Reading a Nicholas Sparks novel is like booking a room at a Hampton Inn–you pretty much know what you’re going to get. In a typical Sparks book, boy meets girl, boy and girl fall for each other, the relationship comes up against headwinds, and it all works out by the end of the story. Not so much with Dreamland, however.
Colby Mills, the male protagonist, is a farmer in Washington, NC, but we find him on St. Pete Beach, Florida at the novel’s beginning. Colby, who’s also a wannabe musician, has a several-weeks gig on the beach. There he meets Morgan Lee, a new college graduate who also writes and sings songs and has plans to make it professionally in Nashville. And, yes, boy meets girl–Colby and Morgan have a fleeting encounter that leads to romance.
In another part of the country, not identified early on, a secondary character, Beverly, and her son, Tommie, have relocated to escape from her abusive husband. It’s hard to know where Sparks is going with this, causing the reader to begin guessing the plot. That’s always fun!
Everything comes together near the end of the book once a major plot twist occurs. Actually, I took it more as fooling the reader–always a bad idea in novels. In that sense, the book was not as enjoyable as most of his are. That said, Sparks is a many-times-over NY Times bestselling author, so he knows what he’s doing.
As always, a Sparks novel is purely for entertainment. This is a good one to pack in your bag for that last beach trip before autumn weather sets in!
Reviewed September 2023
Reading a Nicholas Sparks novel is like booking a room at a Hampton Inn–you pretty much know what you’re going to get. In a typical Sparks book, boy meets girl, boy and girl fall for each other, the relationship comes up against headwinds, and it all works out by the end of the story. Not so much with Dreamland, however.
Colby Mills, the male protagonist, is a farmer in Washington, NC, but we find him on St. Pete Beach, Florida at the novel’s beginning. Colby, who’s also a wannabe musician, has a several-weeks gig on the beach. There he meets Morgan Lee, a new college graduate who also writes and sings songs and has plans to make it professionally in Nashville. And, yes, boy meets girl–Colby and Morgan have a fleeting encounter that leads to romance.
In another part of the country, not identified early on, a secondary character, Beverly, and her son, Tommie, have relocated to escape from her abusive husband. It’s hard to know where Sparks is going with this, causing the reader to begin guessing the plot. That’s always fun!
Everything comes together near the end of the book once a major plot twist occurs. Actually, I took it more as fooling the reader–always a bad idea in novels. In that sense, the book was not as enjoyable as most of his are. That said, Sparks is a many-times-over NY Times bestselling author, so he knows what he’s doing.
As always, a Sparks novel is purely for entertainment. This is a good one to pack in your bag for that last beach trip before autumn weather sets in!
Reviewed September 2023