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The Wedding, Nicholas Sparks
Time Warner
Reviewed by Jan Treliving-Brown (Courtesy of Taranaki  Daily News)

You know how the American romance genre can border on syrupy?  While Days of Our Lives and co romp shamelessly over the border, Nicholas Sparks manages to hover very close, avoiding the Mills and Boon line by a whisker.

Fans will previously have read, if not all seven bestsellers, then at least The Notebook, Message In A Bottle and Nights In Rodanthe. The Wedding sees Sparks pontificating on the subject of marriage: "...all I could think was that thirty years of innocent neglect had made my love seem like a lie, and it seemed like the bill had finally come due. We were married in name only. I was dying on the inside, aching for all that we'd lost, and as I stared at our wedding photograph, I hated myself for allowing it to happen."

Thoroughly devoted (read boring) tax attorney hubby Wilson Lewis realises almost too late that he had better set about re-wooing his wife Jane before she scarpers, disillusioned. Romance abounds – Wilson and Jane's daughter is getting married. It's a good time to cultivate some sensitive new-age behaviour. How hard can it be?  Wilson has a superb mentor in his doting father-in-law, Noah.

Nicholas Sparks writes simply, economically, sensitively – and if you can stomach this brand of emotional intensity, read anything by Sparks. Not much actually occurs - it's spare, intimate, soppy entertainment with a truly clever twist at the end. I can't believe I didn't see it coming.