True Believer

What the heck did I just read? This had to have been one of the most boring romances I have ever read. I am so disappointed because I absolutely love the movies based on Nicholas Sparks books. He is honestly just not that great of a writer. These characters had no depth whatsoever, I felt no connection to the setting, and the ending of this book was so cliched and stupid that I actually said "you've got to be kidding me" as I shut it.

In True Believer, we have Jeremy Marsh and Lexie Darnell, two people who come from completely different sides of the planet Earth. Jeremy is an investigative journalist from New York. Lexie is a small town librarian from Boone Creek, North Carolina.

Let's get into it, shall we?
Jeremy goes to Lexie's hometown to research a story he heard about. Jeremy likes to expose psychics, "seers" and otherwise researches other weird things related to the paranormal. He gets his big break when he exposes a famous person known to "speak to the dead." This lands him on Good Morning America, and he believes his next story could be what he needs to hit it big. He is led.... somehow.... to Boone Creek, North Carolina, of all places. Why his big break would occur in bumblef*** North Carolina, no one knows. Anyways, here Jeremy and Lexie cross paths, and he becomes infatuated with her.

Maybe infatuated is an understatement. He is flat out obsessed to the point where it is almost CREEPY. This guy meets her, she clearly tells him she is not interested (she has been down this road before with out-of-state travelers), but he continues to pursue her. This gets so bad that one time she tells Jeremy she needs some space, and she drives out to her parents' old seaside cottage that is literally a ferry and hours' drive away. Jeremy FOLLOWS HER THERE! Like dude, can you not get a hint? It is seriously mind-boggling.

To make matters worse, rather than Lexie standing up and saying "what on God's green Earth are you doing here, Jeremy? Get out of my house and leave me alone", she instead decides to make this elaborate Italian pasta dinner for him, puts makeup on, and they bang. Even though she knows what is going to happen.... and that Jeremy is definitely going to go back to New York at the end of the weekend.

ALL OF THIS HAPPENS IN TWO. DAYS.

When Jeremy's camera man, Alvin, arrives two days later to do some filming with Jeremy, he finds his friend has completely gone off the deep end for Lexie. Isn't this just some fling? Alvin asks. Jeremy says no, this is the love of his life. I repeat... all of this happens in TWO. DAYS.

Finally, while Jeremy decides that he cannot live without Lexie, Lexie has done the mature thing and has told him that if he does not have any intention of staying in Boone Creek, then he should just go back to New York and forget about this. She doesn't believe the relationship will ever work and quite frankly, SHE IS RIGHT!

The setting and mystery in this book were not even interesting either! There were mysterious lights suddenly appearing over a cemetery but they just happened to be light ricocheting off a train as it passed by on certain foggy nights? WHO CARES! Give me a real ghost story, Nicky Sparks, and maybe I could have been interested in these extremely dull characters. Sparks could have done so much with the small town life but instead he created a bunch of one dimensional characters with no personality. Honestly, the only one who really did have a personality was the mayor, and he was somewhat of a minor character.

Then - you have, of course, the ending. Jeremy decides that he must return to the "love of his life" down in North Carolina and travels through the night once more to get there. She immediately accepts this and is totally fine with the circumstances. THEN - she reveals that she is pregnant, when previously in the book we learn that Jeremy was infertile and that was why his first wife left him. How did all of this happen in 1.5 weeks? The timeline of finding out you are pregnant isn't even correct!

NO - I will not be reading the second book because I cannot stomach more of these two. Reading this book made me want to throw it into my fireplace.

I have never read a Nicholas Sparks book I didn't love. I wish he'd make all his books into movies. He writes the most beautiful Romance novels I've ever read. Makes a girl have faith real love is out there

I do enjoy a good ghost story, and I liked the storyline surrounding Jeremy Marsh trying to debunk the town's belief that there are "real" ghosts in their cemetery. But, I found that the storyline surrounding the impending romance between Jeremy and Lexie extremely annoying. Their conversations consisted mainly of irritating banter which I found difficult to believe. I didn't find either of those characters endearing, at least during those segments of the book. I did finish it - I had to find out what was going on in the cemetery, of course!

Yeah, I understand why no one wanted to make this one into a movie.

I liked it, but I feel that the ending was lackluster.

Took me ages to finish this book.
My experience:
Never start reading a book with high expectations. Actually never do anything with expectations. Your imagination sets the bar too high to be achieved.
Normal story
Normal characters
Ordinary romance

Quería leer esta bilogía hasta que descubrí que Nicholas mataba a su personaje principal, Lexie, y encima, tildándola de infiel, mala, mentirosa, y otras perlitas. Me parece horrible que le hiciera ESO a un personaje como Lexie, que es todo bondad. Encima, siempre debe morirse alguien. Y por lo general, las mujeres se llevan la palma. Pero Jeremy tiene suerte, su mujer se muere y él forma una familia feliz con otra mujer. Sí, porque los hombres deben ser afortunados y las mujeres deben morirse. Sí, Nicholas también mata a personajes masculinos, pero haciendo balance, prácticamente son ellas quienes siempre mueren, y el cáncer sobrevuela todas sus novelas. ¿No se cansa de escribir tragedias enmascaradas tras novelas de amor? Con esta bilogía, Nicholas me enfadó muchisimo y renuncié a leer todos los libros suyos que acaben en desgracia. Estoy hasta las narices que putée a sus personajes.

Jeremy Marsh is the quintessential New Yorker: handsome, almost always dressed in black, and part of the media elite. He's made his career debunking the supernatural and has a regular column in "Scientific American". And he recently made his first appearance on national television. But, then he receives a letter about ghostly lights that appear in the legend-shrouded cemetery of the tiny, southern town of Boone Creek, North Carolina, and he can't resist going to check things out. There, in this tight-knit community, he meets Lexie Darnell. Lexie runs the town's library, just as her mother did before her until the accident that left Lexie as an orphan, to be raised by her grandmother. As the town librarian, she's the ideal person to help Jeremy in his research of the town and the legends surrounding the town cemetery and its mysterious lights. Lexie has been disappointed by relationships in the past, particularly one that caused her to leave her hometown, and has no doubt that Boone Creek is her home and she will not leave it again. She has no desire to leave her grandmother or the town and people she loves. Jeremy planned on spending a quick week "roughing it in the sticks" as he investigates the ghostly lights and figures out what's causing them before he heads straight back to New York. But, that was before he met Lexie and felt an instant connection with her. He's attracted to and intrigued by this beautiful woman who speaks with a soft southern drawl filled with total honesty. And, while Lexie is hesitant to put her trust in this outsider, she can't help but think about him far more often than she'd like to admit. But, if Jeremy wants to be with Lexie, he's going to have to make a choice. He can return to New York and the life he's accustomed to or he can take a leap of faith and stay with Lexie in Boone Creek.

I haven't read a Nicholas Sparks book yet that I didn't enjoy every moment of. He has such a talent for creating characters that stand out and you can't help but fall in love with. All of them are complex, dynamic, and realistic. You find yourself rooting for the "good guys" and unable to put the story down as you can't wait to see how they'll get everything resolved. And, he manages to describe the scenery and action in a way that it plays out in your mind's eye as if you're watching a movie. And, True Believer is just another example of these strengths. I couldn't put it down once I started reading and only did so because I had to go to work and when I so exhausted I had no choice but to put the book down for a little while. I was very excited to see that there is a sequel so I can keep up with my favorite people from Boone Creek. I'd also love to see more of Jeremy's friends and business associates. I'd love to see them get their "happily ever after", too.