Author: Nicholas Sparks
Genre: Romance/Fiction
ISBN: 0-4466-53243-6
Intended Audience: Middle aged women or any die-hard Nicholas Sparks fans
Summary: Jeremy Marsh writes a column for Scientific American, and gets a big break with a national TV appearance. While scientific writing isn’t what he really loves doing, he takes a bite at another offer for a TV special on the supernatural happenings in the little town of Boone Creek, North Carolina. The small town atmosphere is a big change and takes a lot of adjusting from Jeremy’s usual New York lifestyle. His sour attitude makes for a rough start to his trip, but the people of Boone Creek eventually rub off on him and he starts to see how small town America can be so charming. He meets Lexie Darnell while doing research for the special, and is instantly mesmerized by her beauty and strength, and is in awe of how different she is from the city girls. He begins to see Lexie daily, during research because she runs the town library, but goes out of his way to see her other places as well. As their relationship grows, Lexie helps him see things in a different way, and even changes his views on the supernatural, the very thing that brought him to Boone Creek.
Review: This book has completely turned me sour to any future readings of Nicholas Sparks. I’ve read about 5 or 6 of his novels, and reading this was like watching a really bad lifetime movie. It’s like he has used up all of his good romantic story lines, and is now just making up any kind of garbage plot to go along with his knack for relationship chemistry writing. There was absolutely zero creativity, nothing unexpected, and the climax was laughable. The story was so completely predictable and expected I could have finished it myself after just the first two chapters. While I was disappointed in the plot, literary content, and lack of creativity, I can’t rate this book at a zero because he did do a fine job at developing a relationship and putting the emotion into the pages. Overall, the plot, climax, and characters were all very two-dimensional, lacking any real substance or interest, but the romantic relationship (which is why all girls read Nicholas Sparks!) was developed nicely, making the book finish-able, but not recommend-worthy.
Rating: 0.5 out of 5
