"The Longest Ride" by Nicholas Sparks

The Longest Ride (Sept. 17, 2013) by Nicholas Sparks.

French Slovakian Sophia Danko is a senior from New Jersey at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She’s a dedicated student belonging to the Chi Omega sorority, and her roommate/best friend, Marcia Peak, is the reason she finds herself watching a bull riding competition. She has her doubts about attending, especially after her skuzzy ex-boyfriend shows up. Then in swoops young, ultra-attractive cowboy Luke Collins (“eye candy” according to Marcia). Neither is looking for a relationship; Sophia continues to deal with her failed relationship with cheating Brian, and Luke is competing in a sport he had walked away from, but has returned to in order to help make payments on his mom’s ranch. He feels responsible for her being in the financial situation she’s in. Still, despite their separate issues, Sophia and Luke find themselves inexplicably drawn to each other. Making their very different lives work, though – an art history major wanting to work in a museum and a lifelong rancher – will make for a difficult relationship, not to mention Luke’s omission to Sophia.

            Ira Levinson, an elderly man in his nineties, is in trouble. He’s gone off the road on the way to Black Mountain. His collarbone and arm are broken, and something is wrong with his shoulder. He’s got a bleeding head wound, and although there is a full thermos of coffee, two sandwiches, prunes and a bottle of water somewhere in the car, there’s no way he can reach it. Even the littlest movement has lightning bolts of pain shooting through him. Perhaps it’s the pain that causes him to hallucinate about his beloved wife, Ruth, gone for nine years. But no matter, for her company focuses him and helps him remain alert, as he also hopes someone will find him on the steep embankment, because there’s one more thing … Through Ruth, he’s trying to remain alert, but he feels himself “… shrinking, like a sand castle slowly being washed away with every wave.”

            Classic Sparks again. If you know Sparks’ books, then you know the template: an intertwining storyline with a sweet romance sometimes bordering on over-sappiness. Some of these most recent books have also visited the dark sides of characters, but the main characters remain kind-hearted and good. They also show us that love is stronger than just about anything. As it is classic Sparks, it is a good book if you’re in the mood for romantic fiction. There are points that make you laugh and perhaps even shed a tear; other moments may have you rolling your eyes or wishing that your life held that spark – that spark being someone who is truly special. The story is poignant, as it can be following someone’s likely end-of-days, but it’s much more than that. It’s a story of an extraordinary journey. Not fantastical in a superstar sense, but that it’s just a life well-lived. It’s the longest ride, full of happiness and pain, expectation and disappointment, ups and down, but always full of love, even in the darkest of times.