True Believer

Title: True Believer
Author: Nicholas Sparks
Published: 2005

I know what I said after I read At First Sight. I said I was done with Nicholas Sparks. I said that I hated the man and that I was stupid for continually picking up his novels and subjecting myself to the torture of reading them.

But let's call this a loophole. I didn't read this novel. I listened to it.

See, back when I was making the long drive from Roanoke to Indian Valley day in and day out, I decided I needed something to help pass the time. After all, I spent 3 hours of every day in my car. Don't get me wrong, I am a great lover of music. But all that time driving took away from free time that I normally would have spent reading a good book. So I decided to see what the library had by way of books on CD.

I had just seen the film version of The Hunger Games. At that point, I really wanted to read the book again, but I loaned it to the Most Awesome Person I Know before I left North Carolina, so reading it was out of the question. I put myself on the waiting list at the local library for the CD version. I thought it might be interesting to listen to someone else read the story to me. But it would be a couple months before it was available.

So I browsed. And I came across True Believer. I remembered this being the story that took place before At First Sight. And I figured, why not? After all, I already knew the heart wrenching ending of the second part. The first part must have a pretty happy ending, right?

And you know, it wasn't bad. Like with the book I already read, this one was about Jeremy and Lexie. Only this time, it's about how they met and fell in love. And it kind of explained some of the trust issues that Jeremy has in the second book.

Jeremy is a divorced journalist who has made a career out of debunking myths and legends, especially those pertaining to the paranormal. He gets a letter from a lady in a small North Carolina town about these lights that keep showing up in a local cemetery. Jeremy decides to take the time to check the story out for himself.

Upon arriving in Boone Creek, he's introduced to Lexie, the librarian and granddaughter of the woman who sent the letter that piqued his initial interest. Jeremy's smitten from the start, but Lexie doesn't want anything to do with the guy from New York. She's not interested in becoming the small town girl who is saved by the boy from the big city.

But, since you know there's a sequel, you can probably assume they end up together. I hope that wasn't much of a spoiler. I'm assuming you figured out that since they're together in the second book, they'd wind up together by the end of the first. Come on, guys, use your brains.

So I've decided to give Sparks another shot. I didn't cry this time. Probably helped that I was too busy focusing on the 90 minute drive to work to deal with the emotional scenes in the book on CD.