The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks is 38 chapters and an epilogue about an ex-marine, Logan Thibault, who is deemed the lucky one by his friends, especially his best friend Victor. Victor tells him the picture he finds will bring him good luck, and so he carries a picture of an unknown woman around in his pocket during his time in Iraq. When his tour is up, he walks from Colorado to Hampton, North Carolina, to find this unknown woman. I thought he’d take a plane or at least a train, since he obviously has waited so long to find her. It reminded me of The Walk. With the publication of The Notebook, I became a fan and love his writing style, but I didn’t find this novel equal to The Notebook. It just didn't measure up in depth. Elizabeth, called Beth by everyone but her dead brother and Logan, is Nana’s granddaughter, and the woman Logan is out to find. Logan stumbles upon a job at a dog kennel owned by Nana as he searches for the woman. Sparks did an excellent job with Nana’s character, and she was my favorite one. She brought humor to the story which reminded me of the mother in a novel I wrote. It didn’t bother me that he used clichés in dialogue because that’s the way many people speak, though I saw a reviewer didn’t like it. I love books that use them appropriately in dialogue to bring out the true character and the way people actually speak, as a character in one of my own novels. One of the most touching parts was the boating scene with his friend Victor. The ending scene could have been better, but felt rushed and lacked the emotion of the boating scene. Sparks needed to show us what happened to Thibault and Clayton. Show, don’t tell when it comes to major action and scenes. It would have made for a much stronger ending, but overall I enjoyed the story and felt he did a good job. Flashbacks don’t bother me either, as I saw they did another reviewer. I used them in one of my novels, the one with the mother and her clichés. Such clichés create memorable characters. I could just visualize Nana. Through the foreshadowing, one can predict the ending easily. The difference with my novel is my foreshadowing doesn’t give away the ending. I love Sparks novels and will continue to read him, but I don’t know if he’ll ever write an equal to The Notebook in my eyes. I gave The Notebook a five, so I have to rate this one as a four.

Good vs. Evil in Death Cheater by Danielle Thorne

I don't know about you, but I love unique books,different from anything I've ever read and this is one. I don't normally read this type of novel, as I'm more into romantic suspense, but I truly loved Death Cheater. Athena Gray has a hard time building relationships because of her gift. Dan is the only boy she's felt comfortable around, and she begins to build hope. Then a butterfly in a collection returns from the dead and disappears. This nearly dissolves their relationship, since it was in a display case at his house and belonged to his brother, a collector's item. She lives with her older sister who is busy with college and work, so she's mostly on her own. A tale of good versus evil shows an evil person with his own agenda. He demands she help him, or her family and Dan will pay. Can Athena find a way to release his hold on her without endangering those she loves? The woods behind the high school are deep, dark, and mysterious, woods she once loved and found comfort in until the evil one appeared with his hounds. She enjoyed walking home from school beneath their leafy cover until he runied her special place. Dan offers to help, but she doesn't want to involve him anymore than he is for fear of what might happen to him. When she finds her sister has disappeared, she has no choice. Will this be the biggest mistake she ever makes? Her sister's life hangs in the balance. Vivid description pulls you into the story, and I loved the way she took care of the mean girls in the restroom, the ones who told her she couldn't use "their" restroom anymore. Athena will use it to her heart's content, and she won't back down. Available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Sony, and Desert Breeze Publishing, Inc.