Touching story of Ronnie and Jonah forced to spend a summer with their dad. Ronnie finds herself, falls in love and stays on to care for her terminal father.

My first romance book. Not amazing, but simple, bittersweet, and short. Will not read another Nicholas Sparks book though...curious about the movie now. ( )

I will just put a picture..

( )

I can't help it, but his books are just not my thing. Might try to read this again in the future but it's three stars for now. ( )

When you look at modern Women's Fiction (or Chick Lit, as it is called for whatever reason), Nicholas Sparks is one of the few names you cannot turn away from that easily. He has written more novels than many other authors, most of them have become quite popular, and if you take a look at his Goodreads page, you might realize that thirteen of his novels have more than 100,000 ratings. There was only one author who I discovered to have more novels than Sparks with such an achievement on Goodreads.

It's easy to figure out why people like this novel, and I understand and value all of the raving opinions. The concept is pretty interesting, too. A teenage-girl one step before entering adulthood trying to deal with life and the obstacles thrown at her, her dysfunctional family trying to hold together what hasn't already been shattered, and this gorgeous boy from neighborhood who is so sweet and courteous and attentive that it seems like Nicholas Sparks wants you as a reader to fall in love with him as well. And that's already the problem: I just don't buy it. People can be as beautiful as possible, but it's impossible to judge whether the soul behind that beauty is just as beautiful ... or maybe ugly. However, Sparks defined Will, the protagonist's love-interest, as sweet and beautiful and successful and ... did I mention beautiful? Throw in the facts that Will rescues endangered animal species, has a lot of friends and experience and is one of the best atheletes in his town. Let's summarize: He is the perfect guy.

It seems like Nicholas Sparks wants to handle every stereotype available out there. He introduces the cruel, mean antagonist who finds pleasure in making life difficult for others, terrorizing them and treating women like shit. Guess the purpose of this? To make the perfect guy shine even brighter, of course. Nobody is as perfect as Will Blakelee, but Sparks seems to want his reader to believe just that. But allow me to question one thing: If Will had had the same character, but another appearance, not the Liam Hemsworth kind, but a not-so-attractive guy ... would the movie have been that successful then?

I guess not.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against romance novels. I liked Ronnie, the female protagonist, and the story of her family, I adored her little brother Jonah, and the writing was not as bad as I initially feared. But I do have something against novels defining love by how good-looking people are. ( )