The Lucky One Review

So I recently read The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks, obvious by the title of this post.  I read the book because the movie came out a little while ago and, as any reader, I had to read the book first so that I can be thoroughly disappointed with the movie.  I also didn't get around to seeing the movie in theaters so I thought I would read the book and wait until the movie came out on DVD.

Now before I get on to a whole review of the book, I must say that I haven't read any realistic fiction in a long time.  Around my junior year of high school I stopped reading this genre in favor of dystopians and fantasy books.  My friend offered to lend me a few books this summer and this just happens to be one of them so I picked it up.

The Lucky One, if you haven't heard about it already, is about a soldier who finds a picture of a woman during his service in Iraq.  After finding the picture he finds that luck is suddenly on his side during a series of near death encounters.  When he returns home he decides to find the woman in the photo.  This lands him in a small town in North Carolina where he works for the woman and her mother.  Their relationship blossoms but problems arise when she finds he is keeping the whole truth about himself and intentions from her.

Well, there were parts about this book that sucked me in and others that turned me off.  Probably the biggest aspect of the book that grabbed my attention and held it by a noose was the romance.  I am a sucker for romance.  I get stuck in it as if it were quicksand swallowing me whole.   This sometimes bothers me because I don't know whether I am judging a book fairly or if I just liked it because of the romance.

The other part that I liked a lot was the suspense and the emotion of this book.  There was never a dull moment and most of the parts of the book felt like they should be there.  I absolutely hate when authors add seemingly useless information that makes you want to skim through pages.  This book didn't have that.  It always kept me engaged and wondering what would happen next.  The end also throws you a bit of a curveball which is fun.  I also really enjoyed reading about the grandmothers.  She is a piece of work and my favorite character in the book.

But, and there is always a but, the other characters left something to be desired.  I felt that sometimes reading this book something was off about the characters, well the two main characters to be precise.  It appears Sparks spent a boat load of time outlining and fleshing out the subordinate characters but just through Elizabeth and Logen together.  Deputy Clayton, was perfect, you hated to hate him.  Elizabeth's son was cute and her grandmother was a great personality, and my favorite character as said before.  Elizabeth and Logan though, flat as pieces of paper.  They were too perfect and too pretty for their own good.  Nothing they did was wrong and I have a problem with that.  My whole philosophy is, a perfect character is an unrelatable character.  

Another part that bothered me slightly was the relationship between Logan and Elizabeth.  Like their characters, it didn't seem real.  They would fight but continually get back together without a hiccup.  Again too perfect for real life.  I know this is supposed to be a feel good capture you and fill you with happiness kind of book but a little bit of reality never hurt anyone.

All in all I would give this book three stars.  It grabbed my attention and kept me reading until the end, despite the lack of character development.  It was definitely driven by the intense romance and the overwhelming drama which is good and bad.  Overall it was a read that took very little thought, so if you are looking for something easy to take your mind off life on a Sunday afternoon I would recommend this book.