The Guardian, by Nicholas Sparks

I don't know why, but I read another Nicholas Sparks book. This one was a little different from his others that I read because the tragedy that the couple goes through in this book isn't a disease, but a stalker. This guy takes stalking to new levels and almost moves The Guardian from romance to horror. But not quite. The romance is still too cheesy.

This is a Nicholas Sparks book so it shouldn't come as a surprise that there is one character who died of cancer. He's dead before the book starts but if he hadn't died the whole story never would have happened. The unlucky duck here is Jim, Julie's late husband. Four years after his death she is ready to date again. She starts seeing Richard, a sophisticated engineer, but isn't very into it, so breaks it off. Then she dates Jim's best friend, Mike, who is the typical best friend character type and the two hit it off. Then Richard goes all psycho on Julie. Of course, there's also a bunch of supporting characters whose only goals are to show how awesome the other characters are. "Look at his relationship with his brother. That's so nice!" "OMG, she is such a good friend." You get the point.

I almost forgot-there's a dog too. I think the dog is her husband reincarnated but I can't be sure. I think that would be taking it a genre too far.

3.2 stars. Eh.