Effie and Lewis are still drawn to each other after years apart. Why do you suppose this is? In your own experience, is first love stronger than more mature love?
Interesting question. I think some of us like the idea of “first love” for its nostalgia and the return to our youth. Mature live comes with time and growth. I think a first love can grown into a mature love - though that’s rare in my estimation. For Effie though there is a unique bond with Lewis that might make their love grow and mature.
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I met my husband when we were 13. We were drawn to each other as friends for 10 years before we both realized we were in love. We had a very happy fulfilling marriage for 59 years before he passed away earlier this year. Effie had the added attraction of someone she knew she could trust.
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I think a first love is very special! It took me a long time to get over it. I still look back on it with a smile. Funny thing was when he wanted to get back together I had met my current husband and moved on!
First love remains kindling all our lives; if given the opportunity, it might ignite into a full-blown relationship at some later date. There are numerous factors why it might not work, though, as a couple matures and grows indifferent directions. In Effie and Lewis’ case, I wonder what will happen? I liked that the author left it loose, too. We can each come to our own conclusion.
I liked, also, that Effie and Lewis’ future together was left open. I think first love can have a special and lasting impact. I don’t know that either first love or mature love is necessarily the stronger one. I felt glad for Effie and Lewis, that they were reconnecting.
For some of us the first love faded with age. I wished him well and after 60+ years I hope he’s had a wonderful life, no doubt full of rewards and obstacles. I think there can be a fine line between love and crush when one is very young.
I think that varies for each person. I think Lewis and Effie both had hard childhoods with a parent that was absent or not very available to them. I think their friendship was partly based on this need to have someone in their life to fill this void and that they could count on.
Your first love may not be the first person you are with; sometimes you don’t realize what real love is until years later, when you meet the right person. There is definitely a spark when you know, you know 
I don’t think that first love is usually stronger than a more mature love. I think that first love is very intriguing and often magical but in most cases does not last. I know a few people that made a first love permanent and a few others that returned to a first love after another love but those are definitely the exceptions. Effie and Lewis may have had a first love and upon reuniting have a more mature love.
I think first love always stays with a person because we are young and the experience is so intense and all consuming. Mature love is more realistic and tempered by life and everything that has transpired before.
I learned what doesn’t work in a relationship my first time around, and there’s no need to revisit any of that. I do think a second chance romance is possible in some cases. Effie and Lewis’s romance is a nice bonus to the story and I think it was my favorite take away! I thought the author did a nice job rebuilding from where they left off years before.
The romance between Effie and Lewis struck me as solely an author’s mechanism to inject romance into the narrative. In my personal experience, a first love that existed in a now distant past ended for a reason. For me, a greater maturity and a growing self-confidence allowed me to see that the ‘first love’ would never have stood the test of time. Nor did it provide the kind of support I needed to continue maturing.
I don’t know if first love is stronger. I do think it is special and will always be in one’s heart.
For some people I suppose it could be - but overall I think it depends on life circumstances. I think your earlier memories together could be a strong pull.
First loves are special but often don’t with stand the problems that life brings.
Not at all. The feeling was that, in spite of herself, Effie was firmly attached to her past and it would always control her narrative. Lewis was a big part that she needed to resolve, one way or another