Two By Two

The first Nicholas Sparks book I ever read was in seventh grade. As someone who has always been a hopeless romantic I absolutely loved devouring every book he had previously released. Throughout the years I've kept up with his novels reading them immediately once they are released. Nicholas Sparks most recent book was released earlier this month and only took me two days to complete.

Two By Two I found to be pretty different from all previous Nicholas Sparks novels. The story involves Russell, his wife Vivian, and their daughter London who live in North Carolina. Their world is turned upside down when Russell decides to leave his job and start working at home for himself. Vivian decides to head back to work which involves a complete change of roles in their household. 

Russell finds himself home most days with his daughter taking on the sole responsibility of carting her to and from her activities and caring for her. London and Russell develop an amazing bond while Vivian seems to be drifting further and further from her family.

I won't spoil the book for you, but throughout the majority of it I really hated Vivian. She was a deplorable character who was extremely controlling and I couldn't see a single good quality that Russell seemed to find in her. However, their relationship is not the only one this novel focuses on. Russell's relationships with his parents and sister are explored as well.

Overall, this is a book I would highly recommend if you love a good, easy read. There is plenty of drama but also many heart-warming moments that left me tearing up.

What books have you been reading lately?

The Longest Ride

I just finished The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks a couple of days ago and wow it was an amazing book!

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The story itself starts off fairly slow, an elderly man named Ira has just gotten into a horrible car accident and is unsure whether anyone will find him in time. His car has veered off the road and is partially hidden by snow, meaning that it will be extremely difficult for anyone to come and save him. While awaiting help, he begins to have a conversation with his wife, a wife who died years ago but has now come back to stay with him as he waits for help. As he waits, his wife Ruth helps him recount their history from the day they met until the day she passed.

As this story is happening throughout the novel, a second story is happening as well. This story is of a college senior named Sophia who meets a bull rider named Luke. The two fall in love and despite all the trouble thrown their way, continue to make it work until they reach a crossroads in their relationship.

Eventually both stories intertwine and culminate in what I feel was the perfect ending to this novel. How you ask? Well you'll just have to read it for yourself!

Overall, I loved this story. I absolutely adored everything second reading about Luke and Sophia's romance and hoping for the best when things went south. I have to admit however that Ira and Ruth's story bored me. I found myself anxious to get through their retelling of their own love story in order to read about Luke and Sophia. Although in the end, Ira and Ruth were absolutely essential to the perfect ending of this novel, I could have done with more of Luke and Sophia and less of Ira and Ruth.

I think it might be an age thing however, because I honestly prefer to read about people closer to my own age. I imagine I don't have too much in common with an elderly man who has just lost his wife, but relate more closely to the younger crowd in this novel.

However, despite wanting to skip certain parts of this book, I thought it was extremely memorable and perhaps one of Nicholas Sparks' best novels.

Go read!