In his 14th book, bestselling author Nicholas Sparks tells the unforgettable story of a man whose brushes with death lead him to the love of his life.
After U.S. Marine Logan Thibault finds a photograph of a smiling young woman buried in the dirt during his tour of duty in Iraq, he experiences a sudden streak of luck -- winning poker games and even surviving deadly combat. Only his best friend, Victor, seems to have an explanation for his good fortune: the photograph -- his lucky charm.
Back home in Colorado, Thibault can't seem to get the woman in the photograph out of his mind and he sets out on a journey across the country to find her. But Thibault is caught off guard by the strong attraction he feels for the woman he encounters in North Carolina - Elizabeth, a divorced mother -- and he keeps the story of the photo, and his luck, a secret. As he and Elizabeth embark upon a passionate love affair, his secret soon threatens to tear them apart -- destroying not only their love, but also their lives.
Filled with tender romance and terrific suspense, THE LUCKY ONE is an unforgettable story about the surprising paths our lives often take and the power of fate to guide us to true and everlasting love.
'Will have you weeping for the joy and tragedy of it all' Daily Mail ** 'A page turner...' Glamour ** 'Deeply moving, beautifully written' Booklist ** 'Worth spending a night with' People ** 'Sparks addresses the... struggles of people adjusting to sharing their intimate lives' Irish News ** 'Sparks writes with a depth of feeling and a tenderness rarely seen in male authors' Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Nicholas Charles Sparks was born in Omaha, Nebraska on December 31, 1965, the second son of Patrick Michael (1942-1996) and Jill Emma Marie (Thoene) Sparks (1942-1989). His siblings are Michael Earl Sparks (b. Dec. 1964), and Danielle Sparks (b. Dec. 1966, d. June, 2000). As a child, he lived in Minnesota, Los Angeles, and Grand Island, Nebraska, finally settling in Fair Oaks, California at the age of eight. His father was a professor, his mother a homemaker, then optometrist's assistant. He lived in Fair Oaks through high school, graduated valedictorian in 1984, and received a full track scholarship to the University of Notre Dame. After breaking the Notre Dame school record as part of a relay team in 1985 as a freshman (a record which still stands), he was injured and spent the summer recovering. During that summer, he wrote his first novel, though it was never published. He majored in Business Finance and graduated with high honors in 1988. He and his wife Catherine, who met on spring break in 1988, were married in July, 1989. While living in Sacramento, he wrote his second novel that same year, though again, it wasn't published. He worked a variety of jobs over the next three years, including real estate appraisal, waiting tables, selling dental products by phone, and started his own small manufacturing business which struggled from the beginning. In 1990, he collaborated on a book with Billy Mills, the Olympic Gold Medalist and it was published by Feather Publishing before later being picked up by Random House. (It was recently re-issued by Hay House Books.) Though it received scant publicity, sales topped 50,000 copies in the first year of release. He began selling pharmaceuticals and moved from Sacramento, California to North Carolina in 1992. In 1994, at the age of 28, he wrote The Notebook over a period of six months. In October, 1995, rights to The Notebook were sold to Warner Books. It was published in October, 1996, and he followed that with Message in a Bottle (1998), A Walk to Remember (1999), The Rescue (2000), A Bend in the Road (2001), and Nights in Rodanthe (2002), The Guardian (2003), The Wedding (2003), Three Weeks with my Brother (2004), True Believer (2005) and At First Sight (2005) all with Warner Books. All were domestic and international best sellers and were translated into more than 35 languages. The movie version of Message in a Bottle was released in 1999, A Walk to Remember was released in 2002, and The Notebook was released in 2004. The average domestic box office gross per film was $56 million -- with another $100 million in DVD sales -- making the novels by Nicholas Sparks one of the most successful franchises in Hollywood. The film rights to Nights in Rodanthe, True Believer and At First Sight have been sold, and Nicholas Sparks has written the screenplay for The Guardian, though he has not offered it for sale at this point. He now has five children: Miles, Ryan, Landon, Lexie, and Savannah. He lives in North Carolina with his wife and children. His ancestry is German, Czech, English, and Irish, he's 5'10" and weighs 180 lbs. He is an avid athlete who runs daily, lifts weights regularly, and competes in Tae Kwon Do. He attends church regularly and reads approximately 125 books a year. He contributes to a variety of local and national charities, and is a major contributor to the Creative Writing Program (MFA) at the University of Notre Dame, where he provides scholarships, internships, and a fellowship annually.
THE LUCKY ONE
Nicholas Sparks
Grand Central Publishing
Hachette Book Group
ISBN: 0-446-57993-9
$24.99
326 pages
Reviewer: Annie Slessman
You can bet if Nicholas Sparks puts a book out there, it is going to sell. This scenario is due to his expertise as a storyteller extraordinaire. His latest work, The Lucky One will be touted by readers as one of his best works. Having written books like Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, readers know what they can expect when they buy a Nicholas Sparks book...great characters, great storyline and an electricity that stays with you long after you have finished reading the story.
Sparks main character in The Lucky One is ex-marine, Logan Thibault. Logan has served three tours of duty in Iraq and believes his survival is due to a lucky picture he found of an unknown woman. Once he completes his tour of duty, he walks from Colorado to Hampton, North Carolina in search of the woman in the picture.
Once he arrives in North Carolina, he takes a job at a dog training facility where he meets Nana, the elderly owner of the facility, Elizabeth, her granddaughter and her young son, Ben. Elizabeth, he discovers is the woman in his lucky picture.
The storyline stays true and builds to an exciting climax. There are stories within this story that adds story interest. Sparks knows how to build a story and keep a reader anxiously turning pages.
If you are a Nicholas Sparks fan, you won't be disappointed with this work. If you have never read Nicholas Sparks, this work is a great starting point.
Nicholas Sparks is the author of fourteen best selling works of fiction. Several if his works have been adapted to movies. Sparks and his family lie in the Carolinas.
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This is a wonderful novel, told in a way that is fascinating and enjoyable. Nicolas Sparks knows how to tell a story. The characters are real and believable. I found myself caring about them early in the book. The author has the ability to make people come alive in just a few pages. Once I began to care about them, I was hooked. I couldn't put the book down until I was done. The Lucky One made for a few very enjoyable hours. That is what I want in a book: discovering people that I care about, and a good story to follow them through. It may not be great literature for the ages, but it suits me.
I don't usually read love stories, but I am glad that I found this one. After finishing this novel, I decided to look up the author's other books. I believe that he has written some other good stories that I will enjoy. I believe that you will too.
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After seeing this book was #2 on the NYT bestseller's list, I read the jacket and dove in. The book starts extremely well with a modern and interesting narrative. The flashback scenes are well done and at no time lose the reader.
About 2/3's of the way into the book, the characters become well defined and start to gain a mild complexity. Unfortunately that is where the development stops. In an attempt to create a dramatic ending the book takes on a sit com like aspect. The characters become one dimensional, the story line predictable and you feel the author racing to create a tidy ending.
If the author had further developed the auxiliary characters and ending, it could of been on par with similar books in this genre like "The Bridges of Madison County".
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