This was a short, sweet novella that you're bound to love. I really hope to see more Ryder and Janie in the near future, cause this was such a tease.
There's nothing like a girl coming to her senses with a sexy, tattooed cowboy.


Arc provided by author for honest opinions.

    Sheriff Miles Ryan finally finds out who hit his wife with a car and puts him in jail but they don't have enough proof if he really did it. Meanwhile at home his son Jonah wants to know what is going on and he thinks that his dad is trying to get on the hit and run case of Jonah's mother because his dad was going through the files from the evidence that they had the night of the accident. Miles and his girlfriend Sarah start to fade apart when she finds out about him going on the case again. She tells him she doesn't mind him getting back on the case but i know that in her head she does not want him getting back on the case because she knows that he will be working on the case too much to be around her. So far this has basically described a lot about the characters. Most of them are dynamic and change throughout the story. Some of the characters don't change at all.

A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks, is about a man name Miles Ryan who looses his wife in a terrible hit-and-run accident. He has a son name Jonah. Then Miles meets a wonderful lady name Sarah Andrews who is Jonah's teacher. Sarah helps Jonah every day after school with his homework. Sarah is trying to recover from a nasty divorce. They end up falling in love, but they are both hiding a secret from each other that could possibly separate them for good.

Opening Line: “On the morning of August 29, 1988, a little more than two years after his wife had passed away, Miles Ryan stood on the back porch of his house, smoking a cigarette, watching as the rising sun slowly changed the morning sky from dusky grey to orange.”

Nicholas Sparks is like comfort food, I always know going in the kind of emotional love story I’m going to get and I can count on being sucked into the lives, loves and heartache of his small town characters. They’re written realistically, I mean I feel like I know them, flaws and all and I usually want to move to whatever town it is he’s describing. Sure sometimes the stories are predictable and I find that the couple de jour spouts the “I love you’s” too soon for my liking or realism’s sake but still his stories are always a pleasure to read, which is what keeps me coming back for more.

A BEND IN THE ROAD was a surprise in that it keeps a sense of mystery going throughout, often leaving the main couples love story and allowing us into the mind of the anonymous “bad guy”. Slowly unravelling their story until the shocking big reveal at the end. I honestly didn’t know how Sparks was going to wrap things up here, his couples doesn’t always end up together and that too added to the mystery.

Sheriff’s deputy Miles Ryan is still struggling to come to terms with the death of his beloved wife in a hit-and-run accident nearly two years ago. High school sweethearts, theirs was a love destined to last and Miles can’t seem to let go of the grief or the fact that as an officer of the law he’s been unable to find the person responsible. If it weren’t for their young son Jonah it’s unlikely that Miles would find the strength to get through the day.

Which brings into play Jonah’s second grade teacher Sarah Andrews. When Jonah begins having trouble keeping up in school Sarah offers to tutor him and a tentative relationship begins to form. Sarah is running away from a bad divorce (is there a good one?) and has a few skeletons in her closet as well. Our couple fall in love pretty fast (from one page to the next) and are just beginning to see a real future together when Miles’ past comes back, tearing everything apart. Unwilling to let go of his dead wife and obsessed with finding her killer and ultimately closure I can honestly say that I was surprised by events I didn’t see coming.

As I hinted at earlier I really enjoyed getting inside the head of the hit-and-run driver and slowly discovering who it was, becoming very sympathetic towards their situation. However I could have done without spending so much time running around with county sheriff Charlie and subsequently the middle parts of this story lagged. Still a recommended read. Cheers!