Review- The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks

Summary-

In the tradition of his beloved first novel, The Notebook, bestselling author Nicholas Sparks returns with an epic story of two couples whose parallel love stories intersect in profound and surprising ways.

Ninety-one year old Ira Levinson is in trouble. Struggling to stay conscious after a car crash, an image of his long-dead wife Ruth appears. Urging him to hang on, she lovingly recounts the joys and sorrows of their life together.

Recovering from a break-up, college student Sophia Danko meets the young, rugged Luke and is thrown into a world far removed from her privileged school life. Sophia sees a new and tantalising future for herself, but Luke has a secret which threatens to break it all apart.

Review-

I have read only 2 Nicholas Sparks book till date and that makes The Longest Ride my third Nicholas Sparks book. I'm not a huge fan of him but I don't dislike him either. The Longest Ride, for me, was a pretty good read. Nicholas Sparks is a brilliant story teller and that came off well.

The book starts off with ninety one year old Ira meeting a car crash. He is in and out of consciousness and he starts recounting his life's story from the World War days and how he met the love of his life, his wife, Ruth. The book is not completely dominated by Ira's story and I think I liked it that way. The short glimpses we get from him keep the story moving forward.

Then we have Sophia and Luke. Their story moves parallel to Ira's story and they are in no way actually connected to each other. Sophia is a college student and Luke is a bull rider. Both Luke and Sophia are opposites in every way but you can see the sweet chemistry between them. They somehow understand each other perfectly.

Luke and Sophia each have their own issues. Luke has a secret which threatens to tear them apart completely. The romance moves at a good pace and at the same time we see Ira when he was a young man falling in love with his wife, Ruth. I think both the love stories were very well paced with each other.

There aren't any huge twists and turns or villains in the book. Its just a simple story told from Ira, Sophia and Luke's point of view. I thought I would enjoy Luke and Sophia's story more than Ira's but that was not the case. It was a typical Nicholas Sparks book and that falls into a category of its own. I enjoyed The Longest Ride.

*Note: A copy of this book was provided by Hachette India in exchange for an honest review. We thank them.