I’m a sucker for romance, and Nicholas Sparks is possibly the most amazing male romance novelist. Every book he writes makes me laugh out loud, sigh with envy and cry like a baby. Luckily for us, many of his books aren’t just left on the shelves.

The Notebook, Dear John, The Last Song or The Lucky One are only a few of the books that were made into succesful movies. Last one out, Safe Haven was going to be a turning point as it was one of his darker novels, and those who haven’t read it had no clue where the movie was going to go.

Not to give anything away, here’s a little plot summary: Katie (Julianne Hough), a young woman, flees from her place and gets on a bus to Atlanta. She is pursued by a policeman, Kevin Tierney (David Lyons), who refuses to drop the case. On a stopover in Southport, North Carolina, Katie decides to stay put and gets a job at a local restaurant. She keeps to herself but unexpectly becomes friendly with shop-owner Alex (Josh Duhamel) and his children as well as her mysterious neighbour Jo (Cobie Smulders). As time passes Katie opens up to a new future, but her past ends up catching up with her. Can she escape its clutches and move forward?

The movie is well-cast, with Josh Duhamel very comfortable in the role of a father to small children (a part he already had in Life As We Know It) and Julianne Hough who has the “deer caught in headlights” look down to a T. David Lyons, famous for his part as the hot doctor in ER and more recently as President Monroe in Revolution, assumes the part of the part of the crazy detective and enjoys a lot of screen time with alcohol.

Once again the story takes place on the Eastern Coast, as Sparks lived and worked in that area and feels a great connection to it. I would recommend you both read the book and watch the movie, as both are very well done. I also cannot wait for the next one to be out!

For more info on Nicholas Sparks, check out the interview I did for the release of The Lucky One.

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