Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks

Two fragile people. One desperate second chance. Reeling and desolate, Adrienne Willis needs space to rethink her life after her husband leaves her for a younger woman. Fleeing everything, she jumps at the chance to look after her friend's guesthouse in the coastal town of Rodanthe, North Carolina. But there is a storm heading for Adrienne, in more ways than she can imagine. Stranded and isolated as the weather closes in, Adrienne has only one guest: Paul Flanner, a man running from his own shattered past. Taking refuge, Paul and Adrienne have only each other to turn to. Against all the odds, their one weekend sets in motion feelings that will resonate through the rest of their lives.

By reading A walk to remember and then The Notebook, i decided to check out another Nicholas Sparks novel called Nights in Rodanthe [plus i heard it was going to be a movie, so this time I wanted to read the book before I see the movie.] Once again, Sparks knows how to write a sweet love story about two middle aged [late 40's early 50's] people named Adrienne Willis and Paul Flanner who fall in love when they thought that love would never come their way again. Paul, who is a successful surgeon is on his way to try to patch out his estranged relationship with his son Mark, meets Adrienne at an Inn in Rodanthe as she watches over the inn for her good friend. During those short days they had with each other, they experience a deeper love than they both had in each of their long-term marriages. Adrienne tells the story to her daughter Amanda in hopes to pull her spirits up from a terrible loss that she recently experienced.

Actual Rating: 2.75

Yeah, I didn't feel inclined to give it that 3 star rating.

I liked very little about this book. Yes, it made me cry a bit at the end, however I am a bit of an emotional trainwreck at the moment cough cough so I figure that is probably why. The writing wasn't horrible- to be honest, I expected Sparks to be much of a worse writer. His writing style is actually quite nice and much better than I expected.

I hated Paul. Paul was supposed to be the love interest, but I vehemently hated him. He was arrogant and rude, and I couldn't get on board with the whole “change in one weekend” kind of thing.

Just no.

The other characters honestly seemed a bit dull to me. Adrienne had a bit of depth, but she wasn't memorable. Everyone else was as flat as could be.

I could not buy the romance in this book at all. Which, seeing as it is a romance, is pretty bad. Adrienne and Paul fell in love over a weekend. Five days at the most. I believe they confessed their “love” to each other on the second day they met which... insta-love, am I right??? At that point it is infatuation or lust, but it is not love.

Of course, I had a few other problems with this book, such as the emphasis on Adrienne's physical appearance, however the characters and romance were my biggest gripes with this novel.

I would personally not recommend this book, however I am still interested in reading other Nicholas Sparks novels in the future.