Review: The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks

Author: Nicholas Sparks
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing 
Number of Pages: 398

Synopsis:

"Ira Levinson is in trouble. At ninety-one years old, in poor health and alone in the world, he finds himself stranded on an isolated embankment after a car crash. Suffering multiple injuries, he struggles to retain consciousness until a blurry image materializes and comes into focus beside him: his beloved wife Ruth, who passed away nine years ago. Urging him to hang on, she forces him to remain alert by recounting the stories of their lifetime together – how they met, the precious paintings they collected together, the dark days of WWII and its effect on them and their families. Ira knows that Ruth can’t possibly be in the car with him, but he clings to her words and his memories, reliving the sorrows and everyday joys that defined their marriage.
A few miles away, at a local rodeo, a Wake Forest College senior’s life is about to change. Recovering from a recent break-up, Sophia Danko meets a young cowboy named Luke, who bears little resemblance to the privileged frat boys she has encountered at school. Through Luke, Sophia is introduced to a world in which the stakes of survival and success, ruin and reward -- even life and death – loom large in everyday life. As she and Luke fall in love, Sophia finds herself imagining a future far removed from her plans -- a future that Luke has the power to rewrite . . . if the secret he’s keeping doesn’t destroy it first.
Ira and Ruth. Sophia and Luke. Two couples who have little in common, and who are separated by years and experience. Yet their lives will converge with unexpected poignancy, reminding us all that even the most difficult decisions can yield extraordinary journeys: beyond despair, beyond death, to the farthest reaches of the human heart."

I know some of you are probably groaning from the fact that I read Nicholas Sparks. I know, but I really enjoy reading his books to relax. They are enjoyable if you don't mind the cliches at times. This would have to be one Spark's better books that he's come out with recently. 

The way that Sparks incorporates two different stories into the book is beautiful. Neither clash with the other but they weave in and out of each other in harmony. Although I did have a preference with Sophia and Luke's story over Ira and Ruth's. I think that I liked it better because it was more modern and it has one smoking hot cowboy in it-who doesn't love that?

Both the women characters, Sophia and Ruth, are strong women but they still have this aura to them that makes you want to be like them. They both manage to find strong men who frankly are amazing. These guys are the type of guys that any girl would be lucky to have, and let me say I would love to find a caring, good-looking guy like Luke.

Luke and Sophia's relationship is a very cute one. Sophia is just getting over a relationship and in no way is she looking for a rebound guy when she meets Luke. These two characters just have a connection that they found from the very beginning. They just seem to click. Throughout reading Ira and Ruth's story, I was itching to skip through the pages to find the next chapter that contained Luke or Sophia's point of view. Their modern outlook and POV was just a big check mark in my book. Their story was the one that I loved most of all between the two.

Ira and Ruth's story is more of a older one. While I did enjoy it, I did find it to be a bit more conservative (which can be taken in a good or disappointing way). I liked seeing the view of how a man was supposed to court a lady in the old days instead of just saying "Hey! You wanna catch a movie next Saturday?".

I really enjoyed the plot of the book and how the parts that didn't make sense eventually did because you really won't get it until everything comes together. I really do wish that more of Nicholas Sparks' s books were like this because I know he would be a lot more popular. This book had very minimal clichés that makes this book amazing. Without those clichés I don't even want to know where the story would have gone.

Even if you are not a Nicholas Sparks fan I still recommend giving this one a try, you might actually like this one.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars!!