Review: The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Summary: When U.S. Marine Logan Thibault finds a photograph of a smiling young woman half-buried in the dirt during his third tour of duty in Iraq, his first instinct is to toss it aside. Instead, he brings it back to the base for someone to claim, but when no one does, he finds himself always carrying the photo in his pocket. Soon Thibault experiences a sudden streak of luck—winning poker games and even surviving deadly combat that kills two of his closest buddies. 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 photo—and the woman in it—out of his mind. Believing that she somehow holds the key to his destiny, he sets out on a journey across the country to find her, never expecting the strong but vulnerable woman he encounters in Hampton, North Carolina—Elizabeth, a divorced mother with a young son—to be the girl he’s been waiting his whole life to meet. Caught off guard by the attraction he feels, Thibault keeps the story of the photo, and his luck, a secret. As he and Elizabeth embark upon a passionate and all-consuming love affair, the secret he is keeping will soon threaten to tear them apart—destroying not only their love, but also their lives.
Filled with tender romance and terrific suspense, The Lucky One is Nicholas Sparks at his best—an unforgettable story about the surprising paths our lives often take and the power of fate to guide us to true and everlasting love.

Characters: These characters were kind of blah...

Thibault: He's a veteran who suffers from PTSD (Thanks for teaching me the acronym, Rachel.).  I didn't find him funny,but no Nicholas Sparks characters are funny.  They're all pretty serious since, you know, someone's death is imminent.  However, Thibault is very kind and caring, especially with Ben, and has good intentions even though his plan to find Elizabeth wasn't fantastic, but kinda stalkerish.

Elizabeth: Single mother who got married to her abusive high school sweet heart.  And that about sums her up.  Alright, so she's a very good mom, but lonely and subject to her husband.  That is the one thing I don't like about her.  She should be more independent, but then we wouldn't have Thibault to swoop in and be her gallant hero, now would we?

In my opinion, the characters didn't have as great of chemistry as Nicholas Sparks' other characters.

Plot: First chapter, really weird... Thibault finding more about the mysterious woman in the photo and tracking her down, even weirder and much more creepy.  Man, you can find out a lot on the Internet!
Overall, the story was very sloow.  Not until the very end did any drama actually unfold.

Movie: Now, I might be a bit biased because I find Zac Efron super attractive, but I liked it.  I knew going into it that the story didn't have a typical Sparksian ending, but Rachel did not.  She didn't like the movie too much because she went into it expecting to cry.
The story line is pretty much spot on with the book, so if you liked one you will probably like the other.  And if you like Zac Efron shirtless, you're gonna like this one :P

Would I recommend this to a friend? No, if you wanted to read it because of the movie I wouldn't bother.  And certainly don't let this be your first Sparks novel.  Get the full sap from The Last Song or my other favorite, A Walk to Remember.

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