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Safe Haven (2017) by Nicholas Sparks ⭐⭐⭐
A friend gave me this book as a Christmas present in 2022, and I finally picked it up and read it, My copy is a softcover from 2017 published by Grand Central Publishing.
This book is about a woman who escapes from her alcoholic, abusive husband to a small town named Southport and makes a life there. It is a very predictable and cookie-cutter story that has already been told. I liked it for the most part, but I can see how people might think the bulk of it is boring. Nothing much does happen in it, though it starts getting more interesting and suspenseful in the middle and exciting toward the end. Once the ending begins to unroll, it turns into an intense page turner, but it takes a long time to get there. The biggest problem with this 382 page slow-build is Sparks’ writing.
He’s a popular writer, but he’s not popular because he’s a good writer. I think Safe Haven needed a better editor. Again, don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed the book, but it is distraction when there are instances where every sentence (and I mean every sentence) in some paragraphs starts with the same word. In one instance, I counted 9 short sentences in a row that started with the word “she”. I found myself trying to reconstruct the sentences…. not at all what you want your reader to be doing when you’re trying to tell a story that you deem worthy enough to publish.
I guess some people don’t notice these things or don’t even care about the writing when they read. After all, it’s about the story, right? To an extent, yes, but I can’t give my full respect to an author who doesn’t intrigue me with their writing style.
The only one that you really have a feel for the inside of their brain (full-on insane) in this book is the terrible, abusive husband. Everyone else in this story is one-dimensional. You have The Friend, The Man, The Girl, and The Kids. I also think that all the little things that come into place are just too coincidental/perfect. One reveal toward the end is just outright unbelievable and made me kind of mad about the whole thing.
If you’re up for a nice clean romance and an extremely easy read, I’ll recommend it. Go ahead, watch the movie, too, (I haven’t yet) because, yup, more than half of Nicholas Sparks’ books have been made into movies. Just let me know in the comments what you thought.
