Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks

source: purchased
title: Nights in Rodanthe
author: Nicholas Sparks
genre: contemporary romance
pages: 212
published: 2002
first line: Three years earlier, on a warm November morning in 1999, Adrienne Willis had returned to the Inn and at first glance had thought it unchanged, as if the small Inn were impervious to sun and sand and salted mist.  
rated: 5 out of 5

blurb:
Adrienne Willis is 45 and has been divorced for three years, abandoned by her husband for a younger woman. The trials of raising her teenage children and caring for her sick father have worn her down, but at the request of a friend and in hopes of respite, she’s gone to the coastal village of Rodanthe in North Carolina to tend the local inn for the weekend. With a major storm brewing, the time away doesn’t look promising…until a guest named Paul Flanner arrives. At 54, Paul is a successful surgeon, but in the previous six months his life has unraveled into something he doesn’t recognize. Estranged from his son and recently divorced, he’s sold his practice and his home and has journeyed to this isolated town in hopes of closing a painful chapter in his past. Adrienne and Paul come together as the storm brews over Rodanthe, but what begins between them over the weekend will resonate throughout the rest of their lives, intertwining past and future, love and loss.

my thoughts:
Nights in Rodanthe is a re-read for me. After hitting a mini reading slump with the mystery book I was reading, I decided to grab something I knew I would enjoy to try to get back on my reading track.

There is something about a Nicholas Sparks book, they are definitely comfort reads for when I am in the mood for romance with heart. They are the literary equivalent of a cozy cup of hot chocolate and freshly baked cookies. According to Goodreads, I first read Nights in Rodanthe in 2010. I really enjoyed it the second time around.

“Despite all that had happened in the years that had passed since then, Adrienne still held tight to the belief that love was the essence of a full and wonderful life.”
– Nicholas Sparks, Nights in Rodanthe

My favorite Sparks novels center around middle-aged couples like Adrienne and Paul. In this one these two are both at a crossroads in their lives. Adrienne’s husband left her a few years ago for a younger co-worker. She is raising three teenagers on her own and works part-time at the library after being a housewife and stay at home mom all her married life. She still grieves the loss of her marriage and throws herself into working and being a caretaker leaving no time for herself.

Paul is a successful doctor with his own practice who has always been emotionally distant. His wife left him a few months earlier and he is estranged from his son so he decides to sell his practice, sell his house and go to Ecuador to practice medicine with his son in order to make amends with him. First he has to make a trip out to visit a patient’s husband who wrote him a letter asking to speak to him. This is how he winds up at Rodanthe Inn for a few days.

It is off-season but the Inn’s owner Jean asks her best friend Adrienne to tend to the Inn for the week while she is away. Paul is the only reservation as a coastal storm is due to arrive. Paul and Adrienne meet at the Inn and fall easily into a friendship, talking late into the evenings, taking walks on the beach and eating meals together. They begin to naturally gravitate towards each other and fall in love.

I just love Nights in Rodanthe, the setting, the storyline and the writing are all perfect. Sparks brings the cozy and romantic Inn to life and I can feel the ocean breeze on my face as Adrienne and Paul slowly fall for each other. Their relationship feels real. The pending storm brings excitement and tension to the story and it helps bring these two together as they are boarded in while the rain, winds and lightning rage outside.

“Everything about him made her long for something she had never known….”
-Nicholas Sparks, Nights in Rodanthe

I am not going to lie, I cried while reading this one even though I knew what was going to happen. Paul writes Adrienne the most beautiful love letters as can be expected from a Sparks novel. They want their second chance at love and plan on being together after Paul goes to Ecuador to reconcile with his son. It is something he has to do and Adrienne encourages him and will wait for him to return. He will be back in one year for her.

This is a love story about second chances at finding happiness and about reconciling with the past and making things right. Paul could easily brush off going to Ecuador with his son and stay with Adrienne instead, but he chooses not to, he goes and tries to finally set things right. Adrienne could go off to Ecuador and follow Paul, but she has her family to look after and she stays behind. They support each other and figure they can start their lives together when he gets back in a year. The wait is unfair after all they have been through and that now they finally found love, but it will be worth it.

“The greater the love, the greater the tragedy when it’s over. Those two elements always go together.”
– Nicholas Sparks, Nights in Rodanthe

The film version of Nights in Rodanthe is also very good. I’m glad I re-read this one and probably will read it yet again some day.

“She had fallen in love with a stranger in the course of a weekend, and she would never fall in love again.”- Nicholas Sparks, Nights in Rodanthe

About the author:
Nicholas Sparks is one of the world’s most beloved storytellers. All of his books have been New York Times bestsellers, with over 105 million copies sold worldwide, in more than 50 languages, including over 75 million copies in the United States alone.

Sparks wrote one of his best-known stories, The Notebook, over a period of six months at age 28. It was published in 1996 and he followed with the novels Message in a Bottle (1998), A Walk to Remember (1999), The Rescue (2000), A Bend in the Road (2001), Nights in Rodanthe (2002), The Guardian (2003), The Wedding (2003), True Believer (2005) and its sequel, At First Sight (2005), Dear John (2006), The Choice (2007), The Lucky One (2008), The Last Song (2009), Safe Haven (2010), The Best of Me (2011), The Longest Ride (2013), and See Me (2015) as well as the 2004 non-fiction memoir Three Weeks With My Brother, co-written with his brother Micah. His newest book, Two by Two, was published on October 4, 2016.

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Disclaimer: This review is my honest opinion. I did not receive any kind of compensation for reading and reviewing this book. I am under no obligation to write a positive review. I purchased my copy of Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks. Nothing in this post is available for download, the book photo is my own.
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