By Shalom Montero
A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks
Miles Ryan was a sheriff for the town of New Bern, North Carolina. The day was like any other when his wife, Missy, left the house and never came back. The life changing hit-and-run must have happened maybe an hour after Missy started her run around the town; the scene of the crime was nothing more than Missy’s lifeless body covered in a blanket, indicating that someone had clearly known but failed to report what had happened. With no eyewitnesses at the time, and no one coming forward, the case went cold. Miles became devastated and obsessed with catching the person who took his wife from him and his son, Jonah. As time went on, Jonah’s teacher, Sarah, began to make an impact on his life. Jonah needed a tutor as much as he needed his father because he didn’t know how to read, write, or perform any other essential school skills. It seemed that his teacher, Sarah, was going to take on that role. As Miles and Sarah connected, other issues started presenting themselves. The two began to go out; however, things began to go wrong when someone said they knew who killed Missy. This made Miles forget all the rules that come with the badge and his sheriff title. He started to go after the person. The facts started to pop up one after another, and all Miles and Sarah could do was see that they were bound by a secret, one that might just ruin the love that had blossomed between them.
Nicholas Sparks did a good job with the story, and his theme and descriptions were well developed. His work reflects a real life situation, twisting your emotions at his will and making you think about what could have happened there. The multiple personality is something that Sparks is known for and hard to do in a story like this where so many points of view are going across but in the overall story. This book makes you want to read what happens on that next page. Thumbs up for this book! Overall the work is great.
The Rescue (Nicholas Sparks)
Taylor’s part-time job at the Fire Department seems to be all about the thrill that could come out of it. He can throw himself into any situation, and do a good job there. However, the one thing that he can’t seem to do is fall in love. Then, one day an accident happens on the side of the road, and Taylor finds a woman named Denise with a serious head injury. No one knows where Kyle, Denise’s four year old son, is. The case goes from bad to worse because no one knows how far Kyle actually walked and the storm is brutal. Once Taylor finds the child and returns him to his mother, he might have thought that things would go back to normal. They didn’t. Mitch and Denise seemed to see each other more and more and they started to go out. As they began a relationship, Miles had a difficult time thinking about marrying Denise. An accident with his father when he was young left him with doubts about relationships that he did not want to face, and so he would use excuses to stay away longer than usual. However, he was shaken up when another accident happened, this one changing his life like no other could, and the only thing that could be asked was what happens next?
Nicholas Sparks’ description in the book The Rescue is great. He goes into detail about the important things, and for the others he will give you a brief description. His characters are as alive as you and I and he makes you live their lives. Their emotions and their feelings become your own, and you can see their lives through your own eyes if you let your imagination open. There are times where the book does get a little dull and times where you do not want something to happen that clearly does. Overall I give this book a thumbs up.