Two by Two by Nicholas Sparks

I'm not sure why I wanted to read this. Maybe, I was hoping that the previous book was just a big miss and he would be on track again. Boy, was I wrong. This book is a little better than, See Me, but not by much.

There are a few things that really bug me about this book. First, there is so much disconnect. He would add a snippet or story from the past, at the beginning of every chapter. Sometimes I had no idea why or what it meant. Some of them were important to the book but not most. At times, it felt to be just too much. Not to mention, this book is almost 500 pages long! That's way too long. Some of his best are a lot shorter than this. I don't know if he had to fill a quota or what but it made for a pretty boring read. I will say that I read it in one day. It's basically all I did though. I had to return it to the library soon and there were so many holds. I plowed through and I was disappointed. 

Second were the characters. I really had a VERY hard time liking Russ. He had no backbone, whatsoever. He was the "nice guy but too nice" but he accepted that. He let his wife just manipulate and rule his every move. The worst part is that he KNEW what she was doing and still said NOTHING. He never once, stood up for himself or his rights to his daughter. He does nothing to fight back and never tries to correct any of her misconceptions.  Then in the end, she still gets what she wanted. It made it a lot harder to like his character. 

I will say that the bond between he and his daughter was nice. I did like reading about that part. His sister was the only character that I really liked. I loved Margie but I feel like what happens is just so last minute. It didn't really make much sense to me and it was so predictable. I feel like he did it to her just for the sake of doing it. 

Another thing that annoyed me was the past girlfriend, Emily. She was a tad bit annoying and I really didn't like her. Their time together just didn't feel genuine and forced. I think that whole situation was just really too fast anyways. I'm sorry, I just didn't care for them as a couple. 

This book wasn't terrible, it wasn't as bad as the previous. I will admit that I did shed some tears around the end. I will say again, I think his wife was a lot more involved with his writing. The tone is completely different. I don't really want to read 3/4 of a 500 page book about a failing marriage. Then try to force a love story with the past girlfriend. I just couldn't get behind this book. It does not feel like a true "Sparks" book. I was a huge fan but now I will not pick up another of his books! He's either lost his touch or his wife took all the greatness, in my opinion.