The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

Did I tell you I'm writing a novel? Yeah, after reading all those terrible books on Amazon Prime, I decided I can write a story better than some of those. I loved to write stories when I was a kid and I love to read, so it makes perfect sense.
So, I'm doing some research. This includes reading lots of books and observing things like story arcs, plot points, character development, etc. My latests piece of research was Nicholas Sparks' The Lucky One.

This book follows Logan Thibault, a former Marine who had three tours in Iraq. While he was there, he found a photo of a woman. When the photo wasn't claimed, he took it with him and he believed that the photo provided luck for him. He was in a record number of IED attacks and avoided dying on numerous occasions. When he gets back from active duty, he decides to walk across the country to try to find the woman in the picture. Although this story sounds a bit creepy, it's pretty well put together and the Thibault character does not seem to be a mentally deranged stalker. The woman he finds is named Beth, a single mom with a crazy ex-husband. Naturally, Logan and Beth fall in love, the ex-husband loses his mind and the story resolves with the death of a major character, but it's the one you don't mind.

This book was good but not exceptional. The characters were interesting, but I didn't really identify with any of them on any level. It was a nice romance, but, honestly, I could have taken this book or left it. The characters are stereotypical (a war-hardened veteran, a beautiful woman who doesn't know she's beautiful, a manipulative ex-husband, a cute, smart kid). The plot was predictable. It's a good escapist read, but that's all!