Isn’t Nicholas Sparks one of a kind? I’m mesmerized by how he has managed to do it over the years, one classic romance novel after another. He’s the real MVP of the romance genre. He gets it, and because he does, he knows how to pull you in with his narratives. So inside that all you think about are the characters in the book until you reach the last page. You become so invested in their lives as you read, that for a moment, their joy becomes your joy and their misery becomes your misery. It’s preposterous. His novels are the kind that get you flipping pages a little past mid-night and you keep convincing yourself, “okay, one more page.” Or for those of us that use public transport, they get you so engrossed in the story that you almost miss the stage you’re meant to alight the bus from.
See Me, is about a young lad, Colin, who’s looking for a second chance at life, and not necessarily love, but what do we know? Sometimes when you’re not really looking for something, that’s when it finds you fair and square. Like on a rainy night as you quietly drive home after a crazy day and on the lone road you encounter a young female stranded with a flat tire. With his scarred face, he scares the shit out of her, but because she didn’t have any other option, she eventually lets him help her. And that serves as the beginning of what will be a rousing story.
With love comes a myriad of other baggage, because you’re now a part of this other person’s life. It’s a responsibility you can’t shake off. And just when they hook up and start getting the hang of what being a couple means to either of them, Maria’s past comes to haunt them. From the moment a strange bouquet of roses is delivered to her office one day with an eerie message tagged on it; a threat of violence began to shadow her every step and this pushes them to a breaking point. Given his troubled past and his repeated encounters with the police, he has to give this one his best shot, because that’s what you do when everyone expects less. You defy that expectation.
Then love flourishes. The cover photo speaks for itself, if that’s anything to go by (I had to read it in angles when in public, because I wasn’t ready to be judged by the cover of the book). It’s a sizzling story that kept me entertained and eager to flip those pages. If you like this kind of novels and you have’t read this one, then you can get it as your next read.
Some of my favorite lines in the book;
“Maybe not specifically, but I’d be surprised if your emotions weren’t seesawing from one extreme to the other, which is what most girls go through during the walk of shame. As in ‘Did that really happen? Was it as good as I remember? What did I do? Falling in love is terrifying. That’s why they say ‘falling in love’ and not something like ‘floating toward love.’ Falling is scary. Floating is kind of dreamy.
I don’t know what ‘normal’ really means. I think everyone has his own definition, and it’s shaped by culture, by family and friends, by character and experience, by events and a thousand other things. What’s normal for one person isn’t normal for another. For some people, jumping out of airplanes is crazy. For other people, life isn’t worth living without it.
“I was speaking to my mother while I was waiting for you.” She answered, skipping down the steps toward him. Lily was the only girl he knew who actually skipped when she was happy. > PS: I skip when I’m happy.
“Don’t you want to get ahead?”
“I’m not sure what getting ahead even means,” he said. “Bigger house? Better cars? More exotic vacations? My parents have all those things, but I don’t get the sense that either of them is really happy. There’s always something more out there, but where does it end? I don’t what to live like that.”
“How do you want to live?”
“I want balance. Work is important because I have to support myself, but so are friends, health, rest. Having the time to do things that I enjoy, and sometimes doing nothing at all.”
I got this book from Nuria Book Store. It’s an online book store with such a vast display of books from different genres – so whether you’re into biographies, fiction, non-fiction, name it. Their customer service is amazing too. They found me and engaged with me via Twitter. I like that they took some time to figure out what I like reading and then went ahead to recommended some. They delivered the book and gave me a bookmark to go with it. No more dog ears. Cool huh? Thank you Nuria. To many more orders!
Happy reading and Happy New Month!
May this new month be a beautiful and prosperous one for you and yours.
Signing Off ~~~ *Kawi*