True to Nicholas Sparks’ style – every breath is heartbreaking, moving, gut wrenching sad. Tru Walls travels from Zimbabwe to North Carolina to meet his biological father. There he meets Hope Anderson who spend a week at her family's cottage to find peace and re-evaluate her life. The five days Tru and Hope spend together will forever change their lives. This one is a heartfelt story about love, lost, sacrifice, family, and hope. Beautifully written as usual.

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

*Beware of possible spoilers*

Tru Walls has a lived a good honest life in Zimbabwe. He makes his living taking tourists on safaris through the bush of Africa to see the animals that live there. He has a son he adores and has even made peace and became friendly with his ex-wife. He never imagined leaving Africa, but then he received a letter and plane tickets from his biological father asking him to come to North Carolina to meet him. At first, he wasn’t sure if he should go, but he ultimately decided to go, if only to find out more about his mother who died in a fire when he was young.

Tru was a little disappointed when he arrived at his father’s beach house to discover his father wouldn’t be there for several days. However, Tru ended up meeting the woman staying in the cottage next door, Hope, and felt an instant connection.

Hope was staying at her parents’ cottage for the last time as they had decided to sell it. She was in town for her friend’s wedding while dealing with her own relationship problems. Instead of coming to North Carolina with her, her boyfriend decided to go with his friends to Vegas after the couple got into a huge argument.

While spending time with Tru she realized that he is exactly what she wants in a husband, and he’s the complete opposite of her boyfriend, Josh. Tru and Hope enjoyed every moment they had together, but like all fairy tales, their week together had to come to an end. Sacrifices and difficult choices had to be made that would change their lives forever.

“Meeting you and falling in love with you was an experience I would relive a thousand times in a thousand different lives, if I was ever given that chance.”

I truly loved the idea of this romance and how everything revolved around the magic of Kindred Spirit, a mailbox on Bird’s Island. I honestly don’t know why Sparks didn’t actually name this book Kindred Spirit since it was such an important part of the story. I did feel a little jipped when I read the author’s note at the end of the book and found out that Sparks was pulling our leg with his narrative at the beginning and ending of this novel. He made us think he created this story based on something he himself found at Kindred Spirit. I liked the belief that this story could be loosely based on real life, but apparently it was only a literary device he was using.

So back to the story. I really liked Tru. He was an honest hardworking man that would do anything for those few people he loved. I liked how sweet he was toward Hope… even though she was an idiot when it came to her care for her dog (who lets a dog that has repeatedly failed obedience school and doesn’t obey loose on the beach?) and later her care of Tru as well.

This book had a slow pace to it, the romance was non-existent and then boom they were instantly in love with each other.

However, I hated the choices that Hope made and felt she deserved to spend her life alone and childless. I think she should have known how her future was going to play out when she made the decision that she did based on what had happened already. I felt that Tru was the real victim in this story and I think he deserved better!

I usually love Sparks’s writing, but this one fell a bit short for me personally.

*OBS would like to thank the publisher for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review*

Try as I might I just could not get into this storyline. I very much enjoyed the very beginning telling us how he came across this story in the first place. But beyond that I just could t find a connection with the characters

I think this is the first book by Nicholas Sparks I have ever read. If you are a follower of his, I'm sure you'll love this one. The plot is fairly predictable.. A couple finds love, but circumstances keep them apart. The book is well-written and kept my interest. Ultimately, though, it was not for me. I'm a happily ever after kind of gal. I get enough real life in my real life.

“The destiny that matters most in anyone’s life is the one concerning love.”

Every Breath is a tear jerker. You have been warned!

For the longest time, I resisted reading Nicholas Sparks novels. I had seen the movies like A Walk to Remember, Message in a Bottle, Dear John and The Notebook. So I knew his main characters either didn't stay together or one of them died. As a true romantic, this really hurt my heart. Then, I read The Longest Ride, See Me, and Two by Two and I became a fan of his storytelling.

Every Breath took me on a journey full of destiny, hope, heartbreak and true love.

Tru Walls is going to America for the first time. His biological father has sent him a letter and in it, he has asked Tru to meet him. The meeting will take place in North Carolina, in Sunset Beach. In Africa, Tru is a guide in Zimbabwe. Since early in his life, he has spent time in the bush. He was once married but currently divorced. He has one son he adores and he gets along with his ex-wife Kim.

Hope Anderson has many things to think about. Her boyfriend of six years, an orthopedic surgeon is currently in Las Vegas. Over the years, he had a problem with faithfulness and they are currently on a break. Hope decides to go to his family beach home in Sunset Beach for the last time. The beach house is going on sale to save money to pay for his father's care who has recently being diagnosed with ALS. Hope will stay there and will attend the wedding of her best friend over the weekend. She's concerned and has no idea how to explain her boyfriend's absence.

A chance encounter due to Hope's dog will begin a true love affair between these two souls. Hope will show Tru the magic of a place called the Kindred Spirit, and it will connect them forever.

After reading, Every Breath, I'm dying to go to Sunset Beach and Kindred Spirit. Whoever decided to start it, had a great idea in the making.

I can't end my review without thanking Grand Central Publishing, NetGalley and Nicholas Sparks for my copy of Every Breath. The cover alone is gorgeous.

4/5 Fangs

I really enjoyed Every Breath and it literally took my breath away a few times! What I love most about this story is that it is semi-based on a true life story. The book is fiction, but Sparks was inspired from a real life couple for this book. The book takes you to Africa and North Carolina - seriously two completely different worlds that collided for this breathtaking story.

In true Nicholas Sparks fashion the book gives you serious heartache I am still thinking about this couple and how the book ended.... But overall its worth reading and experiencing this story! Now I need to book a trip to this Kindred Spirit mailbox to fully experience this story!

You MUST read the opening Author's Remarks in the beginning of the story and the Epilogue as it truly gives you much more depth and emotion to this fictional story.

If your looking for a romance that hooks you in with the sweet and of course heartache that Nicholas Sparks puts us through -- (BUT it always so worth it) then you will absolutely enjoy this read!

Thank you to Grand Central Pub for my advanced copy!**

Eeep - finally another Nicholas Sparks book!

I just love his stories. A WALK TO REMEMBER was the book that started my reading addiction back in 2002 or somewhere around that time.


Every Breath is really heartbreaking and sad and moving and hopeless but also full of hope and love and family and loss and ... so much. Full of all those beautiful and heartbreaking things a Nicholas Sparks book needs.☺

We start with 42 year old Zimbabwe tour guide Tru. He's the grandson of one of the countries' richest men. But he left home to become a guide for tourists because he didn't much like his grandfather and step-dad.

Tru has a 10 year old son with his ex-wife and an estranged step-dad and 2 half brothers who live in his grandfather's mansion.

When he receives a letter from America, he decides to follow the invitation. It's a letter from his biological father. A man he never met. And he's dying. Off to North Carolina he goes. He wants to know about how his late mom met his father.

And on a beach his first morning in America he meets Hope.

She's staying in her family's already sold beach home for a friend's wedding that weekend. Without her boyfriend of seven years. He has to work. The whole relationship is a bit strained.

And then she meets this interesting and handsome guy with all his amazing stories about african wildlife and she's immediately attracted. She's never been like this with anyone. And Tru is just as drawn to Hope. But both have so many family obligations and exes or current relationships and he lives in Africa and she lives here ... it won't be easy.

But the reader has an amazing (aka heartbreaking aka crying rivers of tears) time reading about their journey to a hopefully happy end. But since this is a Sparks book ... we're not yet sure if there will be happy end. What we do know - or what I realized at the 13% mark when something was mentioned - is that it will definitely be a very sad and heartbreaking book ... but also a book so full of love and hope. I don't know what more to say. It's a Nicholas Sparks book, so you know what could happen, what might happen. BUT that doesn't mean you shouldn't read it. I loved and hated every single word. Such a beautiful love story. My heart broke a million times for ... Nope - I'm not telling you more about the story. I loved it. The End.☺