Dear John

Quick Data

Author: Nicholas Sparks

ISBN: 978-0-7515-4046-8

Price: 295 INR

Website:http://www.nicholassparks.com/

‘Dear John’ is a narrative by the character John Tyree, who joined the army to get away from his reclusive father[or so he thinks] and straighten out his life.. It’a a story about John and Savannah who fall in love at the first sight.

Army changes John’s life for better..he has been raised by an almost non-receptive father to which over a period of time John could not relate with.He is not great at studies and is unsure about his future..that is when he finally decides to enlist in the military and do something about his life.

On his first leave from the army he meets Savannah at the beach-she is beautiful and smart and something about her clicks John which initally even he isn’t aware of…only thing he realizes is that he likes her and would want to know more about her. On the other hand Savannah too reciprocates the same feelings and within no time they become friends…John spends his entire leave with Savannah and they get to know each other pretty well…by the end of the leave both of them realize that it’s nothing but love between them and they make promises to each other about future….only thing that bothers Savannah is that John is in the army and based in Germany..she has to wait until he comes back again-discharged from the army job.

With promises to write and call, they say goodbye until John’s next army leave.

John’s days and nights pass with a countdown to the day when he will be with Savannah forever. In between he gets his second leave and they decide to spend sometime with Savannah’s parents as well and then remaining leave with John’s father. Everything goes well in that duration except that John feels Savannah has changed a bit..or may be she is naturally busy in her work by then..or may be it’s John’s fears that are working on his mind…he didn’t know which is the actual reason but he sure knew that something has changed…just something !

This time when John is back to the army base…something happens…the uneventful 9/11. And it sure changes everything in their lives too.

Sparks has written about the love which is deep,out of this world and that aches. It’s an easy and quick read. With less complicated characters and straight narration. Though what I felt was the love that has been talked about in the story is too-good-to-be-true types. Somewhere in the middle of it..specially when the story reaches a point where John feels that something has changed-the further story becomes predictable…there are no twists and turns.

It’s a quick read if you are travelling or at the beach..it’s a nice read for those who like sappy romantic a girl-meets-the-boy love stories.

My rating for this book is 2*

Front Cover Friday – 16

I have two book covers for this week.  I stumbled upon them while browsing through Krishna’s Book Reviews.

Besides having beautiful covers; the books are from Indian Authors which made me like them more. I surely want to explore more books from these two writers.  You can read detailed reviews by S. Krishna   here and here.

Have you read any of these ? Do share the link if you have done the review. Will love to read it.  :-)

The Other Half Lives

Yet another thriller by Sophie Hannah. Ruth Bussey and her boyfriend Aidan Seed decide to be entirely honest with each other before taking their relationship to the next level. Ruth has done something in her past she regrets and has been punished for the same. She herself is trying to rebuild her life and hasn’t ever spoken to anyone about her past. Not even Aidan. Aidan too is troubled by his past and hasn’t spoken to anyone. Until he confides in Ruth. That he killed someone years ago. A woman called Mary Trelease.

The problem is, Ruth knows a Mary Trelease. And this Mary Trelease is well and truly alive.

Ruth involves the local police to try and convince Aidan that he did not kill anyone. Aidan himself comes forth to the police claiming he killed Mary Trelease in the very address she is currently living. He describes her appearance and the police upon checking the address, find Mary very much alive. With all forms of identification.

But all is not right with Mary. Why is she so possessive about her paintings? Why won’t she let anyone see her paintings? What is she scared about?

What is there about Ruth’s past that has left her so traumatised? What is she hiding?

Why is Aidan hell bent on the saying he killed someone when she is very much alive?And how is he able to predict the series of paintings Mary is going to do even before she has done it?

Sophie Hannah takes you through twists and turns once again and weaves a fantastic psychological thriller. She takes us into the minds of the sadistic persons leaving little clues for us through the way. She keeps us wanting more and turning the pages to find out the answers to all the above. Some of the story is a bit far-fetched, especially if you pause to think about it. But on the whole, it is an entertaining read and a page-turner.

Sophie Hannah is fast becoming an author I enjoy reading when it comes to thrillers. Possibly because unlike every other mystery writer, I can’t seem to predict the main culprit.

I give this a rating of 3

Let me know what you think of her books if you’ve read them.

Until next time,

Cheers!!!