A Bend in the Road is the November pick for my FLICKS Book and Movie Club. While I have not read all of Sparks’ novels, I do enjoy reading them whenever I get a chance.A Bend in the Road is a tragedy and a love story. Miles is a widower and deputy sheriff. He is also a young widower, whose wife died in a tragic hit and run two years before. He has been going through the motions and trying to move on with his life with his young son Jonah. He meets Jonah’s new teacher Sarah and suddenly starts to love and live life again. A tragic set of circumstances sets Miles back to a dangerous obsession with trying to find his wife’s killer and threatens to destroy his new relationship with Sarah.
I thought this book was okay, but definitely not one of my favorite Sparks novels. I recently really enjoyed The Choice, but this novel left me very indifferent. I really liked it until Miles started going crazy the last half of the novel. I also didn’t like how the sections from the nameless narrator/killer. It seemed to throw off the storyline. I liked the suspense of trying to find out who the killer was, but I thought the story suffered from being distracted from the main love story.
SPOILER ALERT
I didn’t like the ending. It came about fast and haphazard. I was happy that Miles decided to move on with Sarah, but he seemed to do it because it would make Jonah happy. The whole thing made me sad how Sarah could never really see her brother again. It seemed like there would always be that problem between Sarah and Miles. What did you readers of the novel think about this? I needed more detail at the end of how it all worked out.
SPOILER END
Overall, it was an okay novel by Sparks. It wasn’t a bad book, but it just wasn’t as good as his other novels. If you are picking up Nicholas Sparks for the first time, I’d suggest one of his other novels such as The Choice, The Lucky One, Dear John, The Wedding, or The Notebook. These are the novels I have read so far, and I would have to rate A Bend in the Road after all of these books.
Book Source: The Kewaunee Public Library
The only movie I've really enjoyed of Nicholas Sparks is A Walk to Remember. I hate how all his endings end in tragedy...so I've never had a desire to pick up any of his novels.
ReplyDeleteAh, the bittersweet romances of Sparks! I've read them all, except for the latest one.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this one was just okay. It kind of had that made for T.V. movie plot line. He is my go-to author when I just want an easy read. My favorite is A Walk to Remember. I didn't care for Message in a Bottle at all. Whenever I read his books, I think that his wife must be very lucky to have married such a romantic man (thinking of The Wedding...wow!) Have you read any Kristin Hannah? I just finished The Things We Do for Love. It was an easy read with a sweet story. Have you read Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen? It was one of my favorites this summer.
ReplyDeleteI was confused by the ending. The P.O.V. Of Brian made it seem like Miles and Sarah broke things off, however the third person P.O.V. At the very end made them seem to end up together. We didn't get enough closure on their relationship and this made it feel as if this would always act a a barrier to their relationship.
ReplyDeleteI think both Jonah and Miles died at the end. Maybe car crash when they went up to Nags Head at Christmas Eve. I remember the tragic love story shared by a woman on a carnival, about candles seeing at the window. At the end, Sarah did see 2 little candles at her apartment window.
ReplyDelete