i heart nicholas sparks

Since early March, I have finished three Nicholas Sparks books.  Crazy I know!--and two of them I finished in less than a week!

The Longest Ride (which was just announced to be filming in Wilmington, NC), The Best of Me (which is currently filming in Louisiana), and Safe Haven (which has already been made into a movie).  I have Safe Haven on DVD and have watched it a dozen times, but I really enjoyed reading the book because I got so much more information out of it about the characters and from the characters than you do while watching the movie.  So, I really enjoyed reading the book after having watched the movie...which is not something I can always say.

I’ve had all of these books since the year they came out because I always ask for them for Christmas, but I just wasn’t always at a time in my life where I could read them.  Now is finally the time!

As I’ve stated before, The Longest Ride was two different loves stories intertwined.  One of them being about an older couple, yet the woman was no longer living.  Her husband was involved in a car crash which left him trapped in his car on an embankment, covered in snow, for several days.  While he was trapped in his car he had a visitor and it was from the spirit of his wife.  It was as though she was there with him, helping him survive and live through another day.  The reminisced and took many trips down memory lane.  He knew she wasn’t real and she wasn’t really there because she would come and go at different times.  She was there when he needed her most though and that’s what made it so sweet and intimate.

The Best of Me.  This book is probably the farthest from any of the other Nicholas Sparks book I’ve read.  It is about High School sweethearts, Dawson and Amanda, that had both gone their separate ways and and went on to live their own lives without each other.  Throughout the entire book, Dawson constantly sees this man in a blue jacket...but when he makes it to where the spot where the man was, the man is always gone and no longer there.  Dawson only sees this man during life changing events in his life and at times when he is in need of help and distraction to survive.  It’s hard to pick a favorite, but the end of this one had tears fall down my face.  The end as in the last sentence….and then it’s over.   ECCK!  Can’t wait for the movie to come out in October!!  You have until the to read it!

And Safe Haven.  This is the oldest of these three, yet still a goodie!  It probably read it the quickest because I had seen the movie I knew how good it was going to get!  In this movie a girl, Katie, runs away from her abusive husband.  Once she settles into a cottage, that she thinks is far from everyone else, she soon discovers she has a neighbor.  It is a woman about her age, maybe a little older.  She ends up becoming her friend, they drink wine together, go to eat dinner together and talk about life and the love relationship that starts to accumulate over time. Without giving too much away...she later realizes this “friend” was only someone she could see.  

I thought it was interesting that all three of these books has a "ghost" of some sort in it...or a "spirit" if you will. I just love ole' Nicholas and the way he writes his books! He never disappoints! I actually got to listen to him speak and then meet him afterwards a few years ago! You can read about that HERE.

(This picture isn't great...but that's what happens when you ask a stranger to take a pic for you!)