Book Review: ‘Safe Haven’.

Where are the Nicholas Sparks fans?

I jumped on the Sparks bandwagon a few years ago when The Last Song hit movie theatres. I loved the movie and did the backward thing by reading the book afterward. Ever since, I got my best girlfriend hooked on his books and I love reading them and then discussing them after.

But the pinnacle of my excitement happened around the book AND the movie, Safe Haven.

I’ve read several Sparks books and seen several of the movies based on the books, but this was the first time I actually read the book before the movie came out!

So, let’s get to the goods, starting with the book.

The story begins when Katie moves to a small beach town in North Carolina. She’s set on starting a new life; fixing up and old house, getting a simple job, and meeting new friends. Despite Katie’s friendly and kind appearance, she seems guarded in her new town.

After weeks of working, she makes new friendships and romance strikes with a local store owner. But as their relationship deepens, the dark secrets of her past start to surface—in and emotional and physical sense.

Did that hook you?

I read the book pretty quickly, and then couldn’t wait for the movie to come out. Normally, I would catch the midnight showing for a movie that I was looking forward to so much; but the movie theatre (that I live above) didn’t have one, so I got the first showing I could.

The movie did have a slight variation from the book, but it was a good version—it made it so people that hadn’t read the book could understand it more, and it was a little more dramatic than the book, which is fine by me.

The best part about Sparks’ film adaptations is the people in them: always beautiful. Exhibit A: in Safe Haved, Julianne Hough plays Katie and Josh Duhamel plays the store owner/Katie’s romantic interest.

Did anyone see this movie and/or read the book? What did you think?