The Return (Nicholas Sparks) | Book Review #9

[ February 23, 2022 ]

I’ve long wanted to envelop myself in the romancing world of Nicholas Sparks, and this month, we read this book for our Bestie Book Club. Neither of us was disappointed, despite me being warned on Twitter that his books were a bore just waiting to happen.

Couldn’t possibly have been true, right? Well, it wasn’t for this one.

Book: The Return by Nicholas Sparks

21 chapters, 355 pgs.

Started: February 3, 2022

Finished: February 8, 2022

The Description

Trevor Benson never intended to move back to New Bern, North Carolina. But when a mortar blast outside the hospital where he worked sent him home from Afghanistan with devastating injuries, the dilapidated cabin he'd inherited from his grandfather seemed as good a place to regroup as any.

Tending to his grandfather's beloved beehives, Trevor isn't prepared to fall in love with a local...yet, from their very first encounter, Trevor feels a connection with deputy sheriff Natalie Masterson that he can't ignore. But even as she seems to reciprocate his feelings, she remains frustratingly distant, making Trevor wonder what she's hiding.

Further complicating his stay in New Bern is the presence of a sullen teenage girl, Callie, who lives in the trailer park down the road. Trevor hopes Callie can shed light on the mysterious circumstances of his grandfather's death, but she offers few clues - until a crisis triggers a race to uncover the true nature of Callie's past, one more intertwined with the elderly man's passing than Trevor could ever have imagined.

In his quest to unravel Natalie and Callie's secrets, Trevor will learn the true meaning of love and forgiveness...and that in life, to move forward, we must often return to the place where it all began.

The Review

This book was very interesting. The description snatched Kendall and me into buying it. My initial thought was that Callie possibly killed Trevor’s grandfather, but thankfully, this was not the case. The mysteries surrounding Callie—and Natalie, too—had my biting my nails with a permanent brow of frustration.

I wasn’t expecting Trevor to be an older man. It was a shock in the beginning, but I adjusted with ease. We listened to the audiobook (narrated by Kyf Brewer) and read along using a physical copy of the book. It is our preferred method. Kyf did an incredible job capturing Trevor’s personality, and it was cute when he was confessing his feelings for Natalie.

Natalie was a bit of a headache. At first, she was sweet, and I thought that Trevor and she were instantly going to be endgame. There was a part about her that drove me up the wall, but it smoothed itself out while breaking me down to tears. I went from starting to hate her to instantly regretting the thought of hating her. That’s all I’ll say on that matter.

Callie. Callie. Callie. This character was shrouded in mystery, but it didn’t seem so at first. She seemed like a typical, annoying child. I didn’t much care for her at the beginning, but once the mystery was solved, there came more waterworks from me.

Final Thoughts

It’s safe to say that I truly enjoyed The Return. I was skeptical at first, because of the warning from a woman on Twitter, but it turned out to just be her opinion. I’ve always been obsessed with the movie adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' books, so I can’t wait to see if this book will make the cut and be adapted. I would love to watch it come alive onscreen.

Rating and Recommendation

5 out of 5 stars

Of course, I recommend this book to everyone! Not only was it filled with romance, but it also had a twist of sadness and mystery thrown into the mix. It satisfied all my expectations. Please, go out and buy your copy of The Return today!

Buy "The Return" by Nicholas Sparks on Amazon, here.