T HE L UCKY O NE Written by: Nicholas Sparks Presented by: Ileigh Kuga

A BOUT THE A UTHOR Nicholas Sparks was born in Omaha, Nebraska on New Year’s Eve, eighty minutes prior to He was a straight A student all throughout high school, and was on the track team, where he broke many records and received a scholarship to Notre Dame. After breaking a few records at Notre Dame, Nicholas was injured and spent his summer at home with his parents. There, while he was moping around, his mother told him to “write a book”; that was when he wrote his first book “The Passing” that was never really published, along with a few other books.

M ORE B OOKS BY N ICHOLAS S PARKS ~Safe Haven~The Rescue ~The Last Song~A Walk to Remember ~The Lucky One ~Message in a Bottle ~Dear John~The Notebook ~The choice~Wokini ~At first sight ~True Believer*Save Haven is his latest! ~Three weeks with my brother ~The Guardian ~The Wedding ~Nights in Rodanthe ~A Bend in the Road

C HARACTERS Main Characters ~Logan Thibault ~Elizabeth (Beth) ~Keith Clayton Supporting Characters ~Ben ~Nana ~Gramps ~Zeus(Logan’s dog)

S UMMARY A marine named Logan Thibault is on a tour in Iraq when he finds a picture of a young smiling woman half buried in the sand. After carrying the picture around for a while he has had unexplainable good luck. Thibault’s friend Victor believes that the woman in the picture is his good luck charm. Once Logan returns to Colorado he can’t get the woman in the picture out of his mind, so he decides to walk across the country to find her. Along the way he runs into a guy named Keith Clayton, who is a sheriff. Thibault finds the woman in the picture, who’s name is Elizabeth (Beth), along with her son Ben, and her grandmother, Nana. The family owns a kennel that Logan got a job at. Soon Logan and Elizabeth fall for each other, and run into trouble with Elizabeth’s ex husband, Keith Clayton. Elizabeth hasn’t had the best of luck in the dating world, and it turns out the Keith has been making sure that her relationships wouldn’t work out. Logan found his destiny, but what about all the things that go with it?

T HE BASIC I NFO. Genre: Romance, Drama Conflicts: Logan Thibault and Keith Clayton both have feelings for Elizabeth, and issues with each other. Theme: This novel focuses mostly on fate, destiny, and love. Nicholas Sparks said that he doesn’t believe in the first two themes but said he is “a big believer in the fact that people have the ability to influence the future in a way that seems coincidental and when that happens, the feeling of fate or destiny is amplified” Setting: Hampton, NC (not a real place)

R ISING A CTION The rising action in this book starts when Thibault finds the picture in the sand that gives him luck. It goes on into when he walks across the country to find Beth, finds her and falls in love with her. The other part of the rising action is when Logan runs into Keith Clayton. Keith and Logan butt heads through out the story, but Logan is the bigger person between the two of them.

F ALLING A CTION The falling action is when Elizabeth and Logan start dating. Logan confronts Elizabeth about some things Keith, her ex, has been doing to him. Logan also tells Elizabeth why he thinks her past relationships haven’t worked out past the first few dates; he suspects Keith mingling with Elizabeth’s love life. The other part of the falling action is when Keith Clayton finds out Logan’s real reason for being in Hampton.

M Y T HOUGHTS ON THE B OOK I enjoyed this book very much. I have read two other books by Nicholas Sparks and also enjoyed them. I enjoyed the connections, plot, and the overall story. I think it gives a good message and can be a real life situation. I enjoy the way Nicholas Sparks doesn’t do regular chapters by what's going on in the story, but by the point of view of the characters. I also enjoy the romances the characters find; they find their “lover”, it isn’t just there.

R ECOMMENDATION I would strongly recommend this book to anyone. This may seem like a chic flick, but it really wasn’t. It had a few girly parts, but other than that its about real life situations that could/can happen.

I NTERESTING F ACTS ABOUT THE BOOK Logan Thibault’s dog, Zeus was modeled after one of Nicholas Sparks’ dogs. Nicholas had to do the most research he has ever done for a book, for this book. The setting for this book is NOT a real place. The Lucky One was the first book of Nicholas’ that he wrote in third-person perspective. They will be coming out with the movie for this book soon, with Zac Effron as Logan Thibault.