Nicholas Sparks Meet & Greet

The last author on my literary bucket list items was crossed off. For YEARS I have wanted to meet Nicholas Sparks. And of all the places in Georgia, he actually came to WOODSTOCK (where I have lived for four years). FoxTale Book Shoppe, located in Downtown Woodstock, hosted #1 New York Times bestselling author Nicholas Sparks IN-PERSON on Saturday, October 3 and I got a front row ticket to meet him and get a signed copy of his latest book, The Return. 

As a commercial fiction author Sparks said his purpose is to move his readers through the whole range of emotions to make them feel as if they lived with the characters through the book. And of course every great love story has to end in tragedy…

He explained happy and sad endings are the easiest to write, where as bittersweet endings are the toughest to pull off when remaining authentic and honest.

I'm excited to dive into this book; and I am so grateful I got to meet this kind man in person. For now I will leave you with a book synopsis and our meet and greet photos of the day: 

Nicholas Sparks returns with the story of an injured Navy doctor -- and two women whose secrets will change the course of his life.

Trevor Benson never intended to move back to New Bern, North Carolina. But when a mortar blast outside the hospital where he worked sent him home from Afghanistan with devastating injuries, the dilapidated cabin he'd inherited from his grandfather seemed as good a place to regroup as any.

Tending to his grandfather's beloved beehives, Trevor isn't prepared to fall in love with a local . . . yet, from their very first encounter, Trevor feels a connection with deputy sheriff Natalie Masterson that he can't ignore. But even as she seems to reciprocate his feelings, she remains frustratingly distant, making Trevor wonder what she's hiding.

Further complicating his stay in New Bern is the presence of a sullen teenage girl, Callie, who lives in the trailer park down the road. Trevor hopes Callie can shed light on the mysterious circumstances of his grandfather's death, but she offers few clues -- until a crisis triggers a race to uncover the true nature of Callie's past, one more intertwined with the elderly man's passing than Trevor could ever have imagined.

In his quest to unravel Natalie and Callie's secrets, Trevor will learn the true meaning of love and forgiveness . . . and that in life, to move forward, we must often return to the place where it all began.

Reviewed by book lover: Brittany P.