Safe Haven
Nicholas Sparks, 2010
A woman arrives in a small Carolina town with a new name and a locked past; a widowed shopkeeper and his two children slowly make it feel like a life. A tender, hopeful small-town romance with a current of longing and a little adventure, told in a warm, lyrical voice.
Feels like longing, hope and tenderness. About love, adventure and solitude.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy tender contemporary romance, small-town settings, and stories about second chances. The heroine's locked past brings a thread of menace, so it may not suit you if you want a purely light, conflict-free story.
Why read it
It offers warmth and hope without ignoring the shadows people carry, and the Carolina setting gives the romance room to breathe.
A page from the book
Love, spelled out as breakfast and bike rides and a blanket on the couch.
If you love Alex now, then love him forever. Make him laugh again, and cherish the time you spend together. Take walks and ride your bikes, curl up on the couch and watch movies beneath a blanket. Make him breakfast, but don’t spoil him. Let him make breakfast for you as well, so he can show you he thinks you’re special. Kiss him and make love to him and consider yourself lucky for having met him, for he’s the kind of man who’ll prove you right. Nicholas Sparks.Sparks wrote The Notebook in his spare time while working as a pharmaceutical sales rep; published in 1996, it became his first bestseller.
Books that feel like this
More by Nicholas Sparks
The Notebook
Nicholas Sparks, 1996
An old man's devotion to the woman he loves, told in plain, unguarded prose for anyone who has ever measured a life by whom they loved.
Dear John
Nicholas Sparks, 2006
One summer, a soldier and a college student fall in love; the years apart ask whether love can survive distance and duty.
The Rescue
Nicholas Sparks, 2000
A single mother and a volunteer firefighter fall in love while a secret from his past tests the trust they are building.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Safe Haven for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy tender contemporary romance, small-town settings, and stories about second chances. The heroine's locked past brings a thread of menace, so it may not suit you if you want a purely light, conflict-free story.
- What is Safe Haven like?
- A tender, hopeful small-town romance with a current of longing and a little adventure, told in a warm, lyrical voice. Feels like longing, hope and tenderness. About love, adventure and solitude.
- What should I read after Safe Haven?
- If you liked Safe Haven, try The Selection (Kiera Cass), Problematic Summer Romance (Ali Hazelwood) and Heart Bones (Colleen Hoover).
A taste of the feed
A blessing for love that doubles as a warning.
I hope you find someone you can’t live without.I really do. And I hope you never have to know what it’s like to have to try and live without them.
The Selection · Kiera Cass
A therapist's phrase that turns a ruined adolescence into construction material.
You built a nice adulthood over the ruins of a shitty adolescence,” my therapist once said, and I enjoy the mental image of it. The idea of life as something I could choose, cultivate day by day, curate and nurture. Being mindful, instead of reactive.
Problematic Summer Romance · Ali Hazelwood
The theory that damage shapes us more than kindness ever could.
Sometimes I believe personalities are shaped more by damage than kindness. Kindness doesn’t sink as deep into your skin as the damage does. The damage stains your soul so bad, you can’t scrub it off. It stays there forever, and I feel like people can see all my damage just by looking at me.
Heart Bones · Colleen Hoover
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