"The Lucky One"

Sparks, Nicolas. The Lucky One. Grand Central Publishing: New York. 2008. (332 pages)

I really enjoyed reading this book because it was different from most of the books I have read in the past. Typically, I have chosen the average girly teenager books with a fairly predictable plot. I liked how the main characters in this book were adults because it was something that was brand new to me. The combination of drama, light-hearted moments, and funny scenes was just right and made the story enjoyable.

There were also a few parts of this novel that made it challenging. The three narrators: Beth, Logan and Keith each incorporated their point of view to make the story complete. The chapters went back and forth among the three narrators. The switch of narrators kept me on my toes as I read this book. It was really fun getting the story from three different people and their varying opinions and thoughts. I felt like I grew close to one character as they were telling their story, and then that chapter would end and I would have to change my mindset for the next character. Then it would happen all over again! Once I got used to technique I began to really enjoy how Nicolas Sparks set this book up.

Former U.S. Marine, Logan Thibault, also had quite a few flashbacks to earlier events in his life throughout the novel. The flashbacks were really helpful because as a reader I gained more information on what it was like to be fighting for your country while in Iraq. The time change and difference of characters made it a little bit confusing at times but overall it was pretty easy to follow. The vocabulary in this book was fairly average. A couple of times in each chapter I would come across a word that I didn’t know and tried to figure it out by looking it up, asking someone or using the context clues.

Overall, I appreciated this book to the fullest. Many times I had a hard time putting it down because I just wanted to know what horrible thing Keith was going to do to Beth next or how Logan and Beth’s relationship would evolve. As I said earlier, I have not read many books like this before. One of my favorite series is the Private Series by Kate Brian. There are currently twelve books so the characters and plot are carried from to book to book. They are always left on a suspenseful note so you can’t wait until the next one. The Lucky One was different because, the conflict and relationships were solved within one book. Now that I have experienced this type of read I can’t wait to start another book just like it. The adult characters are more sophisticated and have to deal with more in their lives than the characters I have read about in the past. This created kind of an eye-opening experience for me. I also feel like I have a better understanding for what a challenging book might be for me. I want to continue to read a variety of books with multiple narrators or a range in age of the characters. I know that I can go above and beyond my comfort level into a new world of characters, settings and plots.