Safe Haven (novel)

Safe Haven

Author	Nicholas Sparks
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Realism Romance
Publisher	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date	July 2011
Media type	Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
Pages	432
ISBN	978-0446547598

Safe Haven is a romantic novel by American novelist Nicholas Sparks. It was published in 2010. According to WorldCat, the book is held in 2242 libraries ^[1]

Plot

Erin has recently arrived in Southport, North Carolina. She comes to Southport to get away from her abusive alcoholic husband, Kevin. She takes on a different identity and changes her name to Katie. In her new home town she works at a seafood restaurant, she becomes friends with her neighbor, Jo, and she gets to know the town's general store owner, Alex.

Katie develops a routine with work, talking with her neighbor, Jo, and shopping at the store where she interacts with Alex. Alex is a widower with two children, Josh and Kristen. Katie is interested in Alex and likes his two kids. Alex and Katie's attraction moves from friendship to romance as they interact with each other and as Katie's neighbor, Jo encourages the relationship. Alex's former job had trained him to recognize signs of an abuse victim. As they develop their relationship Katie reveals her past to Alex including telling him her real name is Erin. Alex wants to know why she didn't go to the police and Katie told him her husband, Kevin is a police detective. Katie fled from the abuse of her alcoholic husband, Kevin because she knew he would kill her if he located her. She took on the identity of their neighbor's dead daughter who resembled her.

Kevin was furious with his wife for leaving and drank more to dull his pain, but when he learned that Erin had taken the identity of their neighbor's dead daughter Katie, he knew where to look and came after her. When Kevin arrived in Southport, Katie (aka Erin) was taking care of Alex's children. Kevin locates Katie and sets the house on fire thinking it would kill both Katie and Alex. Katie fights Kevin and the children escape. Alex, coming home, finds his children and takes them to Katie's house where he thinks they will be safe. He returns to the fire and finds Kevin attempting to harm Katie. Desperate, Alex drives toward Kevin who is firing a gun at him. The vehicle hits Kevin and his hand is broken and he loses the gun. Katie picks the gun up as she and Alex are reunited. Kevin, however, is able to drive off and goes to Katie's house. When Katie learns that Alex left the children at her house, she is terrified, knowing that Kevin will hunt her down at her house, putting the children's lives in danger. As they reach Katie's house, Kevin attacks Alex with a crowbar. Kevin is going to shoot and kill Katie, however, when he fires the gun the bullet hits Kevin in the stomach and he dies in front of Katie.

Alex had been given an unopened letter from his dead wife, Carly. After Alex and Katie recover from their injuries, they locate the safe in the ashes of the burnt home. Alex gives Katie the unopened letter to read. She goes home to read it and is shocked when she sees Jo's house looking like no one had ever lived in it. Startled, she begins to think that Jo had been a complete figment of her imagination. Upon reading the letter, Katie realizes that it was written by Alex's late wife, Carly Jo, whom friends called "Jo". Katie realizes that her friend Jo was really Carly's spirit. In the letter Carly Jo asked Katie to take care of Alex and the children. After Katie reads the letter she sees lights in her neighbor's house and sees Jo standing in the window waving farewell. The next time she glances at Jo's house, it is dark and has returned to the appearance that no one has lived it the house for years.

Adaptation

Safe Haven was adapted into a feature film in 2013. The film was directed by Lasse Hallström. It starred Julianne Hough as Katie, Josh Duhamel as Alex, David Lyons as Kevin, and Cobie Smulders as Jo.^[2]

References

External links

• Safe Haven in Goodreads