The Notebook Book Review

Book: The Notebook (Mass Market)
Author: Nicholas Sparks 
Pages: 200 (roughly in Mass Market
Start Reading Date: 25th April 2018
End Reading Date: 26th April 2018
Good reads Rating: 1 Star


I know a lot of people who love the movie. I’m not one of those people.  

The book was ok. It took a while for me to actually get into it. And I hated it. Yeah it’s cute they got together in the end and blah blah blah. But for me.  

While o think the romance is an ok one, Nicholas Sparks has better love stories.  

Dear John (Mass Market Edition) Book Review

Book: Dear John (Mass Market Edition)
Author: Nicholas Sparks 
Pages: 360 Mass Market Edition (237 hardback) 
Publisher: Warner Books 
Publish Date: October 30th 2006
Start Reading Date: April 16th 2018
End Reading Date: April 22nd 2018
Good reads Rating: 3




Another Nicholas Sparks book. I know I know. I think this is the 4th one I’ve finished this year so far.  


Dear John is about John and Savannah who meet one day in North Carolina while John is on leave from the army. They have an intense relationship both together and apart and soon enough Savannah writes a Dear John letter.  

If you have no idea what a ‘Dear John’ letter is (it’s an actual thing that happens in real life not just in this book) it’s where a woman writes a letter to her boyfriend who is in the military and breaks up with them. 

With this book I wasn’t to sure about it. This is the first book that I’ve read where I can see the actors who played the characters.  

I’ve not seen the movie for The Last Song, and have for Safe Haven and The Lucky One and in those movies when I’ve read the book I couldn’t see the actors while reading the book.  

But with Dear John I could see Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried in the book. Which I don’t like, and it’s nothing because of them being on the front. 


The Topics
With any Nicholas Sparks book you’ll always have two things. A love story and it being set in North Carolina and Dear John is no different.  

I like how there is other topics within the book such as Autism, friendships and the military. 


Overall
Overall I was super disappointed with the book. I felt that it lacked something. What I don’t know. But it lacked it. I am not normally someone who likes mass market books. 

I felt as if the romance of the book was forced I don’t doubt that they loved each other even though Savannah did break John’s heart.  

I think the characters were way to different to make it a believable love story.  

I don’t hate the book. There are some great factors about it. Such as the compassion the two main characters have. But I think it just didn’t work out great. The summer they met the love was great between them. But afterwards I don’t think it works well. They are completely different people.  

By the end of the book after John’s dad died I liked John a lot more. But through out the book I didn’t like Savannah at all. 

I read the book in less then a week. Which is really quick. For me any way. It’s such a quick, fast moving book I mean it Starts with him in talking about highs school and joining the army, being in the army over the years, 9/11. I think roughly it starts in 1996 and ends in 2006. So it’s over the cause of 10 years. 


Lauren
xoxo

Lucky One (Sparks) Discussion Questions

Welcome to a discussion post for The Lucky One.  



1. After Thibault finds the photo of a girl wearing a shirt that says lucky lady across the front, his best friend Victor convinces him that the photo is his lucky charm. Do you believe in lucky charms? Do you think the photo is Thibault’s lucky charm, or is his good luck just a coincidence?

- I’m somewhere in the middle. Sometimes I believe that things can be lucky while other things are just ridiculous.  
- I mean you could consider that’s the photograph of Beth was some sort of lucky charm but then you could say that Beth’s brother Drake was lucky for other reasons and that the day he died he was just in the wrong place.  
- Logan was lucky before he found the photo. He hadn’t died on his first tour. Ok his luck changed in things such as poker but then poker is such a game of chance. 



2. Do you find it odd that Thibault walked across the country to find the girl in the photograph, a woman he knew next to nothing about? Why is Thibault so compelled to find this woman?
- I don’t think it’s odd. He was in the army. He served in Iraq 🇮🇶. I’m sure he went through a lot more harsh things.  
- I think he was compelled to find her because it would put his mind at ease. Five years is a long time. Plus after his friends death he wanted to do something that made he feel more close to him. 



3. Thinking about how difficult marriage is, Beth remembers her grandmother’s saying: "Stick two different people with two different sets of expectations under one roof and it ain’t always going to be shrimp and grits on Easter." Do you agree? Do you think marriage is worth the hardship that often accompanies it?

- I’ve never been married but I think if two people are completely different with no interests in common then it’s likely to fail. Marriage is hard but you have to have that common ground to understand each other.  
- I think you have to work at marriage to a point. If it’s really not working the best thing for everyone is just to divorce and go your separate ways. 



4. Compare the main male characters in the novel--Thibault, Clayton and Drake. How are they different and how are they similar?

- The three main male charters have a lot in common from Beth and Ben to being or having a job that is both routine and unexpected.  

- There are so many things that make them the same and different all together and then just with one of the other people. Logan and Clayton are the same because they lied to Beth but for different reasons. Logan’s lies were to protect Beth but Clayton lies just to harm her. 


5. Thibault, we learn, was a soldier in the Iraq war, but when we meet him he looks and acts nothing like a soldier. How has the war affected Thibault and in what ways are his actions in this novel determined by his time spent in Iraq?
- He’s affected like most people are when they see friends die in war. But I think his friend dying on the lake affected him more. 




6. Victor seems to think that Thibault is in love with Beth even before he’s met her. Do you think it is true that Thibault fell in love with Beth before he ever met her?

- I think he had strong feelings towards her. It’s on the verge. What someone might think is love maybe someone else’s lust or creepiness. 




7. Beth is somewhat guarded and she doesn’t allow herself to fall in love with Thibault easily. What, besides her past romantic failures, makes her initially wary of Thibault?

- the fact that he’d been in a job that killed her brother. Even though he was no longer a marine
- Also the fact that he walked across the contrary.   
- She has been so affected by Clayton that it’s hard for her to feel things towards other people. She had dates between Clayton and Logan but Clayton had a hold over her that those dates never went anywhere else. 
- She also has to think of Ben.  





8. What role does Nana play in bringing Thibault and Beth together?

- Giving Thibault a job was the thing that brought them together in person. She makes Beth see that though Logan lied to her she didn’t give him a chance. 



9. Why doesn’t Thibault reveal the truth about himself to Beth earlier? Do you think he acted dishonestly and do you think Beth is right to be upset when he finally tells her the truth? Should she have forgiven him?

- I think Beth is more upset that Thibault wasn’t the one who told her why he was there that it was her ex husband who told her. 



10. Do you think Thibault and Beth are destined to be together? Do you believe in fate?
- Its a love story of course they were destined to be together. 
- I don’t believe in destiny or fate. Sometimes things just happen. Logan didn’t know how things would turn out. If he would have feelings for Beth if they met in person. If he had just wasted his time walking over 1500 miles and through a minimum of 8 states. 



11. What do you make of Clayton? Do you dislike him? Do you understand why he behaves the way he does? Is he a good father to Ben? Does your own opinion of him change by the end of the book?

- Clayton has his faults. Most men do. But is he a good dad to Ben. That depends on how you grew up. Personally he’s not a good dad in my eyes. He can’t see that Ben doesn’t like the same things as he dose and tries to force him into the things that Clayton wants him to do rather then support Ben. He loves Ben but can’t see that Ben is different. I don’t think my views on him change by the end. I always knew he had love for Ben. 




12. What role does Zeus play in this story?
- Zeus at first I thought was just a companion for Logan but as time went on he is more then a companion. He is a protector 




13. Describe Ben and Thibault’s relationship. How does Ben change as he and Thibault become close?
- Ben opened up a lot more. You could tell there were small changes happening as soon as they met. Though he’s not Ben’d father Logan has become a sort of father figure to him.  

I’m Obsessed

One thing I love is discussion questions for a book. I mean every book that I’ve been reading lately I’ve been searching to see if they have discussion questions online. That’s when I came across a website called Litlovers.com, and it’s become a fast favourite for any discussions questions. I pinned it so that it’s easy to get to. It was always one of the first ones to come up.  


90% of the time when I am looking for the discussion questions for a book I’ll find it on there.  

What I do is save the questions on a draft on my blog and have a backup on my phone so as I am reading the book I can look at the questions and answer as I go and when I am finished I can go back and modify my answers. Make them more decent.  

I’ve always been someone who likes English, reading, writing etc more than science (though I always enjoyed some aspects of science) and a lot more than maths (I hate maths). Even though I have a love of English and all that comes along with it I’m not the best at it. And I can admit that. #Dyslexic. What I love about litlovers.com is that it’s so simple. Easy to use. Has so many options to look at not just discussion questions etc.  

This is not a sponsored post at all

The Lucky One Book Review

Book: The Lucky One
Author: Nicholas Sparks
Pages: 326 (hardback)
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing 
Publish Date: August 11th 2009
Start Reading Date: March 30th 2018
End Reading Date: April 16th 2018
Good reads Rating: 5* 

Nicholas Sparks is the king of romance novels. And the author of one of my favourite books ever Safe Haven. And I swear more of his books have been made into movies then any other author. 

I got The Lucky One for my birthday. Goodwill book store was having a 50% off sale. $4 down to $2. How could I complain. I also picked up the other Nicholas Sparks books.  

The Lucky One is about Logan, a marine. On one of his trips a fellow Marine dies and Logan finds a picture in the rubble and afterwards becomes lucky. Everyone around him says that the photo is lucky because of his luck after finding it. When he leaves the marines he walks from Colorado to North Carolina to find the woman in the photo who he only knows as E.   


I loved this book. It’s right up there with Safe Haven.  

I wasn’t to sure if I would because I’ve seen the movie before reading the book (I love the movie because I love Zac Efron) so when I read it I fell in love.  


If a book has been made into the movie I want to be able to not see those actors in the movie when I am reading the book and in this book I didn’t. Its as if the movie was never made. 

Even though I am not a fan of multiple people narrating a book it kind of worked having three with this book. One of those three Clayton didn’t have many chapters of his own that he narrated but it still works when he does.  

I also liked that most of the book is longer chapters.  

When Beth (Elizabeth) was talking about her brother on his birthday you could tell that she loved him. That whole chapter broke my heart. You could tell Beth wasn’t over the death of her brother.  

Now I’m not the fastest reader in the world. It’s taken me a while to actually finish the book. But that’s because I’m not a fast reader but it actually made me cry in a few places that I had to put it down. 

The last chapters of the book where they are rescuing Ben really broke my heart because I didn’t want anyone to die. But I knew someone had to.  

I love it when I can connect with characters in a book rather then in a movie (sorry I still like the movie) and with The Lucky One I connected with the characters a lot more then the movie. There was one scene in the movie though that wasn’t in the book. Where Beth is showing Logan where Drake had placed her book. While it was a good part in the movie I liked it more with out it in the book. 

Top Ten Tuesday Freebie 10 Books and One Series Would Take On A Desert Island

This weeks Top Ten Tuesday (and kinda cheat) is a freebie where we get to choose the topic. I chose books I’d take to a desert island. I did kinda cheat on this one as I added some books that I haven’t read as well.  

The first set of books are ones that I’ve read and loved and know I’ll continue to read and love.  

- Marshmallows For Breakfast 
- The Ice Cream Girls 
- My Best Friends Girl
- Goodnight Beautiful 
- The Devil Wears Prada 
- Hate List
- One Day
- Safe Haven 
- The Lucky One
- The Great Gatsby 
- Harry Potter Series 

- The Cupid Effect
- The Chocolate Run
- The Woman He Loved Before
- The Rose Petal Beach
- The Flavours of Love
- That Girl From Nowhere
- When I Was Invisible 
- The Friend

Book Talk; Covers

It feels like forever since I’ve done a book talk, or a decent post. Bit today I wanna do a post all about book covers. 


I personally hate the saying "Don’t Judge A Book By It’s Cover". Because unless the book is placed on a bookshelf backwards and you can only see the back you have no idea what the book is, the title, or in some cases the author. And even if that did happen your still judging a book by its cover. Just not the front. 


The cover of a book is the first thing you see so you’ve already pre judged what’s inside that book just a tiny bit but still judged it.  

So I will never say that I don’t judge a book by its cover. Because I so do. 

You can’t judge what’s inside the book by the cover but if it’s done well then you’ll get a good idea. 



Series book covers that go together are literally #MyFavorite #Goals

I mean I haven’t finished the Matched Trilogy yet but the covers are so beautiful 😍.  

I also like LA Candy series covers. Both with the dust jackets and without.  

Dorothy Koomson is someone who for me is just beyond amazing. I love her books and the covers of her books are just so beautiful. Especially the earlier UK editions where they are the pastel covers. (Nothing against the North American version or the later books) but I feel that that the pastel colours give it an edge.  

The hard back cover of Nicholas Sparks books are beautiful. With and without the jacket on them. 

One thing I did notice when looking at To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before is how weird the person on the front of the book holds the pen in their hand. It made me laugh out loud and shake my head at the same time.  

I was looking through my book shelf’s to find a book to read and noticed that a fair amount of books have shows on their cover.  

- Cinder
- The Devil Wears Prada
- Chasing Harry Watson
- Last Night At Chateu Marimont 
- Beneath The Glitter ✨ 
- The Time Travlers Wife
- My Best Friends Girl

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I’m not really judgemental on book covers, but I know that I judge them. And I’m not ashamed that I do judge them.  

The way I see judging a book is like a pie. You have all the ingredients to make the pie, where judging a book you have a lot of things to judge, and a small part of that is the book cover.   


While taking pictured for both this post and another post (I’m not sure what one will be first. This one or that one) I thought about the Pretty Little Liars books that I have and how the jacket on the hard cover copies are different than the book cover. So when I took them off there were A messages. Which I think is pretty cool 

I saw someone say that they didn’t like how on paper back copies of books that they sometimes don’t match up with the rest of the book. On such books like Matched and Cinder. But I like it. I like when they fit as well but I like when the cover is a little smaller as well. 

One thing I would like to see more off is hardback covers coming across to paper back instead of both books being completely different.  

One book that I judged hardcore was The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks. I hadn’t read it until recently because of the cover of the book. All because of Miley Cyrus. I dislike her. A lot. Her music. Her voice. Her acting skills.  

One of my favourite series is Harry Potter. I grew up reading the books like everyone my age. So when the Illustrated books came out I was exited. Christmas 2016 I was looking at Chamber of Secrets (my favourite book in the series) at the book store. I put it back and my dad told me that I could have it for Christmas. The cover art. Out. Of. This. World.