Nicholas Sparks always seems to write male characters that his target audience, namely women, dream about. They are sensitive, hard working, loving, loveable, gentle men (much like my own spouse, of course!). Each of Nicholas Sparks’ three previous novels have brought me and my two sisters to tears. This one differed from those three in that I didn’t shed a single tear… and that’s saying something since I’m seven and a half months pregnant and milk that goes past the expiration date makes me cry.

The story and characters:

Miles Ryan is a sheriff in New Bern, North Carolina, trying hard to raise his son, Jonah while learning to cope with the loss of his beloved wife, Missy. Missy died two years prior to the telling of this story. She was killed while out jogging by a hit and run accident. At the time of the story, Miles is still obsessed with finding her killer, as he’s more and more convinced that it wasn’t truly an accident. His frequent run ins with the small town trouble maker, Otis, don’t help to change his mind.

Enter Sarah Andrews, Jonah’s second grade teacher. Sarah has just moved to town to escape the memories of a very bad marriage and divorce. She is the first teacher to point out to Miles that Jonah has fallen behind his classmates. Previous teachers have let his inability to read slide, due to his recent loss. Sarah volunteers to stay after school with Jonah to help him catch up, which brings Miles and Sarah together for a few minutes a few times a week. Miles is surprised as he finds himself becoming attracted to Sarah and wondering things about her daily routines and habits: Does she wrap her hair in a towel after taking a shower or does she style it right away?

Slowly, a sweet and gentle relationship between the two wounded souls begin to heal their past hurts. A police informant leaks that he knows Otis is behind the killing of Missy Ryan, which sends Miles headfirst back into his land of oblivion. While he attacks the investigation with renewed gusto, being suspended in the meantime by his friend and Seargant, Charlie, Sarah learns the true identity of the killer and has to choose whether or not to confess her knowledge, which will surely mean losing Miles and Jonah.

Once Miles and his wife’s killer are face to face, Miles has to choose between two roads… both having rights and both having certain wrongs.

Writing Style:

I truly enjoy reading Nicholas Sparks novels. In his previous three, I loved the writing style as much as the story itself. In A Bend in the Road, I enjoyed the same writing style, with it’s descriptive passages, beautiful characterizations, and near perfect love stories. In the first chapter, while describing Miles’ loneliness, Sparks writes On the first Christmas morning after her death, while sitting in church, he'd caught a trace of the perfume that Missy used to wear and he'd held on to the ache like a drowning man grasping a life preserver until long after the service was over. I did, however, miss the enthralling, captivating, leave-me-breathless story aspect that was in each of his previous novels.

A minor change, which was neither bad nor good was every few chapters, we were able to read an entry in the killer’s journal. We learned that the killer was very sad and the episode had changed his life for the worse. He wanted to confess long ago but never was able to work up the courage, and finally too much time passed. There are many clues throughout the novel, especially once the relationship between Sarah and Miles advances.

My thoughts and recommendations:

While it wasn’t as good as The Notebook, Message in a Bottle or A Walk To Remember , it was still an enjoyable read. I would give it three and a half stars if I could, since it was definitely above average, but not quite spectacular. I’ll give it four since I have a soft spot for Sparks.


Recommended: Yes