truth, even if that truth is even more shocking than Kate or I thought.

And it takes a long time to discover the link between the lovely two other main characters, yet once revealed, it was just beautiful to see how past and present united in a beautiful setting, with the perfect closure.

I enjoyed reading this book about the strength of love, how unlikely it may seem at first instance. And how strong it can be even with the years passing by and how life takes you on totally different directions.