I don't know if I'm becoming more cynical as I get older, and it's just becoming harder to be pleased by
never-gonna-happen love stories, or if Nicholas Sparks's latest novel,
Nights in Rodanthe just didn't measure up to his other novels. Since I'd like to believe that I'm not turning into a cold, hard cynic, I'll just have to settle for giving this one a 2 and a half star rating (rounded up to a three based on what I know he's capable of) and tell you all about it…
Plot and Characters: As is the case with all Sparks novels, this love story comes packaged in a small hardcover binding with very few chapters. It's an unbelievably quick read about two middle aged divorcees finding true love when neither was looking or thought it was possible.
Adrienne Willis, at aged 60, is trying to tell her daughter that she understands losing the love of your life, and the only way she can think of doing that is by telling
Amanda about the one weekend she spent in an Inn in Rodanthe, North Carolina, where she met and fell in love with her soul mate,
Paul Flanner.
The fated weekend took place 14 years prior to the telling of the story. Adrienne had been asked to look after an Inn for a girlfriend and relished the thought of a weekend away from her three teenaged children. Three years prior to that, her husband left her for another, younger woman, and it had wreaked havoc with her self confidence. So alone with her thoughts and tears, in to the Inn walks Paul Flanner.
B.R. (Before Rodanthe) Paul had been a big shot surgeon, who never had time for his wife or son, only increasing his practice, getting his name into the papers, etc. Once his wife left him, and his son moved to Ecuador to doctor the less fortunate, Paul reevaluated his life, sold his practice, and decided to spend a year with his son and patch their relationship. He was stopping in Rodanthe, against the advice of his lawyers, at the request of a bereaving husband whose wife had died after a routine surgery Paul had performed.
In this one weekend, the pair find in each other true love and friendship, everything they had never known they'd always needed. Paul offers to stay awhile, and postpone his trip to Ecuador and be with Adrienne, but in the end they decide that they would wait the one year for each other.
Because Adrienne is relating this story to Amanda without Paul in her life, the reader is never under the impression that the story has a happy ending, except that it gives Amanda the kick in the pants she needed to begin being a mother again to her children after their father passed away.
Writing Style: As I stated before, this reads as Sparks's other novels, very quickly (usually within a few hours for me). He writes very beautiful, lyrical prose, filled with descriptions of all around: the landscape, the houses, the people, the heart.
On returning to the Inn a few years after the subject weekend, Adrienne gives her impression as
The porch had been freshly painted, and shiny black shutters sandwiched rectangular white-curtained windows on both floors like offset piano keys. The cedar siding was the color of dusty snow. On either side of the building, sea oats waved a greeting, and sand formed a curving dune that changed imperceptibly with each passing day as individual grains shifted from one spot to the next. About the Author Nicholas Sparks is the perfect family man who can usually write the perfect man that most women strive to meet (or make their own current spouses into!). He was selected by People Magazine as the "Sexiest Author" (and if you can find a picture of him, you'll probably agree!), his first purchase after selling his first novel was a new wedding ring for his wife (Can I hear all you women saying "Awwwwwww"?)…
Previous novels include:
The Notebook Published in October, 1996,
Message In a Bottle Published in April 1998,
A Walk To Remember Published in October 1999,
The Rescue Published in September 2000 and
A Bend in the Road Published in September 2001
Final Thoughts and Recommendations: Ah, a sad day indeed when I cannot give my readers the bright green light go-ahead to run out and read a
Nicholas Sparks book. For, while the reader may be able to believe in this true love found in aone beautiful weekend, the same reader may have a hard time stomaching the obvious predictability of their story.
For a moment, I hoped that Sparks would pull the rabbit out of the hat, as he does in so many of his novels right on the last page, but he didn't leave even one loophole opened to that possibility.
For these reasons, I have to (oh so sadly) give an average rating. I will recommend this book rather than not recommend it because Sparks still weaves a pretty (if not stellar) story and his lyrical prose is worth reading.
Thanks for tuning in, and welcoming me back!
~Stefanie
