Rating: 
Summary: A marketing product; not a creative novel
Review: I enjoyed the first Nicholas Sparks book I read, but now, after reading a few, it's apparent that Sparks writes for sales, to fill whatever contract, and not because he has a truly creative idea. A Bend in the Road is predictable and trite and is an insult to serious book lovers.
Rating: 
Summary: Hooked till the end.......
Review: Being a native North Carlolina girl, Nicholas Sparks brought back memories of those wonderful country people. The very way he describes the folks in this town and how they spoke are very native to true "Tar Heels". This book is one that you can't put down till the last word is read. Most Excellent in every way, from beginning to end!
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Summary: If you like Nicholas Sparks...
Review: This book reminded me of Message in a Bottle. Miles grieves over the loss of his wife, while Sarah struggles with facing her divorce. Although Miles is the single parent in this book in comparison to Message in a Bottle, the topics of love, loss and guilt are re-visited. The past consumes the present and threatens to consume the future.As a typical Nicholas Sparks book, this has romance and drama with a bit of humor and, as always, an ending with a twist. Anyone who enjoys his work will enjoy this book.
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Summary: Where the Neuse and the Trent Converge
Review: I first heard of New Bern, North Carolina many years ago from a colleague in the office where I worked who grew up there. She was a delightful young woman and I frequently wondered what part of her was fashioned by the historic little city on the banks of the Neuse and Trent rivers. I was her mentor, of sorts, and we often joked that one day we would write a novel about New Bern. We would call it "The Confluence of the Neuse and the Trent." It would be a love story, a plaintive one, wherein the more innocent and quietly flowing Trent (Sparks calls its waters brackish) would lose herself in the trenchant currents of the more worldly, life-scarred Neuse as both flow into the eternity of the cleansing sea. We never wrote the story. But Nicholas Sparks, in "A Bend in the Road," has picked up our place if only a little of our theme. Both of his main characters are well beyond innocence. Miles, a deputy sheriff, with a temper and stubborn resolve like the rushing waters of the Neuse has endured more than most men's share of hard knocks. So has Sarah, a second grade teacher from Baltimore escaping to New Bern to recover from a painful divorce. Their convergence occurs against the backdrop of Miles's overwrought search for a hit-and-run-driver who, two years before, killed his beloved wife, Missy. Throw in his son, Jonah, whom Sarah teaches, and her adored and adoring brother, Brian, and you have the ingredients of a Sparks romance. To my mind the book lacks the delightfully sweet innocence of "The Notebook" and the poignant yearning of "Message in a Bottle." Yet for us romantics it fills the bill. In addition we get a detective story, a dash of mystery, and enough varying strands of suspense to keep us reading into the night. We always know the outcome and can easily solve the crime well before the end. But there are other elements to keep us guessing until the last words of the Epilogue. In this sense Sparks is maturing as a writer although those who love to criticize his always-there sentimentality may be loathe to admit it. Even as I adored the romance and the sentiments of the story I found myself longing for more sights and sounds of New Bern. The book touches them but not quite enough. I would have reveled in a love scene within the exquisite gardens of the Tyron Palace, the restored residence of the colonial governor. I wished for more in and around the old Episcopal church of "stately brick shaded by towering magnolias" where Sarah and Brian sit on a bench in preparation to confront a crisis. More time among the stately mansions along Front Street would have been nice as well as at the pharmacy near Sarah's apartment on Middle Street where Caleb Bradham first marketed Brad's drink, Pepsi-Cola, in 1898. Yet we do get dinner beneath the "incredibly designed tin ceiling" in the "book-lined, red-oak floored" library of the Harvey Mansion, an 1790s home which Sparks calls a "popular romantic getaway." And a bit later we go slumming down a narrow alley to The Tavern in what appears to be an abandoned building where four pool tables are set among glowing lamps advertising beer. There is an old fashioned jukebox and a long bar along the wall. What more does one need on a first date? Fiction being what it is, I wondered if the young woman who first introduced me to New Bern knew of Grayton Elementary School where Sarah taught or H. J. Mcdonald Junior High where Jonah practiced soccer. Did she have lunch at Fred and Clara's restaurant where Miles and Missy often ate near the bank where she worked? Did she and her schoolmates ever tell tales about Madame Moore's Lane, named for the woman who ran one of the most famous brothels in North Carolina? Did she know of the former country home of Richard Dobbs Spaight, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, whom Union soldiers dug up during the Civil War to post his skull on the entry gate as a warning not to resist the occupation? And there is the Travis-Barnes place, the first stop on the Halloween ghost walk, and old Mrs. Harkins down the street who tells a long, ghastly tale of the frightful consequences of attraction and of candles in windows seen only by those truly in love commencing with these lines: "There are ghosts and there is love,
And both are present here,
To those who listen, this tale will tell
The truth of love and if it's near." Enough to make us imagine a back porch like that of Miles Ryan's where "spread before (us) the Trent River, its brackish waters partially hidden by the cypress trees clustered at the water's edge," flows gently toward the confluence of the Neuse and the Trent and the ablution of the boundless sea.
Rating:
Summary: Another Great Hit
Review: A Bend in the Road is another great read. Some of Sparks readers might be surpriesed with the mystery along with the love story. There are points when the story is predicable, yet there are some schocks as well. But all in all, it's another great Spark's novel. Miles Ryand and his wife Missy seemed like the perfect couple. They were high school sweethearts and were now married with a son, Johan. Everything seemed to be perfect, alomost like a fairy tale, until one day when Missy went for a run, like she always did, but did not come back. Miles, as deputy sheriff, suspected something was wrong, and called his good friend Charlie, who was also his boss. Charlie drove the path that Missy ran, and unfortunately found her dead. Miles went rushing to the scene when Charlie told him something was wrong with Missy. MIssy was in a hit-and-run accident and there were not witnesses. After a couple of months the case was closed with no suspects, but Miles was not going to accept that, so he was determined to find the killer of his wife. Two years after the death of Missy, Miles is still unhappy, and now Johan is having trouble in second grade. His other teachers just let him pass because they felt sorry for him because of everything he'd been through. But his second grade teacher, Sarah Andrews, is new in town, and trying to recover from a bad divorce so she doesn't know about Johan's past. She is concerned about how behind Johan is in school, and is beginning to think that he will not pass the second grade; therefore, she arranges to talk to Miles about getting him help after school. When Miles and Sarah first meet each other, they are automatically attracted to one another, but Miles is so scared and shy to ask her out, that when he does tyr to ask her out, he ends up saying "How's the fan working out?" One day Miles gets a tip that a delinquent townsman, Otis, is the one who killed Missy. The two on them don't have the best reputation with one another, and Miles ends up abusing his privilege as a police officer when he goes a little too far, and actually ends up getting suspended. Miles really wants to put Otis away for what he supposedly did, and he will not let anyone get in his way. This is when Sarah has to tell Miles something that may change their relationship forever.
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Summary: An emotional book of life, love, loss, & recovery ...
Review: I enjoyed this book and following each character in the story. We all know a person who has lost their life in an auto accident, so this book will touch a nerve in almost any reader, man or woman.
The story starts off a little bit slow while introducing the characters, but a story based in a lazy, friendly, small Southern town can't start off any other way. The pace soon picks up and you will have a hard time setting this book down.
There is a bit of mystery and wonder twisted through the story. Who could've done such a terrible thing? Wait until you read this book and find out the circumstances of each person in the wonderous sleepy little town in North Carolina.
The emotional ups and downs of a man who has lost the love of his life, will keep the reader turning pages. Watch how sadness changes a his outlook on life. Will he come back to being himself? Will he ever love again? Read this book, if you are looking for a book with "real" people and emotions.
When Jonah, the young little boy who lost his mother, is treated with kid gloves by teachers, and it almost costs him reading and learning skills until the right teacher comes along.
A great book and well worth reading. Will this end up being a movie, too? It sure could, and it would be a good one!
Rating: 
Summary: Not one of his best
Review: A Bend in the Road - Nicholas Sparks Here's another love story written by the master of romance books, Nicholas Sparks. A Bend in the Road is the story of Miles and his son Jonah. Missy was the love of Miles' life; they had a storybook love that was not destined to end on a happy note. Missy dies early on in their marriage, leaving Miles to care for their young son Jonah. The cause of death was a hit and run accident, but despite Miles' efforts to find the "murderer", there are no answers. Miles works as the local deputy sheriff in a small town in North Carolina (where everyone seems to know everyone else) and he uses his powers to track down the person that drove the car that killed Missy. Then in comes Sarah. She's a divorced woman from the big city, looking for a new life in a small town. She ends up as Jonah's teacher in school, and through Jonah she meets Miles. It takes a while, but Miles soon falls in love with Sarah and they begin a courtship. Miles hasn't been happier, not since he lost Missy, but there is always that nagging mystery in the back of his mind: who killed her? Was she murdered? Or was it an accident? I enjoyed reading this book, but I have to admit it was not my favorite Nicholas Sparks romance. MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE is by far his best work. A BEND IN THE ROAD didn't seem to flow as easily as some of his other novels, and I guess I felt that the plot was a bit forced. Still, Sparks knows how to write a good romance and I did want to find out how Missy really died. It was a fast read, but if you are a first time reader of Nicholas Sparks, I suggest you try MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE or A WALK TO REMEMER.
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Summary: What Path Would You Choose?
Review: A Bend In The Road, by Nicholas Sparks is a remarkable book that will bring tears to your eyes. In the novel, Sparks weaves together two stories: the story of Miles Ryan's life after the death of his wife, and the story of the murderer of Missy Ryan (Miles Ryan's wife).
Missy Ryan was a blessed mother and wife. The kind that every child would dream to have. However, one night destiny was not with her, and she was killed while jogging at dusk. Having found out about the horrific death of his wife, Miles Ryan takes it upon himself to find out what happened to his wife on that terrible night.
Jonah, the son of Missy and Miles, nonetheless does not take his mother's death lightly. The affect of the death becomes so great, that Jonah begins to do poorly in school. Just when Miles thought life could not get better for him or his son, the charming teacher Sarah Andrews enters and offers to help Jonah with his academics. Sarah and Miles soon fall deeply in love yet their future together may be tattered by a secret tie from their past. Will their love for each other remain strong or will truth keep them apart...
In A Bend In The Road, Nicholas Sparks has the cryptic ability to combine both mystery and romance and roll them into a novel that is a true page-turner. If you have ever read one of Sparks' novels, this one will surpass your expectations. If you are like me, who has never read his books, pick this one up because you will not put it down until the end.
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Summary: A Bend in the Road
Review: This book surprised me since I loved the Notebook and The Walk to Remember. This bored me to tears for the first 15 or so chapters and then became tollerable at best. I didn't like the character of Miles. He was flat scarey in his vengence and radical -take the law into his own hands, police brutality. Sarah Andrews was too boring. No other characters were developed other than Sarah's brother. Sparks needs to clean up his act or lose his reputation. I would not have published this book. What ever he earned will be lost in his lost followers.
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Summary: Makes You Feel Good Inside
Review: I agree with a previous reviewer. If you want to feel better inside with an uplifting story of love overcoming challenges, read A Bend in The Road or any novel by Nicholas Sparks. It will hit you where you live and touch your heart. Fans of Nicholas Sparks will also absolutely love Shade of the Maple by Kirk Martin - he may be the next Nicholas Sparks!
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