Sparks does it again. A beautiful story about relationships. I was immediately invested in the outcome of this book. I’m in awe of his talent as an author. Loved it!

Nicholas Sparks has delivered another great read. This book has many twists and turns. You will love all the characters. The book takes place in a small town that you will fall in love with.

I’m totally a Nicholas Sparks fan since I was younger so was excited to read this book! While I enjoyed it I don’t think it was his best work. I really liked elements of the story and found the main relationship to have a lot of sweet moments and left me smiling but it also felt pretty slow for me. I struggled through some of Jasper’s storyline and I at times just felt detached in general from the book! It was written beautifully though as Nicholas Sparks does and it would probably appeal to a lot of different readers so still rating it high just maybe wasn’t for me!

Another winner winner chicken dinner with Nicholas Sparks' latest novel "Counting Miracles". Worth the wait for sure.

I’ll start by saying I was over-the-moon excited to read this book. As a loyal Nicholas Sparks fan, I’ve read and loved over 3/4 of his novels. This unfortunately was a very different read that I struggled through.

I had a really hard time connecting with the elderly man, Jasper, as a character. He was a sweet old man who’d been dealt an extremely difficult hand, but his storyline was so slow for most of the book (the exception: a few intense scenes that I won’t spoil) and the flashbacks to his childhood caught me off guard. I wasn’t expecting the religious aspect to this book. The multitude of Bible verses were an oddity for a NS book. The Biblical stories really overtook the storyline and put the romance to the back burner. There were no indications prior to reading this book that it would have such a strong Christian tone.

The spark between Kaitlyn and Tanner felt forced and rushed, not the ‘feel it in your soul, tear-jerking’ connection you’ve come to love from NS novels. However, Casey & Mitch (Kaitlyn’s children) were enjoyable to read about, and their personalities jumped off the page.

Desperately, I wanted to DNF at 50% but forced myself to keep going. I’ve never DNF’ed a Nicholas Sparks book before, and it broke my heart to even consider it. 💔 Overall, I’m glad I finished it and while predictable, the second half of the story provided the desired emotional release I expected from the novel. Ultimately, I was still disappointed that the romance aspect was so minor in the overarching storyline.

I do think there’s an audience for this book, but it’s not me. (Female, mid-30’s, never married) it seems more suited for a conservative baby boomer - just being honest.

As an avid reader, I do appreciate the amount of research that went into writing this novel, although that was also a contributing factor to my unfavorable opinions. The amount of military info, jargon, and over detailed descriptions caused to me to want to skim. This felt like a very different book than his typical novels. I wish he’d spent less time researching and being overly descriptive and more time developing Tanner & Kaitlyn and their connection/story.

This is a solid middle-of-the-road fiction novel. Of the Sparks novels I’ve read, it’s no doubt my least favorite, however the second half had some redeeming qualities which add 1/2 ⭐️ to my overall rating. I do feel like going in blind to this book isn’t wise, and the extremely religious aspects should be noted ahead of time as that will turn some off from this book.

3.5 ⭐️ Thank you to NetGalley & Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the opportunity to read this digital ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

There are a lot of storylines in this book that I have seen in other books by the author:

1. The white deer (swan)
2. The old man being hurt and stranded (Ida)
3. The old fashioned love story (also Ida)
4. The dog that saves the day (the great dane)
5. The military man (Thibault)
6. The entitled criminal kids (Abee and family)
.7. Divorced mother of two trying to get through to her teenage daughter (Nights in Rodanthe) etc

The book overall was ok; he just seems to redo his plots. Jasper is an old man that lost his entire family to a situation revolving around a fire. Kaitlyn is a single mom of two kids trying to find happiness and get through to her teenage daughter. Tanner is a man just out of the military trying to find out who he is. once his dying grandmother points him in the direction, he heads off to find his biological father. The story is a nice heartwarming story about love and family. I did not enjoy any of the hunting part of the story-just too scary for me and what would happen to the dog. But I understand that is a huge chunk of the book. I did skim a lot of that part. But overall, it wasn't bad. Not near as good as his first books.

This book was not for me for many reasons, but I do think it will be very popular with patrons in my library. Military-based characters written like Tanner and cozy mysteries are popular with many of our patrons.

I didn’t love it, personally, because some of the writing and dialogue felt stiff, inorganic, and too formal. There was a lot of telling, but little showing. Also, I’m military-affiliated and some things about Tanner aren’t real. He wouldn’t live in the barracks his whole 14 year career—that almost never happens. Also, if he was special forces (“Delta” in the book), he wouldn’t tell someone that right from the jump. Maybe that it something he and Kaitlyn should get into later in their relationship, but it definitely wouldn’t be a first conversation topic.

However, I know many patrons that would enjoy this book and I will definitely recommend it to them. Just because it’s not *my* taste doesn’t mean others won’t enjoy it! Overall, it’s a 3/5 from me. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this title. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I have read all of Nicholas Sparks' books. While this one is a good story, it wasn't his best. Tanner Hughes goes to Asheboro, NC to find his father who he never met. The story goes between Tanner's search and love story and Jasper's story, an elderly man living with pain from his past-physically and mentally. Their stories collide in the forest because of a white deer.

I’m surprised to say this one was actually exposition heavy, overly narrative, and missing Sparks’ style. I can’t help but wonder if he was stretched too thin over the last year with the musical for the Notebook, the movies, and everything else going on. I decided to DNF at 5% in (chapter 3).

In terms of appeal, any Sparks book stands on name alone. But I’d say content-wise, it’s a three to four stars for the target audience.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC.

Special thanks to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of this book. 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 by Nicholas Sparks, sure to be another best seller!