first-light
first-light
first-light

First Light
 by Bill Rancic

A moving story of love, family, and survival against all odds from beloved entrepreneur and reality TV star Bill Rancic.

A father from Chicago takes a road trip to the city of Whitehorse, in Yukon Territory, with his wife and son. During the car ride, they reveal to the boy their harrowing experience surviving a horrific plane crash in the wilderness ten years before, which is how the boy, in fact, came to be born.

Set amid the deep, wild woods of the Yukon, First Light tells the story of Daniel Albrecht and Kerry Egan, young lovers leaving a work trip in Alaska to plan their wedding back home in Chicago. Not long into their trip, both engines of their plane catch fire and send them careening into a mountainside in the middle of a terrible snowstorm. Kerry is seriously injured in the accident, and it soon becomes clear that search-and-rescue teams aren’t going to find the survivors in time to save her. Daniel—the one person with survival experience amid the passengers—makes the courageous decision to find help and bring it back to the rest of the passengers, hoping against hope he might save the woman he loves. He leaves Kerry in the care of their coworker, Phil Velez, himself seriously injured in the crash, and takes off into the woods to find a town, a house with a telephone, a road. Something.

But Daniel’s choices are made all the more difficult by the presence of his boss, a stubborn man more interested in results than taking care of people. Only one man will come out of their trek alive, but it still may not be in time to save Kerry and the others back at the crash site, slowly dying from their injuries.

As the parents’ story draws to a close, the truth about the boy’s life, and the identity of his father, will at last be revealed.

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First Light Book Tour

  • November 1st - Newton Bookshop at Free Library, Bucks County, PA at 7 PM
  • November 2nd - RJ Julia at Cafe Allegre, Madison, CT at 12 PM
  • November 2nd - Books & Greetings, Northvale, NJ at 7 PM
  • November 3rd - Anderson's Bookshop at Venue TK, Naperville, IL at 7 PM
  • November 4th - Barnes & Noble Old Orchard, Skokie, IL at 7 PM
  • November 6th - The Rotunda at Mall of America, Bloomington, MN at 1 PM
  • November 7th - Barnes & Noble Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, CA at 7 PM
  • November 16th - Books-A-Million The Loop, Chicago, IL at 12 PM


Editorial Reviews

—Karen White, New York Times bestselling author of Flight Patterns

“First Light is gripping from the very first page. It's a powerful novel of love, heroism, redemption, and ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. But at its core it's a beautifully written story of the human heart emerging from the brink of darkness. Emotionally engaging from beginning to end, I had to keep reminding myself to breathe. This is a book to savor, and one that will linger in your heart long after you turn the last page.”


—RT Book Reviews

“A heartfelt, touching family story about love and sacrifice. . . The setting and events are vividly described, and the bone-chilling cold and despair of the passengers is palpable. . . Uplifting.”


—Booklist

“A captivating and harrowing debut. . . First Light is, at its core, a story of love and family, told within an engrossing page-turner about endurance and hope.”