The Bookworm Sez: One of Sparks’ finest novels
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
Saturday, November 29, 2008 10:29 PM PST
Where did you meet your beloved?
Cupid ain’t stupid, and now you’re together. But from where does true love spring? Is it fate or feat?
In Logan Thibault’s case, it’s feet. He walked across America in search of a woman he didn’t know. In the new novel, “The Lucky One,” by Nicholas Sparks, a picture is truly worth a thousand words.
He wasn’t looking for a snapshot. He was looking for some quiet time to think, so Logan Thibault ran through the desert every morning before his regiment awoke. On that particular morning, though, the sun lit the Iraqi desert and reflected off a laminated picture half-buried in the sand.
“Keep Safe!” it said, signed with an “E.” A beautiful, smiling girl with an “E” name, wearing a “Lucky Lady” T-shirt.
He tried to find the snapshot’s owner, but nobody claimed it. After a week, Thibault put the photo in his pocket. He took it out now and then and thought about her, wondering. Victor, his best buddy, said it was fate that Thibault found the photo.
Maybe it was.
Word got around that the Lucky Lady picture brought Thibault his own bit of luck. He won more poker games. He survived sniper attacks. He was lucky enough to come home, wasn’t he?
But he couldn’t get the woman out of his head. There were clues in the photo, and his heart told him he needed closure. He started walking in search of her.
I feel pretty lucky I got to read this book. “The Lucky One” is possibly one of Nicholas Sparks’ finest novels.
Perhaps best known for his almost-a-romance novels, Sparks mixed this one up a little bit with better character development than I thought he had in the last book, a bad guy who’s simply despicable and a little bit of suspense to keep you going. Not to be a spoiler, but this novel is a page-turner and very hard to resist.
If you’re a fan of Nicholas Sparks, or if you’re wondering what the hoo-rah is all about, you’ll want “The Lucky One.” Picture yourself reading it this week.
Terri Schlichenmeyer is a freelance book reviewer. She can be contacted at bookwormsez@yahoo.com.
