In TRUE BELIEVER, journalist Jeremy Marsh spends his time debunking the supernatural. He has just finished exposing a fake television psychic, proving that the man was not able to read people's minds or see into their pasts. When he hears about a phenomenon happening in the small town of Boone Creek in North Carolina, where ghosts are seen inhabiting a local cemetery, Jeremy knows he will be able to find the truth behind the lights that are seen glimmering on certain nights above the cemetery grounds. He knows that ghosts do not truly exist.

When Jeremy arrives in Boone Creek, he experiences what small town life is all about. He's from the big city and feels like he's walked into a time warp. Everyone knows everyone, and gossip spreads like wildfire.

The very day he arrives in town, Jeremy makes a quick visit to Cedar Creek Cemetery, where the ghosts are reported to have been seen, when he notices a young woman there who catches his eye. He later finds out that her name is Lexie Darnell. Neither of them knows it but soon their lives will be changed forever. Lexie is the granddaughter of the woman who had invited him to visit the town. Doris Marsh is the town psychic.

As Jeremy slowly does his research in the library where Lexie happens to work, he gets to know her. Despite what he feels about the town, he finds himself interested in this woman who doesn't seem to want anything to do with him.

While Sparks tends to write tragedies as opposed to true romances, this novel is far from the tragedy that some of his other fiction books have been.

This is not to say that TRUE BELIEVER wasn't enjoyable. But fans who are looking for the typical Nicholas Sparks book will not find it here. Instead of concentrating on the romance, this reviewer found the focus of the novel to be on the mystery behind the cemetery, and the high point of the plot was Jeremy's answer to the story behind the ghosts. The fact that Jeremy is dating a woman who believes her parents' ghosts have come to her in the cemetery makes the reader anxious to know what he finds, realizing that the answer will greatly impact the relationship that is central to the love story.

One aspect of storytelling in which Sparks excels is his ability to create the characters who populate his books. His capacity to bring into being likable, everyday people helps make this novel readable. The strength of the story isn't necessarily the plot, and the romance that is found here is not one that a typical romance reader might expect. For this reader, the characters were the highlight of the novel, and the process of getting to know some of the more prominent ones was a delight. One will find oneself chuckling over some of the antics of the townspeople. The brouhaha that the people make over Jeremy's celebrity is very cute, if not humorous.

Overall, the plot lines are balanced between the mystery of the cemetery, Jeremy and Lexie's relationship, the aspect of small-town living, and the individual life stories of the two protagonists. Focusing on the individual characters is just one way of truly enjoying this book. It's a soothing type of read, and readers will feel comfortable with these characters.

On that note, TRUE BELIEVER comes recommended.

Oh my God this book was a very good book it was a little bit different than what Nicholas Sparks normally writes

This book was a great book. I just finished it a couple hours ago and it was so good. I sort of predicted that two of the main characters who started out as complete strangers would end up falling in love. The basic storyline is about a man in his 30's named Jeremy Marsh who goes to Boone Creek, North Carolina to solve a mystery. People have reported seeing strange 'lights' in the town cemetery that have been unexplained. Doris, one of the residents of the town, sends a letter to Jeremy asking him to come to their town to try and figure out where they were coming from. As an investigative journalist, it was his job to expose frauds, solve mysteries, and write about them afterwards. Having been married and divorced before, Jeremy had no intention of looking for love on his trip from New York to North Carolina. He meets many of the townspeople, mostly people who work at the restaurants, gas stations, and most importantly, the town library. Jeremy spends a lot of time with the librarian, asking her for help and where he might find useful books or diaries that would help him with his research. He and the librarian become friends and begin spending a lot of time together, while jealous Rodney, a police officer, watches with a close eye, curious whenever the two go off somewhere together or show up together at a town event. Although Lexie, the librarian, and Rodney never really had a steady relationship, he asked her several times to go to dinner and things like that and she always said yes. But, ever since Jeremy came into town, he's been taking up most of her time. He learns a lot about her past, her parents, how they died, her grandparents, and a little bit about where she grew up and her childhood. When things started getting too serious for Lexie, who had been hurt more than once by men passing through, she ran away to a cottage she talked to Jeremy about, leaving only a vague note for him to read at the library. Fortunately for him, Jeremy remembered almost everything Lexie had told him, and it didn't take him long to figure out where Lexie had gone to. In the end, they fall in love, but Jeremy still has to go back to New York. With a sad good-bye and little thoughts besides Lexie running through his mind on the way home, Jeremy was only in his apartment for a few days before Lexie's grandmother, Doris, surprised him and showed up at his door. She told him that Lexie had lied about going to marry Rodney so that she wouldn't lie awake at night wondering why Jeremy never came back for her. Jeremy decided that he loved her and that he simply could not imagine a life without her, so he took a plane to North Carolina to be with Lexie. Doris was on the same plane with him and he left the terminal with her, driving Doris home in her car and then borrowing it to search the town for Lexie. After looking everywhere, he realized where she was. Jeremy was right, and he found her at her parents' grave in the Boone Creek Cemetery. Jeremy ended up buying a house there, one that Lexie helped him pick out. The book ends with a little miracle, one in which Jeremy was told and convinced would never happen due to biological reasons. And you'll have to read the book to figure out what happens. =]

I hope all the books I read in 2021 are this good! Nicholas Sparks was one of the first authors I read that made me want to keep reading. Today, I could not put this book down. So much that I borrowed the next book on Libby to read all night long. I am in love with the setting and the characters. Excellent first read of the year!

Nicholas Sparks aposta mais uma vez no seu género de eleição: o romance. No entanto, cai no erro de apostar na sua fórmula habitual, levando-a à exaustão. A narrativa é demasiado previsível, sem o habitual cunho pessoal que o autor introduz nas suas histórias.
As próprias personagens são algo ocas e unidimensionais. Os protagonistas sofreram desilusões e amarguras no passado, mas rapidamente se atiram de cabeça para uma relação que tem tudo para correr mal para ambos. Mais ainda, o autor opta pelo típico final feliz, o que apenas reforçou a minha ideia de que esta história não traz nada de especial.
A explicação final sobre a origem do fenómeno supostamente sobrenatural que fascina toda esta vila – o grande mistério da obra – é mediana e sem grande interesse, deixando-me francamente desiludida.
Em contrapartida, gostei do retrato de uma comunidade unida, com fortes raízes no passado, constituída por indivíduos caricatos. Na verdade, gostaria que as personagens secundárias que compõem esta vila, como Doris, Rodney e Rachel, tivessem sido mais exploradas.
No fundo, é uma leitura confortável, mas careceu a componente emotiva que me teria feito apaixonar pela história , pelas personagens, pelo ambiente. Aliás, esteve longe de me conseguir arrebatar e surpreender verdadeiramente. Não é certamente um bom exemplo da qualidade normalmente associada a este autor que tanto gosto.

In True Believer, by Nicholas Sparks, Jeremy Marsh wants to prove that there are no such things as miracles, but a small town Southern sweetheart, Lexie Darnell, gives him reason to believe otherwise, so he takes a chance, and lets himself see what miracles the world has to offer. True Believer takes place in the present day, in Boone Creek, North Carolina. Boone Creek is a town as quiet as a whisper, where few exciting things occur. The population of Boone Creek is miniscule, and most of the people there have known each other for their entire lives. However, this town does have one thing going for it; ghosts. “Blue lights seem to dance on the headstones whenever the fog rolls in” (24). Legend says that the blue lights are ghosts, and Jeremy Marsh, an extreme Non-Believer, comes into town to show everyone that the lights are simply a scientific reaction to light, not ghosts. Jeremy has no doubt in his mind that the lights are about as supernatural as a spoon, and he intends to prove so. He believes that “science holds the real answers” (49), and it’s not until he meets Lexie Darnell that his beliefs begin to waver.
Nicholas Sparks is a talented writer. The way he writes makes writing appear as an effortless task. Sparks makes us feel as if we are in the story itself. He describes the town in detail, and the way the characters react to one another allows us to feel as if we know them. For example, when Lexie sees Jeremy and “recognizes the confident city swagger almost immediately” (59), I think it allows us to infer something about Lexie and Jeremy; Lexie has had a bad experience with someone from the city, and Jeremy has a lot of assurance in himself. The author uses these context clues to help us predict what is to come later in the book. If you are looking for an exciting or challenging book, I would not recommend True Believer; it can be slow at times, and although the writing is good, it’s a very easy read.

I enjoy predictable love stories that have happy endings. I found "True Believer" to be one of those stories, and for that reason, I really liked the novel. At first, I thought this novel was difficult to begin reading. The first couple chapters take place in New York and focus on Jeremy Marsh's business success. However, when Jeremy travels down south to a small town in North Carolina, known as Boone Creek, the story starts to pick up pace. I really like the stereotype of a small town filled with southern hospitality, so perhaps that is part of the reason I enjoyed this book so much. When writing this book, Nicholas Sparks mixed romance and the mystery of haunted lights in a local cemetery, which I found intriguing. This made me want to keep reading. Overall, I loved this story, so I would definitely recommend it to another.

True Believer is book one in the two book series, Jeremy Marsh & Lexie Darnell, by Nicholas Sparks.

Jeremy Marsh is thirty seven years old and is an investigative journalist. He is known for his scientific debunking abilities, such as outing a psychic as a fraud who claims to be able to speak to the dead. Jeremy lives in New York and is divorced. He was badly hurt in the process. It’s been several years. He is very good looking and has no problem with women, just hasn’t allowed himself to go beyond casual encounters.



Jeremy received a letter in the mail from a woman named Doris from Boone Creek, North Carolina, inviting him to come to their tiny town to investigate some ghostly lights that appear in the town cemetery. He already has prime time television interested in him in the wake of his last story, so this one has the possibility of launching his career from journalism into television. He can’t refuse.

So off Jeremy goes, from the metropolitan city of New York, to a tiny town, dying little by little, grasping at straws to stay alive. Jeremy always solves his mysteries. Doris, the woman who wrote the letter, even claims to have some psychic abilities. But when Doris sends Jeremy to the town library to begin his research on the town’s history, he meets Doris’s granddaughter, the librarian, Lexie Darnell, and his life was forever changed.

n  “You don’t believe in magic of any kind?”
“No,” he said.
“That’s sad,” she said. “Because sometimes it’s real.”n



Lexie loved living in Boone Creek. She loved being near her grandmother who raised her after her own parents tragically died. She loved her job as librarian. And she loved the people of the town. She did leave Boone Creek for college and even fell in love. But she was badly hurt and returned to Boone Creek, just as she always knew she someday would. She didn’t want to feel an attraction to Jeremy. She had known men like him, big city men, who looked down on small towns like this one. And if she did allow herself to care, it would be she that would end up getting hurt. Because her life was here and his was in New York. Still, there was something about him, and it was too much to ignore.



For Jeremy, Lexie was different than any other woman he had ever known. She challenged him in ways no one else ever had. Her humor was dry and sarcastic. She was intelligent and witty and sweet and honest to a fault. He had trouble keeping his mind on what he was supposed to be doing. His thoughts always seemed to drift to her. Could a man fall in love in just two days? Because he just can’t imagine his life without her in it. Is there a way to make things work?

Over his time in Boone Creek, Jeremy immersed himself in the town history and studied the cemetery and the surrounding areas. The mayor of the town treated Jeremy like a celebrity and Jeremy found himself impressed with the town and it’s people. And finally, Jeremy got to see the lights. They were beautiful. It was an experience he’ll never forget. Are they really the spirits of the long ago deceased or is there a logical explanation?



This is a beautifully told love story between two people that were both okay being alone, who weren’t looking for anything more than what they had. But isn’t that when love usually finds you? When you aren’t looking for it? This is actually a pretty long book. And I have to admit it was a little slow at times. In true Nicholas Sparks fashion, he builds the story slowly, allowing us to get to know the characters. I also admit that Lexie frustrated me a bit. But it was only because she was trying to protect herself, and her town. I loved Jeremy. For a man who spent his life proving that magic wasn’t real, I loved how easily he accepted how he felt, what he saw in Lexie. There is a sequel to this book. It is a continuation of Lexie and Jeremy’s story. But there is no cliff hanger with this one. It comes to a conclusion and you aren’t left hanging in any way.

I first read this years ago and chose to re-read it because I am going to read the second book 'At First Sight'.
I'm not giving it a five because I feel some parts of the book dragged on a bit especially the beginning. I wasn't drawn in as much as I usually am from his books. I didn't feel a strong connection with the characters and parts of it was slow.
But I still thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading the second book.
I enjoyed seeing Jeremy and Lexie fall in love and finally having a happy ending after long distance complications. I'm excited to see how they are coping in the second book.
The ending gave me chills, just the perfect ending.
Overall a romantic, mysterious and easy to read book. I would recommend this book if your a fan of Sparks' other books or you like romance books.

Ugh. There are so many things wrong with this book, I don't even know where to begin. Someone needs to tell Mr. Sparks that self-respecting women don't sleep with a man after knowing him for only 2 days. (And no man I know is physically capable of "making love all night.") Like most of his other books, this one was completely predictable. The difference is that the characters in this one were pathetic. Lexie is a whining snot. Jeremy is a womanizer and I'm expected to believe he suddenly sees the light and falls head over heals for her in 48 hours? Whatever. This is all compounded by the fact that I listened to this one and the narrators voice was SO irritating. Fake southern drawl (falsetto for Lexie) did not add to my overall impression of this book. I have owned the sequel, At First Sight, for a long time, so I may try it, but I am not hopeful that I will enjoy more of these two characters. However, I am going to try reading it instead of listening to it to see if it makes any difference.

Gostei muito ^_^

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4/5.0 stars

True Believer is the last Nicholas Sparks romance fiction novel I've read and I'm relieved that nobody died(yet) so then, Sparks and I can part in good terms because I have sworn off his books for good. On the bright side, I might still watch his movies on occasion, maybe.

So long, Mr. Sparks. Goodbye. Farewell. I bid you adieu.