ME AND NICHOLAS SPARKS

OK!! I vowed that I would never read another Nicholas Sparks book --- and I haven't! But by mistake I bought a movie on sale that was BASED on one of his novels. Now I have a NEW vow: I'll never watch another movie taken from a Nicholas Sparks book!!

The man is obsessed with BAD ENDINGS!!!

First, I read The Notebook. That was a nice story that focused on a couple's love and ended when the wife became ill with Alzheimer's. That one wasn't too bad -- a little sad, especially if you've ever had a loved one with that disease. It hit too close to home for me.

Then I read The Promise. The plot in that book centered around two teenagers' falling in love, but the girl gets leukemia and dies in the end after barely making it down the aisle to marry her boyfriend.

Sparks also wrote Message in a Bottle, the ending of which is just as bad, if not worse than the others. So I said, "No more!"

I did actually read a nonfiction by him that chronicled a trip he and his brother made, and I must admit, it was good.

Then the disaster the other night in watching Nights in Rodanthe. I think the movie producer knew what he was doing when he put the author's name on the back of the DVD and hid it in the credits. He/she must have known there were people like me out there who had refused to have anything more to do with his works.

But -- I was trapped once I got into it. Here's the basic plot: a young mother of two children whose husband has left her for another woman, but now wants to come back to her, is stuck in a vacation beach house with another man. He is a handsome surgeon who is wrestling with a patient's unexpected death on the operating table. Lo and behold, a storm comes up and their fear for their safety draws them together. It gets worse!!

In a matter of a few days, they fall in love and make some life-changing decisions. HE decides to do mission work in Equador with his estranged son for a year, and SHE chooses to end it with her husband.

During the year the woman and her new love write "wonderful" letters to each other, vowing of course to remain faithful till he returns. Knowing Nicholas Sparks, I was ready for the ending.

The good doctor, who had of course reconciled with his son, was getting ready to return, and he was KILLED in another storm!! How sad is that?!?

I was so prepared for it, I didn't even cry -- instead, I laughed because it was sooo predictable!! He really needs to stick with nonfiction!!