Sometimes he's lucky, sometimes he's not!

I find Nicholas Sparks to be extremely hit or miss. I LOVED The Notebook and A Walk to Remember, not so much for The Wedding and The Best of Me. I also hated Message in a Bottle. I know some Sparks fans will find that sacrilegious but I couldn't find a single character to relate to in this fan favorite. It seemed that after A Walk to Remember, Sparks seemed to have lost his way. He was looking for a magic formula that would speak to readers that had come to expect a certain type of book from him. The trouble is, what he ended up with was a writing formula that felt like just that - a FORMULA. I mean, I knew what was going to happen in The Best of Me less than 50 pages in. Why bother reading when you have it, literally, all figured out? I picked up The Lucky One reluctantly. I just wasn't sure I could handle another disappointment, since this year hasn't exactly been stellar so far. Happily though, The Lucky One was a refreshing return to all those things that I loved so much about the Notebook. The characters were real, believable and likable - all of them. Except for the ones who aren't supposed to be likable that is. I loved Beth, Ben, Nana and Zeus. I really loved Logan but hated that he is called Thibault for most of the early part of the book. Thibault is the name of an old man or a character in a Shakespearian play, not a romantic lead. Once I got past that though, it was a wonderful story. If you enjoyed early Sparks works like Notebook and A Walk to Remember, then I highly recommend The Lucky One.