Safe Haven

by Nicholas Sparks

In a small North Carolina town, a mysterious and beautiful woman running from her past slowly falls for a kind-hearted store owner . . . until dark secrets begin to threaten her new life.
When a mysterious young woman named Katie appears in the small North Carolina town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. Beautiful yet self-effacing, Katie seems determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into two reluctant relationships: one with Alex, a widowed store owner with a kind heart and two young children; and another with her plainspoken single neighbor, Jo. Despite her reservations, Katie slowly begins to let down her guard, putting down roots in the close-knit community and becoming increasingly attached to Alex and his family.

But even as Katie begins to fall in love, she struggles with the dark secret that still haunts and terrifies her . . . a past that set her on a fearful, shattering journey across the country, to the sheltered oasis of Southport. With Jo's empathetic and stubborn support, Katie eventually realizes that she must choose between a life of transient safety and one of riskier rewards . . . and that in the darkest hour, love is the only true safe haven.

• ISBN10: 1455523542
• ISBN13: 9781455523542
• Publish Date: 18 December 2012 (first published 1 January 2010)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Grand Central Publishing
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 432
• Language: English

Reviews

[jesstheaudiobookworm]

4.25★ Audiobook⎮Despite having sworn him off multiple times, I usually to listen to Nicholas Sparks about once a year. This year, I somewhat indiscriminately chose Safe Haven as I was frantically downloading audiobooks in anticipation of the power outage hurricane Florence would bring. Hurricanes are an inevitable part of life when you live in eastern North Carolina and something about it just made me want to hear a Nicholas Sparks book.

Sparks sets all of his books in eastern North Carolina, usually around New Bern. Safe Haven, however, was set in Southport, near Wilmington. But that wasn’t the only thing unusual about Safe Haven. From the very beginning, Safe Haven had a slightly different vibe from Sparks’ other works. Each of his books is unique enough that I wouldn’t dare cry monotony, yet they all have similar undertones. This one, less so.

To my knowledge, I don’t think Sparks has ever dealt with domestic abuse in one of his books and that was a heavy theme in Safe Haven. It wasn’t necessarily graphic, especially in comparison to others I’ve heard, but I still found it a little hard to hear at times. Sparks has a way of emotionally tying you to his characters, so much so that if one of them even gets a paper cut, you involuntarily empathize. Therefore, he did not have to be unnecessarily detailed or graphic about the abuse in order to have it hit home.

In comparison with his other titles, Safe Haven isn’t my favorite. I felt like I spent the entire time feeling guarded, waiting for the emotional hammer fall. Sparks is notorious for manipulating his readers’/listeners’ emotions and he has broken my heart on more than one occasion (i.e. The Best of Me). So, naturally, I approached Safe Haven with caution. It may have been because of that caution, but Safe Haven felt just a little more shallow than what I’m used to from Sparks. Which, by the way, is not exactly a criticism. In comparison to other authors’ work, the depth of Safe Haven is to be exalted. Sparks is a tremendous writer and he absolutely excels at character development.

But I just didn’t fully click with the characters in Safe Haven, probably due to my own trepidation. But, domestic violence aside, Safe Haven was extremely easy to hear. Sparks stands out in my mind as someone who writes beautifully, yet understandably. He doesn’t need verbal garnishes. His storylines are easy to follow along with and can be heard a while doing almost anything. In other words, they don’t require a lot of mental focus to follow. There’s never a “Wait, what’s going on?” moment, much less a “What the hell is happening now?!” moment. He simply takes the listener by the hand and guides them every step of the way.

Based on this listening experience alone, I’m definitely more inclined to hear Sparks again, maybe sooner rather than later.

Narration review: Now that I think about it, it’s possible that my selection of Safe Haven wasn’t as indiscriminate as I thought. As I was quickly scanning the Nicholas Sparks titles available on Scribd, Rebecca Lowman’s name caught my eye. I remembered how much I enjoyed her narration of Eleanor & Park and knew that, as a narrator, she would be a “sure thing”.

I couldn’t have been more right. I enjoyed Lowman’s narration just as much as I did when I first heard her two years ago. Her character distinctions were subtle, but perfectly effective. She fully embodied each character, sending messages about emotions and personality with each intonation. I look forward to the next time I hear her work. ♣︎

[Jyc]

★★★★★ // i enjoyed the thriller part more than the romance. nicholas sparks should consider switching to that genre.

[Leah]

Although I have three or four of Nicholas Sparks’ novels sitting on my shelf to be read, I’ve not yet managed to find the time to read one of them. The only Sparks-related thing I’ve ever seen was the movie A Walk To Remember which I really enjoyed (and which made me cry). I remember reading an article last year where Nicholas stated that his novels are not romance novels. That put me off; I may not have read any of his novels, but his books are primarily romance novels. If he was Nicola instead of Nicholas he would be classified as a Chick Lit author. I received a paperback copy of Safe Haven and I decided it was finally time to break my Nicholas Sparks duck. I’m incredibly pleased I did because I thoroughly enjoyed the book and will be reading the rest of Nicholas’s books that I have as quickly as I can.

The cover of Safe Haven proclaims that the book is an “epic love story” (I’d love to know how Nicholas took that) and I would agree with that proclamation. Safe Haven is a really brilliant love story, introducing us to Katie, a girl who has rocked up in Southport leaving people wondering where she’s come from. Alex, owner of the biggest store in Southport, finds himself wondering about Katie, and the two slowly get to know each other. Alex recently lost his wife, Carly, and is struggling to bring up his two kids and Katie has a secret, something she doesn’t want anybody to know. I liked that Safe Haven eschewed all of the normal love story rules. Katie and Alex’s relationship progresses at a nice, steady pace and at no time during the book did they mess each other about. There are so few traditional love stories in Chick Lit that Nicholas Sparks provides a nice distraction.

There were darker undertones to the novel, and I thought Sparks handled them sensitively. I’d guessed Katie’s secret, as I suppose many will, but it’s well written and it didn’t necessarily bother me that I already knew. I don’t want to give too much away because although I knew what was going to happen and I’d guessed it, I still enjoyed the way Sparks presented it and there were many little surprises I enjoyed learning as I was reading. The novel is probably predictable in more ways than one, but for me, I got into it easily from the first page and I constantly wanted to pick it up and read yet another chapter. It was such a really easy read, despite some of the darker moments (particularly as those darker moments were incredibly absorbing). A lot of romance/Chick Lit fans worried Sparks isn’t there cup of tea should pick up Safe Haven because you will be proved wrong. I can’t say that’s the same for his other novels, though I’m sure I’ll soon find out.

I found the characters to be very well presented and very easy to like. Katie grabbed me from page one, with her hesitancy and her want for secrecy. Her life isn’t perfect and she isn’t perfect but I liked her straight away. I wanted to protect her from what she was running from and I wanted her to get a happy ever after. I also really loved Alex. It was so easy to feel sympathy to him as his wife had passed away and he found himself not only with a store to run but two small children to look after. I found his kids Josh and Kristen to be totally adorable; I’m not a big fan of children but I could have totally kidnapped those two as they were so sweet. Katie makes friends with her next door neighbour Jo and I was incredibly surprised about what we learned about her and I liked her too. I know, I know, I sound like a broken record. I do apologise. The one character I didn’t like in any way was Kevin. He was an awful, awful person. Memorable, very memorable, but horrible.

I thoroughly enjoyed Safe Haven. The ending is very fast-paced and I found myself constantly reading, reading, reading so I could finish it and see how it was all going to end. It was frantic, hectic, and I just couldn’t put it down. Nicholas Sparks is a hugely enjoyable author, I loved Safe Haven and I’ll certainly be picking up more of Sparks’ work. There’s no shame that he’s a romance author, his love stories are traditional and I can see why he’s so popular and why a lot of his novels are made into movies. I can see Safe Haven becoming a movie very easily and I would certainly go out and see it should it come to fruition. Safe Haven was just a wonderful read, it made me believe in love (corny, right?) and I wanted Katie and Alex to be together forever, becoming a new, happy family. Any one wondering if Sparks is worth purchasing, my answer is yes. He’s a brilliant author and I’m a convert now!

[boghunden]

Da jeg først gik i gang med bogen, havde jeg ikke så store forventninger, jeg havde nemlig en ide om, hvordan Nicholas’ bøger ville være. De ville være den slags, man forventede en masse af og endte op med at blive skuffet – netop fordi alle elsker ham.
Jeg må nu – tre dage og en kærlighedshistorie senere – indrømme, at jeg er endt op i den store flok af Nicholas-fans. Siderne vendte sig selv. Jeg holdt mig vågen længere end normalt og det eneste jeg kunne tænke på om aftenen var, hvor meget jeg glædede mig til at læse videre næste dag. Det var en oplevelse udover det sædvanlige. Virkelig. Til at starte med, var 340 sider mange, især når det ikke er på ens modersmål. Da jeg nåede slutningen, var det alligevel ikke sider nok. Man ville gerne have slutningen med det samme, men samtidig ville man ikke have den til at ende.
Alle skulle forkæle sig selv med denne bog (selvom jeg dog har en idé om, at det primært er kvinder der kan lide den).
Jeg kan ikke fortælle præcis, hvad der gjorde udslaget. Normalt er jeg ikke meget for (halv-) forudsigelige bøger, slet ikke når de handler om kærlighed. Alligevel var der noget over denne, som bare var fantastisk. Hans skildring af karaktererne, realismen, fortællingen. Jeg tror måske, det var hans skrivestil, der fangede mig. Det blev helt magisk og eventyrligt til tider og det var af og til også svært at forstå, at det “bare” var en bog. Jeg græd, grinte, smilede, rynkede panden, tænkte og hostede mig gennem bogen.
Jeg vil gå så langt som at sige, at det her ikke bare er en bog. Det er et kunstværk!