Reviews

Yeah…it wasn’t good. The romance is not believable, and both Jeremy and Lexie are super annoying, think they can do no wrong, and are selfish in most of their actions. The interesting part was the ghost story and that was even just washed over.
I had read At First Sight a long while ago and hadn’t realized it was a sequel, and I had liked it enough at the time. This was my first time reading True Believer and I was just disappointed.

butterfly_bombshell's review against another edition

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5.0

Probably my favorite book by Nicholas Sparks

outcolder's review against another edition

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3.0

This is the second romance novel I have ever read. I chose this one because Nicholas Sparks comes highly recommended and because the main woman character is a librarian. Do romance novels always have an out of the way cottage where the relationship changes? I liked a lot of the tossed out metaphors, like the shipwrecks off Cape Hatteras, or the slowly simmering marinara sauce, and also the giant metaphors like ghosts and a sinking cemetery. There was no explicit sex -- which surprised me -- when it cut from kissing to waking up in the morning, I was like, "huh?" but also kind of relieved. Am I a prude? I was planning to read the even tamer [a:Katie Fforde|86097|Katie Fforde|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1270774921p2/86097.jpg] next.

Another thing I appreciated about the book was its nuanced city vs. country theme. The question is revealed to be a stand in for the deeper question of do you value meaningful, committed relationships or would you rather have conspicuous consumption and fame... nicely presented as opposing poles with the full spectrum of both available in both locations: The small town mayor as ridiculous as the big city agent, the big catholic family in Queens as loving as the Southern Grandmothers.

Like the zine "Dishwasher" that only talked about the dishwashing scenes in its book and movie reviews, I want to say that I really appreciated the portrayal of library work here. Lexie is not the stereotypical "shut up" librarian, nor is she the sexy party girl librarian. She works hard, mainly on collection development and library events. We read about her reading to the children in a great scene that gets right to the point and also offers multiple points of view. She is also the town archivist, with a rare book room. There is even a discussion of the tension between a historic setting and modern library service. Librarians: this guy Sparks gets it.

Okay: 3 years later I learn that this guy is very homophobic.