by: Uel Ceballos
No one can ever question the
unparalleled knack of Nicholas Sparks in pulling the heartstrings of his
readers. Sparks is known for his inspiring romance novels wherein several of
them have already been turned into a movie such as “A Walk To Remember”, “Message
In A Bottle”, and “Dear John”. There’s really something in this guy’s words and
way of telling stories that set the readers in various hues of emotions. His
books always succeed in hitting the effects that the story would want to
trigger from the readers – to bring out the hopeless romantic side in them.
Sparks is such a virtuoso on such thing; he never fails to nail it.
On this book, “The Guardian”,
Nicholas Sparks has given us something new of which he hasn’t done in his other
previous books. He has added another element here, the element of thrill and
suspense and the result was as awesome as he did to his other novels.
“The Guardian” focused on Julie
Barenson who is living in simplicity in Swansboro, North Carolina. Her husband
died and left her a Great Dane puppy named Singer. Julie mourned for her
husband’s death and took her almost four years before she finally decided to
get back into dating. Many guys are pursuing Julie but only two of them have really
captured her eyes and maybe this time, her heart. One is Richard Franklin, a gorgeous,
refined engineer, a real romantic and definitely every woman’s fantasy. The other guy is Mike Harris, easy and
uncomplicated guy, an industrious mechanic, and the best friend of Julie’s late
husband. You may think of it as another typical
love triangle wherein the main rule is “may the best man wins.” Well, you couldn’t
really help thinking that way because it really is. But as I said this novel
has presented us a different kind of story of which the author has never risked
doing before. Sparks has put together the elements of romance, suspense and
friendship and the story was perfectly distributed in parts that accordingly justify each element.
The unique thing about this romance-suspense
novel is that the story of love wasn’t set to be inferior to the tale of
suspense. Actually if not for the gist at the back cover and the foreshadowing
comments and appraisals in the first leaf of the book, you wouldn’t anticipate
the psycho-thrilling constituent of the story while reading on the first few pages. Sparks
had already build up the relationships and the psyche of the characters before he
had gone to the main dangerous twist that laid on the story, thus the occurrence of peril was duly
justified.
Nicholas Sparks used a dog character
and that added to the beautifully balanced story. Singer represents the element
of tenderness and friendship that will surely melt your heart. If you have
loved Marley in the autobiographical book “Marley and Me” and have admired Buck’s
bravery in classic novel, “Call Of The Wild” then you will surely love Singer
as well for his unique, light and easy but remarkable character here in “The
Guardian.”
I was personally amused when the
author mentioned here one of my favourite Broadway musicals, “The Phantom of
The Opera” and how it was used for a metaphorical forewarning of what will about
to happen next. I can already picture the scenes in a movie while I'm reading through the pages. The pursuit of the antagonist here has also make up for a
good detective fiction that somehow reminds of John Grisham’s kind of novels.
For this book that marked
Nicholas Sparks’ attempt to reel away from his usual way of writings, I’ll
cheer on it with 8 Cups of Latte!
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