Book Review: The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

Summary: 
When U.S. Marine Logan Thibault finds a photograph of a smiling young woman half-buried in the dirt during his third tour of duty in Iraq, his first instinct is to toss it aside. Instead, he brings it back to the base for someone to claim, but when no one does, he finds himself always carrying the photo in his pocket. Soon Thibault experiences a sudden streak of luck—winning poker games and even surviving deadly combat that kills two of his closest buddies. Only his best friend, Victor, seems to have an explanation for his good fortune: the photograph—his lucky charm.

Back home in Colorado, Thibault can’t seem to get the photo—and the woman in it—out of his mind. Believing that she somehow holds the key to his destiny, he sets out on a journey across the country to find her, never expecting the strong but vulnerable woman he encounters in Hampton, North Carolina—Elizabeth, a divorced mother with a young son—to be the girl he’s been waiting his whole life to meet. Caught off guard by the attraction he feels, Thibault keeps the story of the photo, and his luck, a secret. As he and Elizabeth embark upon a passionate and all-consuming love affair, the secret he is keeping will soon threaten to tear them apart—destroying not only their love, but also their lives.

Filled with tender romance and terrific suspense, The Lucky One is Nicholas Sparks at his best—an unforgettable story about the surprising paths our lives often take and the power of fate to guide us to true and everlasting love.
 
 

Release Date: September 30, 2008
Age Group: Adult
Source: Borrowed from my mom

Review:
Nicholas Sparks' books have been hit and miss for me for a few years now, with more misses than hits.  They are just all so similar, I feel like I'm reading the same story over and over again! My mom saw The Lucky One in Wal-Mart, and because it has a new cover, she thought it was a new release and bought it.  And then she let me read it first so I could tell her if she would like it or not.

The funny thing is that this was my second time reading The Lucky One, but I didn't realize I'd read the book before until the very end of the story.  The scene where all three main characters are running through the woods in the rain is what made me remember that I had actually already read The Lucky One, closer to its original release dateFor me, the fact that I couldn't even remember that I'd already read The Lucky One tells me that this book is easily forgotten.

The setting felt recycled to me, and the characters behaved predictably.  Elizabeth and Logan fell in love too fast for my liking.   My other main complaint was the epilogue.  It felt forced to me, like Sparks was trying to be suspenseful but the not knowing who had actually died made me mad.  I sped my way through the epilogue, trying to figure out if this was going to be a HEA or one of Sparks' few sad endings.

I liked The Lucky One, but didn't love it.  I'm not sorry that I read it, but I am glad that I didn't buy it.  I enjoy the writing style and the emotions but Sparks needs to start changing things up as far as plots and settings.  

3 comments:

  1. Someone dies? Eeeeek I feel like I just learned something I shouldn't.

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  2. This is not one of my favorite NS books. And it's not a memorable read (like The Notebook was). I, too, read this one when it first came out and had forgotten what the book was about until I watched the movie. But he's still one of my favorite authors and I'll continue to read his books :)

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  3. That's kind of funny that you didn't realise you'd read it before until the end - it's pretty telling. I'm not a fan of Sparks' formula, I stopped reading his books a few years ago but somehow I always end up watching the movie versions. I watched the movie version of this for Zac Efron haha. It was OK.

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