Every Breath

While preparing this review, I had to do just as I did while reading the novel – take breaks to let my emotions subside so I could see to read (or write), for a lot of emotions came to the fore. By the way, I strongly recommend adding the Audible Edition to your library at the reduced price of $9.47.

Firstly, due to my own personal circumstances. My father, not long before he passed on eight years ago, had urged me to read and study Nicholas Sparks’s style of writing. Dad was not moved by many authors, so I noted that, but did not then do as he urged. In just the introduction to the novel, I quickly understood why Dad was so moved.

Also, though, my first marriage was a story not so very different, in the essential ways, from the true story behind the novel. I, too, spent time in Africa (Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa, and I am convinced I shall one day return to that magical, awe-inspiring land).That employment in southern Africa became the beginning of the end of my first marriage, one of the consequences you pay while trying to deal with day-to-day challenges.

Of course, had I not gone to Africa, thence, years later, to Egypt, I might never have suffered the divorce but would not have then discovered my wife of today, who is the Godsend that brought me back from the dead and failed.

My point is, “Every Breath” by Nicholas Sparks opened up some old wounds BUT also healed them shut. For me, this story was epic. A life changer.

BLUSH FACTOR: This love story is absent any profanities, but the love scenes, while drawing a clear, unmistakable picture, are not graphic in the sense of more risqué novels. Tantalizing? Yes, but not over-the-top graphic. Read first before deciding to read to anybody else, is the best advice I can give. Wonderful images beautifully written is another way to put it.

ADVENTURE: There IS a definite sense of adventure.

SOUL: Yes.

CHARACTER OR VOICE: It is magical how this writer can open the story up to let it speak for itself.

EDITING FOR GRAMMAR AND TYPOS: Professional editing of the highest order.

THE WRITING FLOW & STYLE: I think it’s clear that this writer is moving in his narrative.

POV: Third person, which works well for this story. We get to feel the emotions of the main characters so effectively due to the way point of view is used in this work.

EXCERPT

‘…time, she’d believed her dad to be the smartest man in the world. When she would tell him that, he’d always laugh and say that if that were true, then he would have figured out a way to earn a million dollars. Her mom was a teacher, too—second grade—and it wasn’t until Hope graduated from college and began paying her own bills that she realized how much of a financial challenge it must have been for them to raise a family, even on their combined income.

Her dad had been a coach to the high school’s cross country and track teams as well. He never raised his voice, but nonetheless led his teams to numerous conference championships. Along with her sisters, Hope had participated in both sports all four years of high school, and though none of them were stars, Hope still jogged a few times a week. Her older sisters ran three or four days a week, and for the past ten years, Hope had joined her dad and her sisters at the annual Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning, all of them working up an appetite before sitting down at the table. Two years earlier, her dad had won his age-group bracket.

But now, her dad would never run again.

It had started with occasional twitches and a slight, if noticeable, fatigue. For how long, she wasn’t exactly sure, but she guessed that it had been a couple of years. In the twelve months after that, the runs in the woods became jogs, and then finally walks.

Old age, his internist suggested, and it made sense. By then, her dad was in his late sixties—he’d retired four years earlier—and he had arthritis in his hips and feet. Despite a life of exercise, he took medication for slightly elevated blood pressure. Then, last January, he’d caught a cold. It was a normal, run-of-the-mill cold, but after a few weeks, her dad had still found it harder to breathe than usual.

Hope had gone with him to another appointment with his internist. More tests were done. Blood work was sent to the labs. He was referred to another doctor, then another. A muscle biopsy was taken, and when the results came back, there was the suggestion of a potential neurological problem. It was at that point that Hope began to worry. More tests followed, and later, Hope sat with the rest of her family as the diagnosis of…’

Sparks, Nicholas. Every Breath (Kindle Locations 465-481). Grand Central Publishing. Kindle Edition.

BOTTOM LINE

Life-altering story for me. Only one rating makes sense. If I ever could pen a story 10% as engaging as this, I would be quite pleased that I had accomplished a great deal.

Five stars out of five.

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