Erin was a brave young woman who had started a new beginning in Southport, North Carolina after she ran away from her abusive husband. When fleeing from her husband, she changed her name to Katie to make it harder for her to be found. She rented a small cottage, out of the way. It wasn’t too much, but just enough for her. She began a new job working as a waiter at the local restaurant in town called Ivan’s. As Katie started her new life, she met many new friends, but always kept the right amount of distance to keep her old life buried. Until one day her deepest secret is exposed. In the book Safe Haven, not everybody is who they pretend to be; many people have secrets just like Katie, Kevin, and even Jo.

Katie has a pretty dark, haunting secret. A secret that is ever so reminiscent of her husband, Kevin. He was an abusive alcoholic and never let her do anything alone. He would beat her up daily by squeezing her arms, punching her in the stomach and back, and hitting her almost everywhere. She had bruises on her wrists that were shaped like fingers. There was a constant throbbing pain in her back. With all of the aching and pain she had, she would keep herself from crying because that only made him angrier. Her neighbors nor anyone knew that this was happening. Once she had run away from him, she had met a widowed man named Alex. He had 2 kids named, Josh and Kristen. He was the owner of the local convenience store. They then soon began to grow a romantic relationship. Eventually, Katie reveals her past to Alex. He was super supportive, loving, and always there for her during all of the tough times Katie had. Alex wondered why she did not seek help from the police. Katie then explains to Alex that Kevin is the police.

Kevin has a few secrets as well that no one but Katie knows about. One is that he is abusing Katie. He is also very controlling towards her, not letting her learn how to drive and not allowing her to get a job. The second secret of his is that he is also a heavy alcohol drinker, buying two water bottles per day then dumping the water out and pouring vodka into them, causing him to be more of an unkind person. Kevin is a police detective and typically police are supposed to be the nice people that protect, serve, and keep other people safe. Kevin’s final secret is that he is not one of those good kinds of police because of all of the unacceptable things he has done to others and even himself. Eventually, his boss finds out about his drinking problem and the abuse he had done towards Katie and then gets fired. Once Katie ran away, Kevin came looking for her, wanting to kill her. Alex helped Katie out and when Kevin did come, they managed to stay safe. All along Alex was unaware of another person that was keeping Katie safe as well, her befriending neighbor, Jo.

Jo has a secret that makes Katie’s life a whole lot better. Alex was married to Carly Jo, but people called her Jo. She passed away from cancer a couple years after Kristen was born. Jo came into Katie’s life as a ghost, yet Katie had no clue that she even was one. Jo befriends her and gets Katie and Alex to fall in love. She did so because she wanted someone so loving and caring like Katie to replace her as Alex’s wife and be the mom of her two beautiful children. Before Jo died, she had written letters for her children that they would open in present days like the following: graduation day, Josh’s eighteenth birthday, Kristen’s wedding day, etc. Jo even wrote a letter, “To the woman my husband loves.” The day Alex was ready to give that letter to Katie, she read it and found out that Jo hadn’t been there all along and that she was also Alex’s wife.

From Katie’s dark haunting secret to a few of Kevin’s and even Jo’s secrets that make Katie’s life a whole lot better, tell us that some people aren’t always who they pretend to be. So would that change your mind when thinking about some people? It probably would have been hard to tell that Katie was going through these things when she first arrived in Southport. Meeting all of these new people but still keeping enough distance from them. With the help of Alex, she finally learns how to love and trust again. Alex had told her “There is no safer place for you than for you to be with me.” I would highly recommend Safe Haven, written by one of the world’s most beloved storytellers, Nicholas Sparks. All of his books have been New York Times bestsellers. Fans of one of his best-known stories, The Notebook, would really enjoy Safe Haven too.