Bend in the Road, A/Unabridge Cd

Rating:
Summary: unsatisfying ending
Review: Brief summary: Miles Ryan is a deputy sheriff in a small North Carolina town. Two years earlier his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident, and now he's raising their seven-year-old son alone. Sarah Andrews is the new teacher in town. She moved to town after a divorce, which occurred as a result of her infertility. Miles and Sarah fall in love, but problems arise when new information is found regarding the hit-and-run driver.

I *wanted* to like this book, but I had a difficult time doing that. I thought the characters were one-dimensional and had very little depth. The mystery portion of the book was easily solved (the backcover alone gave a huge clue). And I thought the ending was very unsatisfying. I've read reviews that have mentioned the book as being one about `forgiveness' and apparently I just totally missed that, because I didn't see any forgiveness. Just 16 pages prior to the end of the book Miles says, "You killed my wife. I'll never forgive you, and I'll never forget." And that attitude didn't change in the last 16 pages. In the epilogue, which occurred approximately ten years later, I got the impression that Miles is still hanging on to his anger. He starts out an angry man and ends up an angry man--there was no character growth at all. His anger is, to some extent, justified, but in my opinion, he's entirely too angry. Yes, there was a tragic accident. It had a huge affect on many lives. It's hard to let go of the people that you love. The `driver' should have reacted to the situation differently. But the bottom line is that it was in fact an *unavoidable accident*. And Miles seems totally unable to accept that fact. I would have liked to seen a different ending for Miles. The book was a disappointment for me, but clearly, I'm in the minority in that opinion :)


Rating:
Summary: Okay book
Review: I read this book a few weeks ago while on vacation. It sucked me in and I finished it in two days (but then again I had nothing else to do but to relax).

A Bend in the Road is about a man named Miles Ryan. His wife Missy dies in a fatal car accident. The thought of it haunts him for years to come. Although Miles is still thinking about Missy all the time, he finds himself falling in love with his son Jonah's teacher Sarah Andrews. Little do they know, their lives are entwined in more ways than one.

This book, although cute, funny, sad and romantic, is incredibley predictable. Like all Spark's novels, the writing style is elementary, and undescriptive.

Good for a quick, easy read, but nothing spectacular.