The Romantic is a love story about friendship, passion, and the echo of unrequited love. Hadriel Alighieri has harbored a secret love in his heart for his entire life. It began in his youth, when he fell in love with his best friend, Sophia Paula. After Sophia leaves for America and is later betrothed to Joshua Abrams, Hadriel is devastated, but he is a hopeless romantic. In the winter of his life he is haunted by the memory of Sophia Paula. When the Angel of Death comes for Hadriel, the journey begins. From his deathbed, he travels to the day he fell in love. He retraces the steps of his life in search of his unrequited love. For she too harbors a secret love in her heart. But what begins as a journey to fulfill a promise turns into a discovery of the only emotion that defines our lives. Did she wait for him? The Romantic is an intelligent, poignant novel about romantic love, missed chances, and a life lived in search of the happiness that comes from finding one's other half. Hadriel Alighieri is struck by Sophia Paula's beauty the moment he sees her-though he's only twelve years old, it's love at first sight. When Sophia's father asks Hadriel to teach Sophia to play the piano, Hadriel jumps at the chance, and over the next six years the two become best friends. Hadriel harbors his deeper feelings until the time for his mandatory military service comes, but his profession of love doesn't go how he hopes-and as the years pass, both Sophia and Hadriel search for love with others, but never find it in as true a form as they had for each other.... I liked how the novel begins with Hadriel looking back over his life, in the presence of the angel of death; it gives the book an immediate touch of sorrow and heartbreak, as well as some mystery. The reader wonders just what happened to Hadriel and Sophia, and will find out as the story weaves on. I also liked how the author slowly begins to introduce Sophia's perspective, so that she becomes not just Hadriel's love object, but a fully developed character in her own right, with her own regrets. And for me, there's just as much sorrow in Hadriel's relationship with Celeste-both he and Celeste have pasts too colored by their first loves to truly move forward. The plot moves slowly but beautifully, in large part due to the author's descriptive, lyrical writing style-lines like Hadriel being "the ghost of her Sophia's] heart" are lovely and bear repeat reads. I'd recommend The Romantic to readers who like novels that deal with the complex themes of love, life, and how the choices we make reverberate through both. Kelsi Grace, Vantage Point Book Reviews