The Choice

by Nicholas Sparks

2009

Status

Checked out

Genres

Romance

All Topics

Fiction

Collection

Standard Shelves

Publication

Vision (2009), Edition: Reissue, 336 pages

Description

Fiction. Romance. HTML: Travis Parker has everything a man could want: a good job, loyal friends, even a waterfront home in small-town North Carolina. In full pursuit of the good life-- boating, swimming, and regular barbecues with his good-natured buddies--he holds the vague conviction that a serious relationship with a woman would only cramp his style. That is, until Gabby Holland moves in next door. Despite his attempts to be neighborly, the appealing redhead seems to have a chip on her shoulder about him . . . and the presence of her longtime boyfriend doesn't help. Despite himself, Travis can't stop trying to ingratiate himself with his new neighbor, and his persistent efforts lead them both to the doorstep of a journey that neither could have foreseen. Spanning the eventful years of young love, marriage and family, THE CHOICE ultimately confronts us with the most heartwrenching question of all: how far would you go to keep the hope of love alive?.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member DubaiReader

Not Sparks at his best.

I have read some beautiful books by Nicholas Sparks but this one didn't grab me at all. The relationship between Gabby and Travis at the beginning was repetetive and tedious, I really didn't want to read furthur or care if they got together at all. The second part was a bit

more involving but the ending didn't surprise me, other than the fact that it was more cheerful than some of his other books.

Gabby is Travis's new neighbour and their fist meeting takes place when Gabby marches over to his house accusing his dog of fathering her dog's puppies. She has a boyfriend and is not looking to complicate her life. I turns out that Travis is a vet and he is able to help when the delivery encounters problems. The inevitable 'choice' has to be made between Travis and the boyfriend, who we are never really encouraged to like.
A second, more interesting 'choice' is made in the second half of the book but I don't want to spoil the story by giving any more away, suffice to say it's not a choice any of us would ever want to have to make.

This is a light beach read, not up to Sparks's usual standard. If you're new to Sparks I'd recommend A Walk to Remember rather than this one.

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LibraryThing member irishwasherwoman

Another quick, light read from Nicolas Sparks. Throughout the book the reader is lead to believe that the choice to be made is between two lovers. However, that was the easy part. The last quarter of the book deals with a more difficult choice. Sparks is at his best when the ending comes out of

nowhere (a la "The Wedding") and that is the strength of this book. In this case there were a lot of issues that were conviently dropped or tidied up, such as caring for puppies, the other boyfriend's reaction to the choice, and the finale. Not the best and hoping for better.

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LibraryThing member syoder11

Nicholas Sparks let me down with this book. I guess after some of his others we just expect great things from him. This book was slow getting going and then very predictable. If you haven't read it yet, don't waste your time. Sorry Nick, better luck next time.

LibraryThing member ashley_schmidt

Not his best. I'm an avid Sparks reader, and I love, love, love his books, but this one just seemed to be missing something. It was a quick read, cute and entertaining, but not one of my favorites.

LibraryThing member lrobe190

This was a typical Sparks book...romantic, humorous, emotional. I enjoyed it and wanted to keep reading it, and the ending was a surprise but when I was finished, I felt like there wasn't much substance to it.

LibraryThing member gogglemiss

This is divided into two parts. First half iis the meeting and courtship of Travis and Gabby, the second half is their marriage. Then they are both involved in a car crash which leaves Gabby in a coma and Travis with some tough decisions to make.
Nicholas Sparks presses all the right buttons to make

us care and identify with the characters and he doesn't disappoint.

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LibraryThing member coldwatersharps

An easy read. I read it in two days. The book really makes you think and fall in love all over again...

LibraryThing member skokie

A quick read by Sparks that is similar to his other books. I couldn't help but wondering throughout the book if I was reading more into the book than was intended. The book seems to really toe the line between being a book tackling existential issues versus being a dime-a-dozen romance novel. It

would be fun to discuss in a group.

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LibraryThing member helenvigg

Wonderful again. Nicholas Sparks knows how to write about true love and succeeds again in The Choice.

LibraryThing member HippieLunatic

The Choice is not the type of book I would normally pick up on my own, but whenever someone has the compassion to share a book with me, I feel it is my duty to read it. (Those free early reader books are good examples of this.) A co-worker brought it into my office a couple of weeks ago. "I know

you like to read, and I loved this." So, I finished what I was working on at the time (Cat's Eye) and picked it up.

I know that I like Sparks. I loved The Notebook and A Walk to Remember (movies). So, I started reading, wondering where the unique voice was. It felt a bit cliche (as many people would argue most of his best selling books are) and didn't seem to have the zing I normally crave, even in chick lit.

Then, the twist comes. Gabby and Travis are in a car accident. Gabby is hurt severely (coma), Travis more minorly (broken arm). And my history comes flooding in. Now, my experience was far from the characters'. My trauma lasted a short time, and I was up and walking within weeks. Gabby is comatose for over 12 weeks and it becomes known that she had requested to be let go should something like this ever happen to her. Travis has to make a choice: follow through with Gabby's predetermined choice to have feeding tubes removed, or keep up with the displays of love and dedication he has shown through their history and especially the past 12 weeks.

But... it still hit home. Would I have wanted to be let go if I had been more damaged in the accident? Would I now, now that I have the two children that Gabby and Travis do in the novel? Would I be able to ask Kris to let go, be able to demand it of him?

I'll think about it now, but I can't see myself making the choice, nor asking Kris to promise one choice over another. Though I realize that as an adult, I really should have that choice ready and legally binding. Damn adulthood.

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LibraryThing member sharlene_w

Sometimes a bit too predictable, but still enjoyable. A thought-provoking twist at the end leaves one to wonder what choice they would have made if faced with similar circumstances.

LibraryThing member lincroft

I like Nicholas Sparks. I liked the first part of the book better than the last part and it was predictable but where would the world be without happy endings?

LibraryThing member jacketscoversread

White perusing Barnes & Noble for birthday book ideas I saw The Choice by Nicholas Sparks. I’ve read a couple of Sparks’ books and really enjoyed them, so I thought I’d give this one a shot. I keeping with my mom’s you-can-get-it-from-the-library mentality, I looked it up and checked it

out.
The Choice reminded me a bit too much of The Notebook, also by Nicholas Sparks. To the point where I felt that Gabby telling Travis that it isn’t as simple as just telling Kevin that she is in love with Travis was the same conversation Allie had with Noah about Lon.
My friend Hannah would have you believe that there are only 6 books in the world. The rest are just re-tellings of the same six stories. The farther and farther I got into this book, the more I started to believe her.
Until, that is, it is unveiled that Gabby and Travis were in a car accident. After walking away with a broken arm, Travis awakes to find out that his wife is brain damaged and probably never wake up. The story unfolds that after 12 weeks of her lying the hospital, Travis now has to make the decision to let her go or move her to a nursing home for permanent care.
And top of that, Gabby has asked to be let go.

“How far should you go in the name of love?” ({pg. 378)}

I liked the last 100 pages of the book but the first 300 just sounds like a rehashing of The Notebook in today’s times.

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LibraryThing member SamiraHodges

Good, light read. I wasn't expecting "the choice". I assumed the book was about marriages and divorce (it's not). Overall, it's a nice tale but I liked his other novels more.

LibraryThing member lgaray91

The Choice by Nicholas Sparks was a great, light read. At first I wasn’t too fond of it but as I got into it I grew to like it more and more, and by the end I loved it. Gabby moves to Beaufort to be closer to her boyfriend, so their love can progress, with the wish that every girl has – to get

married. Gabby’s discovers her next door neighbor is easy on the eyes; he seems to have a great carefree personality, and loves to have a great time. A nice portion of the book was about them slowly growing closer to each other. Gabby would try to ignore the feelings toward Travis because she already had a boyfriend. Travis was true, loving, caring, fun, romantic – he didn’t hide his feelings towards her. Later in the book Gabby makes her decision, she makes a choice. Then we see their lives progress, and one day life flashed before their eyes. Travis and Gabby were in a car accident, leaving Gabby in a coma. Travis honored his word of marriage during this time, I grew a new respect for him. He visited her every day, bringing her flowers, pictures, books. He’d often read to her, tell her about his day. Tell her how the kids were doing. He’d help the nurses with her physical therapy so her body wouldn’t experience atrophy. He never left her – he tried everything he could. He never lost hope. The story really turned when Travis is forced to make a big decision. After 12 weeks of Gabby lying in the hospital, Travis now has to make the decision to let her go or move her to a nursing home for permanent care. What makes it so hard on Travis was not only did he love her, but was what Gabby had wanted. He had to decide whether or not to follow Gabby’s living will and remove her from her feeding tube or to keep love alive. The last chapter of the novel posed a great question, ““How far should you go in the name of love? ” The ending was very powerful, it really made me think “what would I do?” I really enjoyed reading this book. You can really relate this book to your life, which allows you to think about a deeper meaning. I recommend this book to anyone!

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LibraryThing member loubigfish

Sparks has a way with his characters ...they are always excitng and romantic. THe story line is full of twists and turns and makes you want to read more and more. I did enjoy the book and it get you thinking about real life and the choices you need to make....

LibraryThing member SherylHendrix

Enjoyed this book that highlighted several "choices" facing the two main protagonists and how they resolved them - as always Nicholas Sparks keeps you reading:)

LibraryThing member dbhutch

I started to read this story and it mislead me to a wonderful story. This story goes thru love, loss, and back to love again. As Travis is ready to make the most important choice in his and his young daughter’s lives but as life would have it fate stepped in and brought Gabby back to him from her

coma. This is a wonderful story of what love can do.

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LibraryThing member monilovesmocha

This book started out slow in chapter one, but rapidly progressed from that point on. I felt that laid-back Travis and feisty Gaby were a great character match, and the twists and turns in their love story were sensitively handled by Sparks. One of his most delightful stories, in my opinion, and

the first one of his I've read where one of the two main characters doesn't die at the end, which was a refreshing change!

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LibraryThing member snuri

In this novel, Nichols Sparks does a seemingly wonderful job describing the love of two neighbors sparked only within a week. It shows how love truly is spontaneous and how seizing the day by every moment is something everyone needs to take for granted because you never know when you or your loved

one could be gone. The love his characters Gabby and Travis have is indescribable but Sparks manages it well. However, this love leads to a difficult choice in the end but because of it, it prevails.

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LibraryThing member samicat24

This is not one of Nicholas Sparks's best books. I had to skim through parts of it just to get through it.

It is about a woman and man who live next door to each other, fall in love and then they get into a car accident. She goes into a coma, he has to make "the choice" on whether or not to pull

the plug. He decides not to, even tho she made him promise if that ever happened to her to pull it, and then, of course, she comes out of the coma and they live happily ever after.

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LibraryThing member cmeilink

This was a pretty soft read. Gabby moves in next door to Travis, a handsome, carefree man. Woman has dog. Man is vet. Woman's dog is having puppies. Man comes over to help. The story develops pretty much as expected from there. Of course, there is an obstacle that lies in the way of the neighbors

moving forward--Gabby's current boyfriend--but the lovers are destined to be together.

The choice Travis faces at the end of the book and the ultimate outcome is pretty much expected. Not one of Sparks' best works, but Ok for a quick read on a rainy day.

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LibraryThing member lobsterclaws

The epitome of an unrealistic romance, everything is too perfect. I feel like Kevin without any resolution to my plot line. Totally fails to deliver what is expected of a Nicholas Sparks novel.

LibraryThing member Jenilee

A great love story, maybe a little far out of reach. I am not sure if I could really fall in love with another in the spand of a weekend but it was a light read. I thought the ending was going to end in the typical way you would think but Nicholas gives you a twist that turns the book around.

LibraryThing member bbellthom

An unrealistic read, I like the topic it was handling but it failed to deliver. There was so much detail in the beginning (the one weekend) of their relationship that I was saying come on already let’s get moving. I thought “The Choice” was going to be whether Gabby chose Kevin or Travis but

it wasn’t. I thought that once the book got to the topic of living wills and a person’s wishes that it feel short. The book ended abruptly without letting the reader know how Gabby felt about Travis’s decision. Nicholas Sparks did do a wonderful job making the reader see how much Travis loved Gabby but it was just a little too unrealistic for my tastes.

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