As with most of Nicholas Spark’s books, A Bend In The Road starts in the present time first person and flashes back into the past. The main character takes a trip down memory lane as with in A Walk To Remember and The Notebook, two of my favorite Sparks stories.


August 1988
Two years after his wife’s death, Miles Ryan sits on his front porch before the start of his busy day wondering how he was going to keep control of his life. He has this new found desire to move on, but has an eerie feeling that he will not find someone to share his and his son, Jonah’s life. He actually still blames himself for the death of his wife, Missy, who had been jogging one night and never made it home alive.

As the Deputy Sheriff in a small town and a single parent, Miles finds the pressures overcoming him. To top it all off, Miles finds a note in Jonah’s backpack from his teacher. It seems that Jonah’s teacher would like to meet with Miles concerning his son.

He finds his feelings towards Sarah Andrews surprising, when he first encounters her at the meeting. He finds her pretty in a plain sort of way, but not gorgeous. And he gets another shock, the son that he thought was doing well in school, is not doing so well after all. Sarah feels sorry for him and proposes that she help Jonah out after school, three days a week, until he improves. And that is how their relationship begins.

When Miles picks Jonah up from school, he and Sarah begin to realize that they have this mutual attraction between them. Things become very awkward for a while until Miles decides that he needs to stop acting like a child and ask the girl out.

But Sarah realizes what he is trying to do, and why it is so hard for him, and takes matters into her own hands. Their relationship eventually progresses to the point where they know that they love each other...but fate has cards of it’s own to play at this point.

Interspersed between the chapters of the story are also thoughts told in first person, by the person responsible for the accident that had befallen Missy Ryan that fateful night.

Will Miles and Sarah be able to overcome the obstacles that plant themselves’ between the two? Or is their love just not strong enough to survive the trying tests?


~*~ My Thoughts ~*~
I can always count on Sparks to make me realize that life is good. No matter what gets you down, there is always someone out there that has it worse than you do. Though I have never lost a spouse, I can understand how hard it is to go on when you do loose someone close to you. This story shows us that even if you loose the person closest to you, your heart still beats and will continue to go on...even if you have other thoughts about the matter.

I found the character of Miles to be an extremely endearing character. At the beginning when he is trying to work up the nerve to ask Sarah out, it’s almost like he is a little child because of the way he acts. He’s scared of beginning his life over again after Missy’s death and has no idea how to begin. It’s really rather cute, Miles’ boyishness and uncertainty rears when he meets Sarah.

Meanwhile, the young Sarah has already been through her own trying times and is far to selfless and intelligent for her age. She takes her profession seriously and reaches out a hand to a child that is struggling, and the father of that child for that matter. As she wrestles with secrets of her own, you can feel so sorry for what she is going through because Sparks brings his characters to life. The characters just ooze sweetness.

Jonah was a character that was just there. I don’t think he really had all that much to do in the story except to be the ultimate link between Miles and Sarah. At times this does seem to be enough, but then you look back and realize that he could have played a bigger part in the story.

I also absolutely love the way Sparks can make a love scene seem so romantic. This is such a turn from those other romance novels with their graphic sex scene descriptions and predictable endings. Sometimes you just don’t want to read that stuff, but do want some kind of romance going on.

Yes, if you have read any of Sparks other books, you will understand his story lines and writing style. You will also know that the story is predictable before you even read the first chapter. But it’s funny with Sparks books, I don’t seem to mind that at all. Yes, I know what is ultimately going to happen, though Sparks does usually through in a twist, but that doesn’t detract at all from the story because Sparks writes so well.

He uses the chapters of the romance and intersperses them with parts that portray the emotions and turmoil that Missy’s killer is still going through in the present time. Two years later, this person has still not told anyone about that fateful night, and they are definitely feeling it on their conscience. But was it an accident? And I didn’t actually guess you Missy’s killer was, so that at least was not predictable.

Sparks never fails to bring tears to my eyes. Something that I enjoy most about his stories is that they are so real, but yet unreal all at the same time. The situations these people find themselves in could have happened to anyone living today. How many people have lost a loved one, but have gone on to find another special love? I’m sure there are many of those people out there that can relate to this and see the similarities in their own lives’. But everything always turns out so perfectly, that we know doesn’t always happen in real life.

So if you are looking for mindless reading, don’t pick up his stories. You will definitely have a lot to think about while reading them. But if you want a well-written, moving drama with a little suspense, check out A Bend In The Road. I don’t think you will be sorry.


~ Happy Reading!

Kim


ISBN: 0-446-52778-5
Format Read: Hardcover
Pages: 276
Price: $ 7.99 (List: $23.95)


Recommended: Yes