Ponder: Remain

It has been quite a while since I have read a book I truly enjoyed. Finally, my drought is broken! I give Remain five stars. Remain is co-authored by Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan. Sparks is well known for this love stories, most notably The Notebook (1996).  Shyamalan's talent shines brightly in the 1999 movie The SixtheSense. I was beginning to lose interest in Nicholas Sparks but I am so glad I gave him yet another chance and read Remain, a love story with a supernatural twist.

Remain is the story of Tate Donovan, an adult man depressed at the death of his sister and tainted from an unaffectionate childhood. Remain has the classic features of a love story in Sparks' inimitable style, coupled with the tension and uncertainties of Shyamalan's talents. A successful architect, Tate comes to Cape Cod to design an elaborate summer home for a wealthy college friend. He stays at an old, ornate but deteriorating house, once a thriving bed and breakfast, but now closed. The setting can be quaint, but also eerie. A special relationship develops between Tate and a woman called Wren despite Tate's cold upbringing and polluted attitude about love. I hint at no spoilers here. Read it for yourself. I enjoyed it immensely.

Nicholas Sparks is a very prolific author and I have read all of his books and written a blog post about nearly half of them. I do not know if I grew tired of him, if each novel became too predictable, or if he changed his writing style, but never-the-less, he fell out of favor with me as a desirable author. However, I think I still persisted in reading his novels because of some pernicious obsession that once I had a perfect score going, I did not want to mess it up.  There is a psychological term for that feeling — loss aversion.

Here is a list of all Nicholas Sparks' novels in order of publication date. The ones with stars in front are novels I reviewed in my Wander Or Ponder blog. There are a clickable links to these posts at the end of each line.  The other ones, noted with a preceding series of asterisks, I read most likely before I started blogging. I published my first WanderOrPonder post on 8/20/13. Among the reviewed books, I noticed I gave only two or three stars. Although I have no proof, I believe I liked Sparks' earlier works better, hence my determination to read all his books. Sparks' first novel, The Notebook, though short, was great.

 1.   ************ The Notebook ©1996

 2.   ************ Message in a Bottle ©1998

 3.   ************ A Walk to Remember ©1999

 4.   ************ The Rescue ©2000

 5.   ************ A Bend in the Road ©2001

 6.   ************ Nights in Rodanthe ©2002

 7.   ************ The Guardian ©2003

 8.   ************ The Wedding ©2003

 9.  ★★★☆☆ Wokini ©2003 02/23/17

10. ★★☆☆☆ True Believer ©2005 10/23/22

11. ★★☆☆☆ At First Sight ©2005 10/23/22

12.  ************ Three Weeks with My Brother ©2004

13.  ************ Dear John ©2006

14.  ************ The Choice ©2007

15.  ************ The Lucky One ©2008

16.  ************ The Last Song ©2009

17.  ************ Safe Haven ©2010

18.  ************ The Best of Me ©2011

19.  ************ The Longest Ride ©2013

20. ★★★☆☆ See Me ©2015 04/01/16

21. ★★★☆☆ Two by Two ©2016 12/19/16

22. ★★★☆☆ Every Breath ©2018 11/18/18

23. ★★☆☆☆ The Return ©2020 12/27/20

24. ★★★☆☆ The Wish ©2021 10/18/21

25. ★★☆☆☆ Dreamland ©2022 11/22/22

26. ★★☆☆☆ Counting Miracles ©2024 10/06/24

27. ★★★★★ Remain ©2025 (this post, 2/13/26)

Remain, with five stars was a real winner for me. I will most likely read the next Nicholas Sparks book whenever it is published. Gotta maintain that streak!

★★★★★ Great! Read it!