The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks

After thirty years, Wilson Lewis is forced to face a painful truth. His wife, Jane, has fallen out of love with him, and it is entirely his fault.

Despite the shining example of his in-laws, Noah and Allie Calhoun (originally recounted in The Notebook), and their fifty-year love affair, Wilson is unable to express his true feelings. He has spent too little time at home and too much at the office. Now his daughter is about to marry, and his wife is thinking about leaving him. But if Wilson is sure of anything, it's this: His love for Jane has grown over the years, and he will do anything he can to save their marriage. With the memories of Noah and Allie's inspiring life together as his guide, he vows to find a way to make his wife fall in love with him...all over again.


I wasn't even done with the prologue of this book yet but the waterworks was well underway. Don't blame it on my overactive tear glands. (Well, maybe.) It has everything to do with this being written by the Nicholas Sparks.

I know that NS novels are topnotch and you won't regret ever reading a single one of them. I've read A Walk to Remember and The Notebook well before both were made into and movies; and, I fell in love with the stories and the characters in each. NS is prolly one of the rare authors out there who can leave you the feeling of being immersed in love even without a happy ending (e.g. A Walk...). And we're not just talking about romantic love. It's all about the kind of love that feeds the soul.

That's probably why I've avoided his books no matter how much I want to read them. For me, reading has always been a form of escape away from the harsh realities of life. But when you read an NS, you read nothing but the truths in life. His stories aren't written with the thought of having what the hero and the heroine can do to a plot but instead, it's the other way around. His stories make his characters.

I have always been curious about this book when I learned that it was a sequel to The Notebook. When given the chance to read it, I took it. Although whether it was because of curiosity, I wouldn't know. Maybe I just needed an NS fix.

So far, in all the three NS novels that I've read, I think this book examined the heart and went deeper into the soul more than the others--although that doesn't make the other books any less poignant. I've read book after book about second chances and this is the best yet. In other books, fate always brought the two lovers back together again. Here, Wilson not only wanted to have the a second chance with his wife but he worked hard and gladly to have it. It had nothing to do with fate. Wilson made his second chance happen. I don't think a lot of people could go deep into their selves to manage doing the turnaround that he Wilson did. I hope the time will come that I will be able to if need be.

As for Noah, I liked the ending in the movie better to be honest--of him and Allie dying together. But whoever has read their book know otherwise. One of the best parts in this book was when he said that it wasn't his children believing he had gone delusional that saddened him. It was because he was acting like himself and they couldn't even see it--that he was still the same Noah. It was painful to imagine Noah alone in the end. He had always had Allie even when she was sick. And right before I closed this book, I somehow believed that maybe, he was never alone. Skeptics might say it's foolish but I believe what he believed in.

And that's why I avoid NS novels. By the time I finish one, it leaves me with more feelings of the lack in myself and in my life. And that's why I love finishing reading NS novels. Because every time I do, it leaves me with more hope for myself and what I can still do with my life. And it's a great feeling.

Final verdict: 9/10. Great read, must have.