Book Review: The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks

Author Nicholas Sparks
Title The Longest Ride 
Page Count 398
Published September 17th 2013 by Grand Central Publishing 

Find: goodreads | amazon 

I was casually browsing YouTube, as you do, when I came across a trailer for the movie The Longest Ride. Since we are all being honest here I clicked on it because I thought the actor was hot, and I certainly didn't regret my decision. As I was watching the trailer I noticed it was based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks and immediately order the book.

The book is about two couples and their pursuit for love. The first is about Ira Levinson, who crashes his car down an embankment. Seriously injured and fighting to stay alive he relives his memories of his beloved late wife Ruth. As he relives the memories of their lives together we get to go along for the ride and see the unique love they had for each other, and experience how they got together and stayed that way through all the hardships life has thrown at them.

The second follows Sophia Danko, a senior at Wake Forrest University, and Luke Collins, a cowboy and professional bull rider, and the story of how they fell in love. A few miles away from Ira, Sophia and Luke meet at a local bull riding competition. Though from different worlds they are both a breath of fresh air for each other, but their exponentially different lives are trying to tear them apart.

They are two couples who have very little in common and are separated by a life time of experience, but their lives will intertwine in some unexpected ways.

I found the book very funny, especially Luke. At first I couldn't really get a good feel of him but I got to appreciate his dry humor after all and laughed out loud a couple of times, which got me some odd looks. At the same time as being funny I found it heart wrenching, I must admit I cried, alright make that sobbed and rather unattractively I must add, a few times. Some of the things both of the couples went through were utterly heartbreaking. It was also very real not some fairytale about how all is well. This all made it a very touching novel.

Out of the characters I particularly loved Ira, he showed that it's the little things in life which are important. Everything you learn about his life with Ruth seems real, not some sugarcoated love story. It showed the hardships they plowed through and the happy memories they shared, it demonstrates that through hard work and irrevocable love their marriage survived.

I love Nicholas Sparks' books because he has the brilliant skill of sucking you into the novel, I find that experiencing the story through different points of view gives you the ability to really relate to it which makes the characters truly come alive.

But even though I loved it I found it took quite a while for the story to actually start, but it was still a very gripping book and it kept me turning the pages. Quite literally actually, I read it in one go it was just that good.

An extremely romantic and touching novel which will leave you sobbing at the end, like all Nicholas Sparks novels do. I'd recommend this to anyone who enjoys love stories or who is a hopeless romantic.