Review: The Lucky One - Book and Movie!

The Lucky One

Nicholas Sparks

Copyright 2008, Grand Central Publishing

Logan is a Marine's Marine. He lives it, loves it, has only anticipated being one. During a daily jog in Iraq, he finds a photograph of a woman. Logan takes it with him and posts it where whoever had lost it might be able to claim it - but no one does. Taking it back with him, Logan finds he's having a string of good luck that ranges from winning poker games to leaving bombings and fire fights alive. His friend claims it is good luck, that it was destiny Logan found it and that he must find the woman in the picture to thank her.

Elizabeth Green is a teacher who is taking time away to help her grandmother run the family kennels. Aside from losing her brother in Iraq, she's also dealing with her jack ass of an ex husband whose family basically runs the town - and raising their son.

** There will be Slight - Spoilers. If you wish not to see them, STOP here! **

You guys know the story, or you've seen enough of the movie trailers to know how it goes. Logan arrives at the kennels and instead of telling "Beth" why he's there - he's bites his tongue and works for her. They become close, fall in love and then BOOM ex-hubby throws a wrench in their happy plans. The man differences I came away from the movie with (after first reading the book) was:

• Beth's ex is freaking dick of the YEAR. The guy is a serious perv with a horrendous attitude. He's pure evil and you can't WAIT for Logan to just eat him alive. The movie almost plays him as a somewhat decent guy, ohh poor baby is just taking after how his family has always treated him. Whatev - dude was EVIL.
• The discovering of the picture is different - still good, but different
• Movie - Logan plays down the importance of what his friend had told him about the picture and destiny. In the book we get the full scope of just how important his friendship was. ALSO - Why Logan decided to go after all. It's discussed but I think the visual would have been better.
• Oh My God. Book Logan did NO justice to the freaking beauty that Zac Efron has become. I don't remember if the quote "You should be kissed every day" is in the book or not but OH MY GOD. Yes, Zac, I will let you kiss me everyday.

As far as the book goes...It was my first Nicholas Sparks novel and while I enjoyed the underlying story... I won't be rushing out to the shelves anytime soon. Don't get me wrong, he wrote a story that was interesting, characters that were believable, but...I just wasn't a fan of the actual writing. Obviously, I'm most likely in the minority here since he's very talented and has written a gazillion books - It just wasn't a style I liked :(

The movie? Pretty good! Dare I say, better than the book?! Yeah, I'll say it. Despite the fact that I think they should have brought Logan to town and had the issues he had with Kyle (the ex) from the book, and I wanted the best friend-destiny tie in to be stronger, I found the movie really enjoyable. Maybe it was Zac. Who knows? The boy played the part to a T and wasn't bad to look at either!