Book+Review

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Nicholas Sparks is accused of writing complete cheese in all of his books. I would extremely disagree on that assumption after reading one of his latest novels, The Guardian. The Guardian is about a 29 year old widow named Julie Barenson that after two years of her husband being deceased, tries to find love again. On the way, she meets Richard Franklin, a handsome, sophisticated engineer who treats her like a queen, and also realizes that her best friend Mike Harris is in love with her. The decision Julie makes should bring her more happiness than she's had in years, but it ends up having the exact opposite effect. Julie is soon fighting for her life in a nightmare that nobody ever saw coming. The Guardian has a new electrifying intensity from Nicholas Sparks that will keep you turning page after page in excitement and thrill.

My favorite part of the entire book would have to be the last 80 pages or so. That's when the book really gets intense, and it was so hard to put it down. It was crazy, with a million ups and downs, and in the end even made me cry. Julie had broken up with Richard, because she realized that she had really strong feelings for Mike, and wanted to be with him. Little did Julie know, Richard was a complete psychopath. He stalked her all day every single day, took millions of photographs of her, went inside her house, and would call her and not say anything at least ten times every day. Julie never had any hard evidence, and she still just ignored his calls and put the whole thing off, until one of her coworkers suddenly disappears for a few days, then is later found on the side of the road beaten to a pulp into a coma, with "the most horrible injuries I have ever seen on a person my whole twenty years of being on the force." one of the police officers that found her said. Julie and Mike know that they have to get as far out of town as possible, because Richard would soon be coming for them. They hide two hours away in Mike's brother's beach house, and that's when everything begins.

When I first checked out the Guardian at the library, I figured it would just be like every other romance Nicholas Sparks novel, but it turned out to be very different. Although the beginning of the book was a little slow, it had me captivated after the first twenty pages or so. You see into every character's mind and get wrapped around their lives in an instant, and can't put the book down. It definitely wasn't predictable; there were many twists and turns throughout the book that kept you flipping page after page for more. For instance, you don't see into Richard's mind when Julie first starts seeing him, it's after a while when you begin to see just how crazy he is. Throughout the whole book, you want to scream at some of the characters because you know something bad is about to happen.

The Guardian gets into your head like you're actually there witnessing all of the events in the novel, and I think that's one of the reasons why it's so intriguing. I didn't expect a Nicholas Sparks novel to be so suspenseful, but it definitely was. I could read this book over and over again. Books like The Guardian are the reason why I love reading so much. They let you escape from your own life and tell you a story that gets in your head and lets you forget about all of your problems for that instant.

I would definitely recommend reading the Guardian to anyone. Well, maybe not the guys, because most wouldn't be caught dead reading a Nichaolas Sparks novel, but it has thrilling, intense, scary moments, so why not? Overall, the Guardian is a wonderful book. It makes you realize that not everyone is how they seem on the outside, and you never know just how much your actions can affect people.