The Lucky One is a hero’s-journey story of the protagonist in search for truth or something he can’t actually put his finger on.

In Iraq while on duty, U.S. Marine Logan Thibault finds the picture of a woman and a man, both looking like just out of their teens and brother and sister, as Logan assumes. He tries to find the owner of the photo but is unsuccessful. So he takes the photo and carries it with him. Logan has incredible luck of not getting killed while others around him do. He is looked at as if a sorcerer by other soldiers, and he and his best friend Victor believe the photo is his lucky charm.

After three tours of duty in Iraq, Logan comes home. While he and Victor are on a fishing trip, a large boat jams into their boat and kills Victor immediately. Spooked by all this, Logan goes on a walking trip to find the girl in the photo with his dog Zeus. He walks from Colorado to Hampton, North Carolina and finds the girl, Elizabeth, running the family kennel/dog training facility. Elizabeth lives with her grandmother, the sage archetype in the story, and her young son, Ben.
Logan doesn’t have the heart to tell Elizabeth the truth, which comes to haunt him at the end of the book. In Hampton, Logan has to deal with Keith Clayton who is Elizabeth’s ex and the sheriff. Keith belongs to a powerful family and still thinks he owns Elizabeth.

The story action comes after this point.

making a movie out of for those who like chick lit and do not mind plot weaknesses.

the set-up of the story and the strong hero character.

the ending.
As strong a setup as this story has, the ending disappointed me. I thought the author took the easy way out to tie the loose ends and give the story an acceptable ending by Hollywood standards.

In addition, the characters could have more depth in agreement with such an excellent premise. The only character one can relate to as hero is Logan, but then, he is too much of a hero, except for his quirky belief that the photo is his lucky charm that saved his life many times.

read something else that is substantial by an author who doesn't care for fame or fortune but cares only for writing the best story possible.

disappointed, especially after I got into it and liked the beginning.

Nicholas Sparks lives in North Carolina and is the author of fourteen books, like Dear John, The Last Song, and The Choice. Some of his books are made into movies.
I listened to the unabridged version of the novel consisting of nine CD’s. The reader John Bedford Lloyd does an incredible job.

You may like to read the book or listen to the CDs for leisure. If you read it to learn from the author's use of writing tools, you'll get only a little out of it.

The first half of the novel is excellent, but the ending makes me think the story was wrapped up far too quickly and unskillfully as if finishing up for NaNo.

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Created Feb 02, 2010 at 6:26pm • Submit your own review...