Ruby Dhal's Blog, page 2

What Does a Nicholas Sparks Book Consist Of?

Okay, one thing that you all should know about me is that I am a complete romance novel fanatic!

I read and read and read all types of genres but the only genre that embraces my heart is romance. An assortment of romance. Romantic Comedy. Romantic Drama. Romantic Thriller. Historical Romance. A novel needs to encompass just a little bit of romance – perhaps starring one couple, or a short-lived relationship (equivalent to one chapter) – and I will be drawn to it like a key to a magnet.

Romantic novels are addictive. Alluring. Beautiful.

They’re a manifestation of my hidden hopes and dreams etched on flimsy paper.

But where did this love for romance novels come about? You may ask. Where else would it come from? This wonderful honour goes to none other than Nicholas Sparks.

The first time I came across a Nicholas Sparks novel was when I was in Sixth Form, casually browsing through YouTube and colliding with a recent trailer for the movie ‘The Last Song’. It looks good. I thought. Great, in fact. I loved the on-screen presence of Steve, and the chemistry between Ronnie and Will absorbed me in that 2+ minute trailer.

However, I was more interested in the ‘related’ tab that initiated with a trailer for ‘The Notebook’ on the top right hand corner of my computer screen. Now, you may call me ignorant but I’d never heard of ‘The Notebook’ prior to this particular day. So I watched it and became engrossed in the enchanting and stomach-flipping romance between Noah and Allie that carried the whole movie through effortlessly.

Following this, I purchased ‘The Notebook’ and then ‘The Last Song’ and then ‘A Walk to Remember’ and now, after reading 13 Nicholas Sparks novels, I am a die-hard, faithful and diligent reader of the romance genre. Starting with Nicholas Sparks of course.

But after 13 books in, I have to admit that I see a general pattern that takes precedence in the majority of his novels. These are hidden particularities that define a Nicholas Sparks novel and differentiate it from any other. There are quite a few but I wanted to highlight a handful that I have come across time and time again.

Here they are – in no particular order:

Undoubtedly, every Nicholas Sparks novel is assembled around two central characters that, inevitably, delve into the ocean of undying romance. Be it Noah and Allie, Katie and Alex or Theresa and Garrett; eventually, love materialises in a way that changes the course of each character’s path forever.

In every Nicholas Sparks novel there is a certain hurdle that prevents the lead pair from conjoining in a relationship and it becomes the central basis for the unfolding of the plot. Be it parents, ex-partners, social status, distance or even death – a Nicholas Sparks novel has it all.

Every Nicholas Sparks novel is sketched around a backdrop of the beautiful, serene and rich in culture southern state in the US – North Carolina. Whether it’s New Bern, Beaufort or Wilmington, Sparks ensures that the traditions, values and distinctness of North Carolina are exhibited through his writing.

Every Nicholas Sparks novel is firmly entrenched on values – regarding family, friends, religion, patriotism and even morality. Each novel has a hidden value that remains a central theme in the story. For instance, Jamie’s religious beliefs are extremely important in ‘A Walk to Remember’ as they – partly – stimulate the ‘walk’ that she takes in the end with Landon. And in ‘The Choice’, the value of life is a theme that plays a huge part in Travis’s decision regarding Gabby’s life. Whatever the storyline, there are certain values particular to each novel that help fuel the progress of the story.

Finally, every single Nicholas Sparks novel has a bitter-sweet ending; an ending you want to rejoice in but at the same time you feel like crying at the tragedy of it all. For instance, the only difference between ‘The Last Song’, ‘Safe Haven’ and ‘The Guardian’ was in who died and how they died. In both ‘Safe Haven’ and ‘The Guardian’, death was vital in uniting the lead pair and, even though we didn’t really mind the death in the former novel, death in the latter broke us. And deaths in both ‘The Guardian’ and ‘The Last Song’ left us in splinters at the misfortune caused, even though the lead pair in both novels re-united at the end.

There are so many other characteristics that would individuate a Nicholas Sparks novel from any other; such as Sparks’ ability to aesthetically transform food-making into an amorous ritual that its lead pair engrosses in together, or the fact that the romance between the two central characters in Sparks’ novels is always enthralling, captivating and has the ability to shake everything within the reader.

But for now,  the 5 characteristics above are the only ones that I wish to focus on as these are the qualities that I have come across time and time again when reading a Nicholas Sparks novel.

In the near future, I do look forward to finish reading every single Nicholas Sparks novel that has been published till date. Perhaps, after that I can give you a more informed opinion on which is his best piece of writing. But that is something which extremely difficult to do when it comes to Nicholas Sparks.

Therefore, for now I’d just like to say that if you want a novel that is drenched in romance and portrays the actuality (in the realm of literature) of unconditional love, then go to your nearest bookstore or log onto Amazon and purchase any Nicholas Sparks novel that you find appealing.

And believe me, you will not be disappointed.

Till then, happy reading!

The Piano Man Project - A Review

Hello my loves!

I hope everyone had a good weekend! Mine was good. Slightly tiring but it brought with it new potential.

So this week I am back with another review and I am going to be writing about The Piano Man Project by Kat French. This was the first book that I’ve read by Kat French and I was pleasantly surprised by her effortless writing and the soft-flowing nature of her stories.

‘The Piano Man Project’ is about a resolute and kind girl, Honey Jones, who manages a charity shop with the help of two elderly sisters – Mimi and Lucille – living in the elder people’s home next door. When Honey’s two friends find out that Honey has never had an orgasm (she uses this to conclude that she doesn’t have an ‘orgasm gene’), they set out to find Honey’s ‘perfect man’ for the mere purpose of revitalising this missing gene.

Then comes along Honey’s resentful, enclosed and extremely hostile new neighbour Hal. A hot body and beautiful face is the only cherry on Hal’s burnt, crumbling cake of a life as he jails himself in the flat opposite Honey’s. This is his means of escape from the days he had before he experienced a life-altering accident. Hal is everything that Honey doesn’t want; he swears in every sentence, he’s bitter and rude, he’s far from a gentleman and he treats Honey as if she’s the last person he would speak to if he had a choice – except when she brings him cheap wine.

But none of these characteristics push Honey away from Hal. As a result, they both end up drawing closer to one another rather than drifting away.

I have to say, I didn’t enjoy this book in the way that I wanted to. For one thing, it was a chick-flick with a heavy theme of erotica and I don’t know how I feel about two characters plunging closer on the sole basis of one having the ability to draw an orgasm in another. Maybe I’m too traditional or close-minded, but I didn’t see as many ignited feelings as I did hormones and I don’t know if that’s a good thing about this book or bad.

Also, I found that the plot consisting of the elderly people nearly losing their home an extremely quintessential one. We’ve seen and read about it so many times and the way it ended was extremely predictable, especially with the entrance of Mimi and Lucille’s long-lost and extremely rich older brother.

Furthermore, the lack of insight into Hal’s previous life, the inconsistent direction of the search made by Honey’s friends to find her the ‘piano man’ and the numerous times that Hal teased Honey into getting closer to him only to push her away when she was turned off weighed down on this book heavily. Finally, using the word ‘the piano-project man’ as a title and not making Hal a pianist felt – to me – kind of deceiving. I thought as least the title would have some bearing on whom Honey’s partner was, but it didn’t.

Overall, I was quite disappointed with this book and I hope that the next book I read by Kat French helps divert my opinion completely. She is an extremely good writer, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that she lacks a strong plot with this one.

I would give this book a 2.5/5 but if you like a chick-flick that’s not too heavy on the plot and has an erotica theme as a backbone, then this is the book for you!

Until next week my loves,

Happy reading!

Finding Audrey - A Review

I tried something new with the past few books that I read. What I did is this. I observed some of the most popular book blogs on Instagram and found books that had been featured in them continuously, and then I purchased and read them to see if they were any good.

Now, I’m sure a lot of you do this and you’ve probably noticed the same pattern that I did. Most of these book blogs only feature Young Adult Fiction novels. So there I was, holding a pile of novels written by Young Adult Fiction authors that perhaps had storylines that weren’t relevant to me in any way, but they were books that everyone was speaking about. A lot. They were books that were doing well commercially and were extremely popular.

I don’t really know how I feel about this because I have to admit; the amount of books that I ended up with weren’t amazing in the way that would make me think – ‘wow, no wonder why these books have been featured on so many blogs’.

They were average, well-written (no doubt about that) and nicely plotted Young Adult Fiction books.

That is all.

And one of those books was Finding Audrey written by Sophie Kinsella. A lot of people actually suggested that I read this book aside from the odd 10 Instagram blogs. So I did. And I have to admit, I liked it. I really liked it. But I didn’t find it – as I said – amazing.

Finding Audrey is a story about Audrey who suffers from Social Anxiety Disorder after experiencing a bullying incident at school. The reader is never told what this incident is and only a few passing references are made to the event in dialogue. Audrey doesn’t go to school, wears dark sunglasses throughout the day, doesn’t leave the house, has regular meetings with her therapist and has a wacky family that get up to all sorts of shenanigans throughout the day – mostly consisting of the antics of her atypical mother and older brother.

Her older brother has a video-game addiction and wants to win a tournament with his friend Linus as his teammate. This is the only time Linus is actually important though because for the remainder of the time the focus is Audrey – which it should be.

When I read the blurb of the book I was hoping for something cute and adorable taking place between Audrey and Linus with her anxiety disorder as an umbrella. But the whole interplay between the two main leads was so quick-paced that I almost felt like I missed the part where she fell in love with him – well, as furthest as teenage love goes.

I have to admit, Sophie Kinsella is an incredible writer and the way she managed to interwove various themes related to bullying, depression and social anxiety disorder in a 14-year-old girl’s fairly normal life was exceptional. However, for most of the part, I felt as though I missed the plot.

I was told the book would be about how love finds a girl who is lost – but I got lost in the process of finding that love. It really is low on romance and for Sophie Kinsella’s background of writing about romance in an incredible manner; she kind of fell short this time round.

The writing was exceptional. The themes were covered brilliantly and the dialogue was witty and fun – even in light of the meagre situation that Audrey was in. However, the plot was extremely weak and the love – that I was promised in the blurb – was not there.

All in all, I would give this book a 2.5/5 and that’s only because it is extremely informative for young readers about the issues that Audrey experienced, but as a reader (and self-proclaimed writer) I didn’t feel the spark in this one.

Until next week, my loves.

Happy reading!