Another excellent book by Nicholas Sparks. It's a quick, easy read that leaves you with a happy ending. I could say more but it's easily summed up... If you've liked Nicholas Sparks in the past, then you'll love this one too.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

On COUNTING MIRACLES we follow two POVs: Tanner Hughes, a military man who is often sent overseas, that is back home where he used to live with his grandparents (he lost his mother after she gave birth to him and he never met his father); his grandfather has passed away years ago and very recently his grandmother also passed away. And Tanner discovers a note from his late grandma with the name of his biological father and the city (in North Carolina) he used to live when he was younger. Tanner then decides to take a trip to NC to find out everything he can about his biological father, who was he and if he's still alive.
The other POV belongs to Jasper, a 83-year old man who lives alone in NC, at a cabin in the middle of the woods, with only his loyal dog by his side. He's adamant about the true meaning of the sight of a white deer he keeps seeing in the woods: he believes it's a sign from God regarding the memory or the presence of his late wife and his late 4 kids. Unfortunately for him, there is a group of poachers hunting deer illegally, so Jasper is willing to take any actions he finds suitable in order to stop the poachers to hunt and kill the white deer.
When Tanner gets to the small town from where his father is from he crosses way with a teenager who accidentally crashes her mother's car into Tanner's car. That encounter leads to Tanner meeting the teenager's mom Kaitlyn, a divorced doctor and mother of two. They almost instantly hit it off and a love story starts between them.
Meanwhile, Jasper is minding his own business hunting the poachers and spending some quality time with Mitch, Kaitlyn's young son. Eventually, all lives are shaken up by some events and they find themselves connected to one another.

This was the 4th book I've read by this author, and even though it's not my least favourite, it certainly is not my favourite.
What I most liked about this book is that this one is more focused on drama rather than romance. From my experience with reading Nicholas Sparks novels, he has some books more focused on drama and others more focused on romance. I'd say COUNTING MIRACLES is more heavy on the drama side, which personally suits me better. What's more, even though this is a 368-page book, to me it felt considerably shorter. I didn't love this book. I didn't enjoy many chapters of this book. Yet, I did not have that slow burn feeling. I don't think the author drags on or the story starts to get repetitive. No. Nothing like that. I'd say this book reads quite fast and easy for a 368-page novel.
Oh, and I loved the character Jasper! I wish this book was 100% focused on his character. I was hungry for more background of his life with his wife and every single one of their 4 kids. Jasper has the most dramatic scenes on this book, and I loved that! In my opinion, Jasper is by far the most interesting and intriguing character of this book. And the one with the saddest life story. Boy, it is sad. :(

On the other hand, I did not care for the Tanner's chapters. Honestly, I particularly didn't care for the character at all.. Or his romance with Kaitlyn, whatsoever. I thought it was very predictable, cheesy, and full of the same old clichés: a military handsome tattooed man, used to being on his own with all his freedom, meets a handsome divorced mother who still hurts from being alone and now is scared of loving again , etc etc etc.
Also, apparently, the Christian talks or symbolism is something not new to Nicholas Sparks novels. And here it is again.
To be very candid, I thought this whole book is very predictable and full of clichés. There is nothing original or different in here. Which doesn't mean necessarily it is a bad thing. I believe to readers who don't like being pulled out of their comfort zone, COUNTING MIRACLES will probably work really well. A comfy, cozy, adorable story about love, loss and redemption with a happy ending.
To readers who prefer to be more challanged in their readings, this novel might disappoint a little.

Thank you, NetGalley and Random House, for providing me with a free eARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

If you like reading Nicholas Sparks, then you'll like this. It fits the same pattern of estranged family ties, redemption, love, and a military man you usually find in them. That doesn't mean it isn't good though, it just means he knows his audience and gives them what they want.

Typical Nicholas Sparks novel. A romance that also has a hidden secret of how the two people are connected. I do like how his novels are slower to read and you can take your time with it and enjoying the descriptions.

I was so happy to be selected to review this book. Nicholas Sparks is a favorite author of mine. He’s on auto buy for me. This one did not disappoint. Nicholas Sparks lovers will love it.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance review copy in return for an honest review. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. This read like any other Nicholas Sparks book with it being set in North Carolina, the guy was in the military etc. and there were also heavy Christian themes and plots. I just wish he would write something out of his comfort zone.

I read so many Nicholas Sparks books when I was younger & first starting to get into reading, so I was really excited to have an ARC of this book. I haven’t read a Nicholas Sparks book in yearsssss & I was so ready to read this one, but it just didn’t feel the same as it used to.

This was definitely not what I was expecting it to be. I was expecting a little more romance than there ended up being. The story kind of lost me in the middle & I had a hard time reading it. The long chapters were really hard for me. I felt like some of Jaspers chapters dragged on forever. I liked Kaitlyn & Tanner’s chapters but it felt like it took awhile for things to come together. I think it was around the 60%-65% mark that things started picking up & really getting back on track with the story in the beginning & after that the book was much better. I enjoyed the ending & I’ll admit I did shed a tear during the last chapter, but it was just a long road to get there.

I think this book can be enjoyable for people for sure, but I think I just had an expectation in my head based on a lot of his older books I read & this just didn’t do it for me like I hoped.

Thank you to NetGalley, Nicholas Sparks & Random House Publishing for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Nicholas Sparks writes another heartfelt story that brings us through the love stories on two different time lines. One in the past as an older man looks back on his life and. One in the present as one tries to figure out where to go in his life while figuring out where he fits in now that he is out of the military and has lost his grandmother who raised him. She leaves him with information on his father who he never knew (his mom died in childbirth). Before heading out to Africa to work, he heads to look into this lead, and finds family in a different way instead.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. So excited to be approved for Nicholas Sparks’s latest book!!! An endearing story as told from 3 characters. Tanner, who was raised by his grandparents after his mother died. He is looking for his dad, he had never found his place in life.
Kaitlyn, has 2 children and is divorced. She is muddling through day to day life.
Jasper, an older man who had had a lot of heartache in his life.
A small town setting to where chance encounters entangle and mesh together their stories.
Definitely recommend!

Heartwarming and relatable. The book is both sort of one main character in a reinterpretation or correlated to the story of Job, and other main characters in their own story. I liked the themes and threads family and friendship over isolation, though I felt like Tanner and Kaitlyn’s story felt a little stunted and not my favorite take on a single-parent relationship.

I thought Jasper’s story was well fleshed out and heartbreaking, but you could put yourself in his shoes. You understood his pain and his loss well and could empathize with him. I liked his character development and progression in finding hope.

I struggled to like Tanner. Maybe my expectations are too high for reality, but to handle a single mom that casually feels disrespectful and just a really jerk-move. Maybe it was just too rushed and his character not fleshed out well enough for me to see his perspective but I just didn’t get the relationship.

I did love Kaitlyn’s kids tho and her relationship with them. I thought that was really endearing and enjoyed their part in the story. I loved that it wasn’t yet another hostile-teenager characterization.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are mine

Sparks intricately weaves the lives of three people together! Kaitlyn is a doctor and a single mom. Tanner is an Army veteran who is searching for closure and a way to break his cycle of a noncommittal life. Jasper feels his whole life resembles Job from the Bible. Then, there is the rare white deer!

I have been a Nicholas Sparks fan for as long as I can remember and now rely on him for an easy, tear jerker of a romance.

Tanner Hughes was raised by his grandparents, following in his grandfather’s military footsteps to become an Army Ranger. His whole life has been spent abroad, and he is the proverbial rolling stone . . . happiest when off on his next adventure, zero desire to settle down. But when his grandmother passes away, her last words to him are: find where you belong. She also drops a bombshell, telling him the name of the father he never knew—and where he might be found.

While this is more of a slow burn than some of his other works it still pacts an emotional punch and really drives home the message of family and faith. The romance was a little more quick and not as much of the focal point as I expected it to be but that still didn’t take away from the enjoyment of the story.

Much like his last book, Sparks takes two stories/characters lives and doesn’t blend them together til further towards the end and while some readers don’t enjoy this, it doesn’t bother me at all. This one is more predictable than his earlier works but again, even knowing what was going to happen didn’t change the impact of the emotions all thanks to Sparks incredible eye for detail and his way with words.

Sparks has numerous books of his adapted to the screen and I wouldn’t be surprised if this one goes that way in the future.

There are lots of trigger warnings associated with this one especially that of grief so please take care of yourself before reading.

I wouldn’t recommend this as your first NS book but I would definitely recommend to the lifelong fans such as myself.

Thanks to @penguinrandomhouse and @netgalley for my advanced copy. This one comes out September 24th

I always look forward to Nicholas Spark's new books and I really enjoyed this one. I honestly feel like it was a good bit different than his other books but in a great way. We watch characters overcome tragedy and keep moving even when it seems impossible. This story is not full of romance but compassion, love, choices and new beginnings.

Tanner Hughes has spent his life on the move. Being in the military, he is never in one place for too long and he seems to like living his life like this, he does not feel the need to stop and settle down. When his grandmother passes away, he has taken time to be with her and the last thing she tells him is to find where he belongs and provides him with the name of his birth father. He was raised by his grandparents, his mother passing away shortly after giving birth and Tanner never knowing his birth father. This information sends him to Asheboro, NC in an attempt to locate his father. He has not been in Asheboro long when he meets Kaitlyn.

Kaitlyn is a doctor and single mom to Casey and Mitch. There is immediate attraction between Kaitlyn and Tanner but the situation in which they meet is a little messy. Kaitlyn also takes into consideration that Tanner does not have plans to stay in Asheboro, he is scheduled for his new assignment in several weeks. If anything comes of the two of them, it will need to be with no attachments or commitments involved.

Jasper, a recluse who has suffered unfathomable tragedy in his life, is living in a cabin near the Uwharrie Forest with his dog, Arlo. He learns that a white deer, which is well known, has been spotted in the forest. He becomes obsessed with protecting the deer from poachers by all means necessary, even if he is putting himself in danger.

These character's join together in unexpected ways and create a heart-warming story. This was a beautifully written novel, and I would highly recommend. Thank you NetGalley, Nicholas Sparks and Random House for this advanced digital reader copy in return for my honest review!

This story we tug at your heart strings. You feel the characters their story touch your soul. If they were real people and it was a real place you would to be their neighbors and friends and share in their journey. Lives change and evolve due to our circumstances and some are blessings and others are pure torture, it all depends on how you regard the changes, if you let them defeat you or do you use them to grow. It definitely left me thinking about life, choices, and love.

I am a big Nicholas Sparks fan. A book set in a town I’m well acquainted with by one of my favorite authors was a recipe for the best thing since sliced bread, but, unfortunately, for me at least, it was just bread. This book kind of dragged for me and honestly, it was easy for me to put it down and come back to it later. I never wanted to keep reading, which is unusual for me for books by Sparks. Normally, I can’t put them down. I didn’t really connect with any of the characters and it was just kind of a boring book. Thanks @netgalley for granting access to a copy of this book!

It was such a beautiful story about multiple characters and Nicholas Sparks beautifully had a way to intertwine their lives throughout the story. A part in the epilogue, I wish I could quote as it made me choke on my tears, but since it's an ARC I'm unable to quote it in my review. This is a MUST-read book for anyone seeking to find themselves, who may feel lonely, who may feel lost, who may feel not good enough or like an outsider or who may feel like settling down to a place or person may not be in the cards for them...this is for any of those people. It's so beautifully written you'll easily be wrapped up in the story. . Nicholas Sparks is one of my favorite authors to read and while this one was not my favorite of his, it still tugged at my heart strings and made me unable to put it down. As is normal, Sparks sends you on an up and down emotional journey making you fall in love with his characters and their stories. Unlike, 'The Wish' where I did not see the ending coming, I figured out pretty early on what the twist was going to be but knowing it ahead of time did not take away from the emotions felt when it was revealed. Another fantastic book.

I have read every single book that Nicholas Sparks writes. I was leary of this one due to some of the not so favorable reviews. BUT I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love how quickly the story drew me in and i am still a fan of his after all these years.

This story was so beautiful. Nicholas Sparks does such a beautiful job at painting a picture and getting you attached to the characters.

Nicholas Sparks's newest book Counting Miracles, seems a little different than his typical books in my opinion in that it didn’t seem to be as much of a tear jerker as they usually tend to be. Maybe it's just me, maybe I'm becoming more hardened, I don't know, but I've tried reading Mr. Sparks books in the past and couldn't get into them. I honestly have no idea what made me decide to try reading another book Mr. Sparks, but I am extremely happy that I did. Not only was it less of a tear jerker this time, it was centered on a man trying to find himself, and his place in life. It focused on his personal feelings about himself, the family he was looking for, and the family he didn't know he was in search of. Mr. Sparks style of writing is very descriptive, and draws the readers in almost immediately. By the end of the book, the readers have gone on an emotional roller-coaster, and feel rung out to dry, but they also relieved. Given that this is the first book I have been able to finish and enjoy by Mr. Sparks, I am definitely going to go back and try reading some of his previous books again, and them another chance!!

Rating: 4.5/5 ⭐️
Genre: Romance, Women’s Fiction
Pages: 248

This was a great book by one of my all time fav authors! This was a great story about how an old man and his dog somehow get intertwined into an emerging relationship with his doctor and a man whose (collectors) car was hit (by the docs daughter). There is anger, happiness, love, memories, mother-daughter relationship, missing father and more all in this book. While I love this author and his books/movies; this was a little slow for me in the beginning. Im sure Sparks needed to tell each characters story and why they are important to each other but this made me not really read as fast as I could have. In the end this was a beautifully written love story about relationships we don’t expect and finding out our past in ways we never imagined.