Spring 2016 - Book Review

See Me

Note – If you have not read this story, this review contains some spoilers. All opinions are my own and may differ from your views of the story.

Howdy folks! Time for the Spring 2016 Holiday Café book review. Hopefully this finds everyone off to a lovely start in 2016. Spring is that time for new beginnings and ironically our book this month discusses just that. We’re reviewing “See Me” by Nicholas Sparks. This is an author I have read in the past, but really hadn’t read much from lately (I tend to go in waves of reading some authors). I picked up the audio version at the library for listening to on my commute and was enjoying it so much – I bought the book for my Kindle. Here’s a little more on See Me.

See Me has a couple of plot lines woven into one story. It follows the stories of Colin – a man with a sketchy background who is trying to get a fresh start in life. After some big scrapes with the law, he’s essentially on his last chance. But it has inspired him to really turn his life around. He has a new goal of becoming a teacher and with a laser focus, is quietly working toward his goal and starting this new life.

Maria – a lawyer that is vaguely unhappy with her life. She feels like she shouldn’t be unhappy, but has her own troubles. She’s not sure she wants to be a lawyer where she’s at any longer, but with limited options she feels stuck. Additionally, a past case has come back to haunt her, causing her additional stress and uncertainty in her life.

Colin and Maria come together after a series of coincidences (and a little help from a pushy well-meaning sister). As they try to decide whether the new lives they’re striving for include each other, both of their pasts are causing issues in the present. They work together to try and figure out what they want, work through their past issues and figure out what the future might hold.

As I said in the beginning, it’s been awhile since I’ve read a Nicholas Sparks novel. But I was pleasantly surprised with this one as it had a mystery layer underneath. I found myself wanting to know what was going to happen next and as a result, this was a quick read. Was some of it farfetched? Yes. But this was a pleasant read and would make for some good beach reading in the summer months that lie ahead.

Gwen O’Brien works full time in higher ed, works full time as a wife, works full time as a mom, works full time as a dog mom and occasionally finds time to write or edit. She resides in McDonald and enjoys reading, yoga and donuts (not necessarily together) when she’s not working.