Book Details:Title: Safe Haven
Author: Nicholas Sparks
2010, Grand Central Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-44654759-8
Fiction
Book Summary (from the jacket cover):
When a mysterious young woman named Katie appears in the small North Carolina town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. Beautiful yet self-effacing, Katie seems determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into two reluctant relationships: one with Alex, a widowed store owner with a kind heart and two young children; and another with her plainspoken single neighbor,k Jo. Despite her reservations, Katie slowly begins to let down her guard, putting down roots in the close-knit community and becoming increasingly attached to Alex and his family.
But even as Katie begins to fall in love, she struggles with the dark secret that still haunts and terrifies her ... a past that set her on a fearful, shattering journey across the country, to the sheltered oasis of Southport. With Jo's empathetic and stubborn support, Katie eventually realizes that she must choose between a life of transient safety and one of riskier rewards ... and that in the darkest hour, love is the only true safe haven.
My Review:
My mother-in-law and I are both big Nicholas Sparks fans. One of us always gets his latest book and loans it to the other to read. It's one of the few common interests we share. So when she handed me this one and said, "This one wasn't my favorite.", it made me kind of nervous. It's been sitting on my bookshelf for several months waiting for me to get up the courage to read it.
I'm not sure what she didn't like about it, whether it was the story line or the way it was written, but I thought it was a fairly typical Nicholas Sparks novel. Rather dark and depressing for the most part. I think that the storyline of Katie was especially sad and depressing - her dark secret kept popping up, of course. Alex's story was rather sad also, his wife had died a couple years earlier of a brain tumor and he was left with two young kids to raise.
If you read too many Nicholas Sparks books, you realize that someone almost always dies. I was dreading who was going to die right up until the second to last chapter in this one - sometimes I can't believe I like these books because I'm really more of a happy ending reader! Amazingly - I was actually pretty happy and satisfied with the ending to this book.
All in all - if you're a Nicholas Sparks fan, this book will probably not disappoint. I would say the storyline is a little more depressing than some others - definitely not in league with The Notebook. It reminded me more of The Choice. Not one of my favorites, but not my least favorite of his either. =)
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