When my best friend gifted me this book on my birthday last year, like most of my peers, I was under the impression that it would be another one of Nicholas Sparks’ sappy romance novels. This was my first Sparks novel, so I was not in the mood for some mushy love story when I picked it up but guess what? It wasn’t.
First published in September 2010 by Grand Central Publishing in USA and by Sphere in Great Britain, Safe Haven is an epic love story with elements of suspense, mystery, thrill and drama, from #1 New York Times Bestselling author, Nicholas Sparks. Several of his books like The Notebook, A Walk To Remember, The Last Song, Dear John, Message In A Bottle, Nights In Rodanthe have been adapted into major films; The Lucky One is set to release on 20th April this year – which I’m definitely going to watch – and the movie Safe Haven is due to release in February 2013; I’m looking forward to both!
Sparks wrote this whopping 365-page novel in a little over 6 months and needless to say, he has done it wonderfully. After a really long time, I have come across such a beautiful page-turner. This novel has everything – love, drama, mystery, suspense, pain, suffering, an element of danger – simply an entertaining and enjoyable read.
The story begins with a new girl ‘Katie’ who shows up suddenly in the small town of Southport in North Carolina with no money for food or shelter hoping to start over. She takes up a waitressing job at Ivan’s and rents a small rundown cottage working hard on her off-days to make it habitable. She does her job well but pretty much keeps to herself until a very chatty neighbour ‘Jo’ moves in next door and she starts loosening up a little though she is still wary of sharing much about her past. Katie finds herself getting attached to the town and its quiet life as she unknowingly starts falling in love with ‘Alex’, the owner of the store Fisher’s, and his two lovely kids but there is a dark secret that prevents her from getting too comfortable in this close-knit homey community. As Alex and Katie spend time together falling just a little more in love each day, danger is creeping up slowly and steadily to wreak havoc in their lives.
Here’s an excerpt from this amazing novel: Jo thought about Katie’s answer before leaning closer. "So you’re telling me that – assuming you had food, shelter and clothing and anything else you needed to simply survive – you’d rather be stranded on a desert island in the middle of nowhere, all alone, forever, for the rest of your life? Be honest."
Katie blinked, trying to keep Jo in focus. "Why would you think I wouldn’t be honest?"
"Because everybody lies. It’s part of living in society. Don’t get me wrong – I think it’s necessary. The last thing anyone wants is to live in a society where total honesty prevails. Can you imagine the conversations? You’re short and fat, one person might say, and the other might answer, I know. But you smell bad. It just wouldn’t work. So people lie by omission all the time. People will tell you most of the story…and I’ve learned that the part they neglect to tell you is often the most important part. People hide the truth because they’re afraid."
With Jo’s words, Katie felt a finger touch her heart. All at once, it seemed hard to breathe.
"Are you talking about me?" she finally croaked.
"I don’t know. Am I?"
Katie felt herself pale slightly…
Safe Haven is an intriguing and expertly plotted novel from one of the world’s most beloved storytellers of all time and very different from his previous novels. The preview of the novel reads ‘Love hurts. There is nothing as painful as heartbreak. But in order to learn to love again, you must learn to trust again.’ With this, I urge all you book-lovers out there to pick up this superb novel at your nearest store as this one’s definitely a keeper – you won’t be disappointed.
by Tanvi Rastogi, BTech, 2nd Year
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