The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks – Review

Audiobook. Lots and lots of reviews, so you can get story synopsis information elsewhere. The most significant comment I can make is with regard to the contribution to the love story genre that Nicholas Sparks has made over the years. This genre is rarely attempted or conquered by a male author. Sparks goes way out on a limb in his writing conveying the heartfelt and wonderfully emotional depth of a man’s love for a woman.  Not just in The Longest Ride, but in other books I’ve read, i.e., The Notebook, Safe Haven. I constantly had to remind myself that ‘this was written by a man’, followed with, ‘how great is that’. Romantic song lyrics or poetry are almost always written by men. It’s a treat, and rare, in modern novels. 

Although I’ve listened to audiobooks for over fifteen years, I’ve never heard one with a cast; this is my first.  It’s not that I’ve deliberately avoided multi-reader stories, it’s just that nothing I’ve ever run across, and wanted, has had more than one narrator. Briefly, this was a very pleasant experience and both Ron McLarty and January LaVoy do an excellent job. Both are confronted with male and female characters, McLarty also dealing with ethnicity. Well done.

The Longest Ride is not a deep story, nor a world-shattering contribution to great literature. But, it is a nice, curl-up-on-the-couch romance, typical ofNicholas Sparks.