The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks Review

The Lucky One was my first Nicholas Sparks novel and I went into it with curiosity and an open mind. I’ve been contemplating what exactly makes romance so compelling as a genre, not only for me but for its widespread audience, so what better novel to read than one by a household romance author name? 

In The Lucky One, Sparks sells the idea that that love is simple when its right; that everything turns out okay when it’s with “the One,” and everything will simply fall into place when this is the case. The novel was also distinctly American, with the Southern setting, lack of diverse characters, and the main character Logan being a veteran which is revered in the story. After indulging in hundreds of romance novels, spanning many genres, tropes, times of publication, settings, and more, I've realized that good romance has a way of packaging the author's intended ideas in a way that suspends disbelief, and Sparks did a good job in this novel. It was an enjoyable reading experience, and I found myself invested by the end, the characters were well developed, had depth and were believable. There was humor sprinkled throughout, without being overly comedic or rom-com like; I enjoyed the banter between Beth and Nana. I also liked how the relationships between Ben and each of his parents were discussed, but I found that they were not as nuanced as I may have preferred, it was very cookie-cutter with how Ben preferred Beth over his Dad and how Logan perfectly fit into his life as a father figure. Near the end, the reader is given more complexity with Keith as a character to contemplate with how it ends, but not nearly enough time or pages to develop this sudden development in the characters, plot, and how it changes their relationships. I would have enjoyed it more than I did if the ending was not quite as rushed and random, I found myself dissatisfied with the way the loose ends were not tied up.