The Longest Ride By Nicholas Sparks

[amazon_link id=”0751549940″ target=”_blank” ][/amazon_link]’The Longest Ride’ is the latest book by best-selling author Nicholas Sparks.

Ninety-one year old Ira Levinson is in trouble. Struggling to stay conscious after a car crash, with his mind fading, an image of his adored and long dead wife Ruth appears. Urging him to hang on, she lovingly recounts the joys and sorrows of their life together, how they met, the dark days of WWII and its unrelenting effect on their families. A few miles away, college student Sophia Danko’s life is about to change. Recovering from a break-up, she meets the young rugged Luke and is thrown in a world far removed from her privileged school life. Sophia sees a new and tantalising future for her but Luke is keeping a secret that could destroy it all.

Ira and Ruth, Sophia and Luke. Two couples, separated by years and experience, whose lives are about to converge in the most unexpected and shocking of ways.

OK, so I have never read a Nicholas Sparks book in my life, I know that will come as a bit of shock to others reviewers but it’s the truth. I have always been aware of his novels and the success of them and I have seen ‘The Notebook’ on numerous occasions and each time it has left me in bits, but his books were never something that I paid attention to.

So when I received a copy of ‘The Longest Ride’ I was curious to see what the hype was about the American author and why so many of my friends liked him.

I would love to say that I loved the book, I feel by not liking this story, I have let so many people down and have this immense pressure to become a Nicholas Sparks fan but in all honesty, I really struggled with this story and felt like the only time that I began to enjoy was 95 pages away from the end.

The story is split into two parts, one is about an elderly man called Ira who is involved in a car accident during a snow storm and finds himself trapped and injured beneath a snow drift. It is during this time that Ira has conversations with his wife Ruth, which may not be strange but Ruth is in fact dead and as Ira grows weaker, Ruth is at his side helping him find strength through tales of their courtship, marriage and their lives together.

The other part of the story explores the lives of Luke, a pro bull rider and Sophia a college student, upon meeting fall hopelessly in love.The story revolves around them as they deal with the pressure and intensity of Luke’s job as he rides bulls, his fears and his health so that his mother and himself can keep their family ranch.

I found it hard to get into this book, I found the timescale confusing at times, as Sophia and Luke’s relationship was over a series of weeks whereas Ira was stuck in a car for days. This may seem a minor thing, but for me I did find a bit complex. Although the characters were interesting enough, I found I couldn’t really relate to Luke and Sophia and found their lives to be almost bland in comparison to the adventures Ruth and Ira embarked on. I thought Ruth and Ira were quite fascinating as a couple, as they talked of their lives, the wars, the dreams and journey’s that they shared during their times together occasionally these scenes made for sweet reading as Ruth coaxed Ira to find strength to keep going.

As well as this being the first book that I have read by Nicholas Sparks, I have never read a romance story written by a male author before, I have read a few by romantic comedy writers but never solely romantic, so it was a whole new world for me. I am saddened to say that even though the story did indeed make for tender and poignant reading with some whimsical dialogue and scenes, I found it a battle to read and felt almost relief when I came to the final page. A regretful review, but an honest one at least and an author that I may attempt again at a later stage.

You can buy [amazon_link id=”0751549940″ target=”_blank” ]The Longest Ride from Amazon [/amazon_link]and is available to buy from good bookshops.