“Every Breath” by Nicholas Sparks

I was extremely conflicted with how I felt about this novel.

If you look at my home library, I actually have a nice collection of novels by Nicholas Sparks, and have enjoyed all of them (most of them at some point, getting me a little emotional and tearing up.)

This book was no different... Until I got to the very end.

The start of the book was a little slow, but what drew me in was Sparks giving a small forward and letting the readers know that he created this particular book based off of a true romance and real life, and how he had actually met one of the main characters, Tru (he changed their real names, to protect their identity.)

So reading the actually storyline of how Tru and Hope met and fell in love, completely captivated me- and had me all in. Of course there were moments of heartbreak and tragedy, which completely had me torn- but I LOVED it.

So I get to the end, and I happen to be one of those people who always read the “Author’s Note” at the end of books, especially if it’s a REALLY good read. Upon reading the note from Sparks— I was annoyed, to say the least. Come to find out, he had completely factionalized the “meeting the real characters” and made up it being based on a true story/events, in order to get his readers to have a closer connection. I felt deceived and cheated. And one hundred percent deemed it unnecessary... He could have simply just wrote another fictional romance book- and I’m certain we would have loved it just the same.

Overall, beautiful story... But the fictitious forward could have been left out.