Safe Haven Book Letter

(FIRST QUARTER OUTSIDE READING ASSIGNMENT)
Dear Mrs. Polatsidis, I am reading the novel, Safe Haven, written by the author of 5 best-selling books, Nicolas Sparks. This story takes place in Southport, a city in Brunswick Country, North Carolina. This is imperative to the story because Southport is typically a small area where everybody knows everybody. This becomes important in the story because it helps all the characters eventually connect with each other once they are able to find out information from other characters. This also helped Katie learn to love where she lives and gives her a sense of satisfaction of having something of her own, which is explained to the reader in chapter two, “it was the first time in her life that she had a place to call her own.” This is important and kind of gives a little bit of background about Katie in the sense that growing up she didn’t have much and this really symbolizes her starting over again. Living in a small town, many secrets aren’t kept which could potentially become a problem for some of the main characters. For example, Katie really isn’t open about what her reason is for moving to Southport besides her saying over and over again which is introduced as one of the first things she says to Jo after she asks, “Why on earth would you do that?” she isn’t able to give Jo a real response. This gives the reader a feeling that she is hiding something and gets me anxious to continue to read. If I were able to change where this story takes place, I probably wouldn’t do so because the fact that they live in a small unknown makes it even more interesting and raise curiosity for others as to why one of the main characters moved there. So far in the novel I have read about twelve characters. Some important, others not. The character that has stuck out in my mind the most is convenience store owner, Alex Wheatley. Alex not only seems like a good person, he also is a good store-owner, a loving and caring father, and was an adoring husband. Alex was married to who is described as a beautiful women named Carly. Carly died a couple of years back from a heart attack due to multiple brain tumors that could not be fixed. Alex is now responsible for taking care of his two kids, Josh and Kristen, and managing the store on his own. The store was given to him by his father-in-law, after Alex ended his career in the military once he moved to Southport with Carly. In the first paragraph of chapter three, I am told that he “his fully gray haired. He turned his way in his early twenties and it certainly was not a slow change”. I really enjoy reading about Alex because he gives a little twist to the story and makes Katie, another main character, really think about her feelings. Along with that, it is nice to see how Alex manages to keep everything in order and is successful with it too! Alex really brings his family together by doing little activities or keeping them occupied on the weekends. In chapter on page 53, after dropping off Katie at home and clearly thinking about his feelings for her, he thought about doing something for Katie. “I have an idea.” he says, “Let’s do something for Miss Katie!” and without a doubt in his mind he knew his kids would say yes. That just shows how close his family is and how Katie has not only grown on him but on his kids Josh and Kristen as well. He is a big part in what is happening in the story because he seems to be the only ones that is able to get though to Katie, who his kids call, “Miss Katie”. The way that this story is getting started starts from the main character Katie. Katie is a beautiful, self-effacing women who seems to lack confidence. She moved to Southport in order to escape her past and to “start over”, which is all she tells people when they ask why she would move to such a small town like this. Her exact response to her neighbor Jo after meeting her for the first time was, “I just wanted a place where I could start over.” I have a feeling that eventually Alex will be able to get the real reason out of Katie. Alex helps begin to open up Katie but this story is starting to show how Katie is falling in love and beginning to open up which is what she tried to avoid when she moved here. I feel as if things are going to get revealed about Katie as she gets more comfortable with Alex and other people from the town. I am so happy you recommended this book for us. It is an interesting read and it happens to be by one of my favorite authors. I have read a lot of books by Nicolas Sparks and as a matter of fact I cannot wait for the movie to come out also! I can’t wait to finish the novel and find out the mystery behind Katie.
Sincerely,
Sydney Rosenblum