S. F. Prescott

A romantic horror mashup!

Nicholas Sparks is one of the world’s most beloved storytellers. All of his books have been New York Times bestsellers, with over 130 million copies sold worldwide, in more than 50 languages, including over 92 million copies in the United States alone.

Eleven of Nicholas Sparks’s novels—The Choice, The Longest Ride, The Best of Me, Safe Haven, The Lucky One, The Last Song, Dear John, Nights in Rodanthe, The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, and Message in a Bottle—have been adapted into major motion pictures. The Notebook has also been adapted into a Broadway musical, featuring music and lyrics by Ingrid Michaelson.

One of the most entertaining books of the year! Everything about this excited me. The spooky romance aspect, the horror, and surprisingly, a murder mystery. There’s also a movie releasing next year with Jake Gyllenaal cast as the protagonist, Tate Donovan. Since Shyamalan is one of my favorite horror directors, I can’t wait to see it. I really enjoyed this book and it was the perfect segue into spooky season. Having never read any of Sparks’ books before, it was an interesting introduction to his work, and I’d love to read more stories like this.

Suffering a catastrophic loss including a stint in hospital, Tate is hired by his friend to design and oversee the construction of a summer house on the Cape. But soon after, a mysterious young woman appears, calling everything Tate thinks he knows into question about love, life, and death. I have never read a book that blends these two genres as well as this. The closest being Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz, but then again I don’t read a lot of the supernatural. It was very entertaining to follow along and also interesting to feel the influence of each artist, with Sparks’ romantic input contrasted by Shyamalan’s take on the darker side.

The cast of characters was interesting, and I liked the protagonist, Tate, and was greatful for his friendship with Oscar and Lorena. The detail of his dead sister was sad, but I would have liked a little extra nod toward her at the end of the novel after everything I learned about her and the gift she passed on to him. There were a few strong suspects for the murder mystery, but because I read so much in that genre, it was easy for me to predict. That did not take away anything from the book, though, and I was gripped from start to finish. The scenes I can’t shake happened at night in the hall bathroom. The screaming and running water. The terrifying description of the young woman. It definitely felt like M.Night Shyamalan. I also appreciated the action sequence at the climax and thought it really added something interesting. The pace was steady, and the ending was satisfying-no complaints!

For readers who enjoy a creative mashup, spooky romance with action, and forbidden love stories.

Synopsis:

When New York architect Tate Donovan arrives in Cape Cod to design his best friend’s summer home, he is hoping to make a fresh start. Recently discharged from an upscale psychiatric facility where he was treated for acute depression, he is still wrestling with the pain of losing his beloved sister. Sylvia’s deathbed revelation—that she can see spirits who are still tethered to the living world, a gift that runs in their family—sits uneasily with Tate, who struggles to believe in more than what reason can explain. But when he takes up residence at a historic bed-and-breakfast on the Cape, he encounters a beautiful young woman named Wren who will challenge every assumption he has about his logical and controlled world.

Tate and Wren find themselves forging an immediate connection, one that neither has ever experienced before. But Tate gradually discovers that below the surface of Wren’s idyllic small-town life, hatred, jealousy, and greed are festering, threatening their fragile relationship just as it begins to blossom. Tate realizes that in order to free Wren from an increasingly desperate fate, he will need to unearth the truth about her past before time runs out . . . a quest that will make him doubt whether we can ever believe the stories we tell about ourselves, and the laws that govern our existence. Love—while transformative—can sometimes be frightening.