58 pages • 1 hour read
Counting Miracles
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Background
Authorial Context: Nicholas Sparks
Nicholas Sparks is an American novelist. He has published 24 books, all of which have been New York Times bestsellers. Sparks established himself in the literary world and within the romance genre with his 1996 publication of The Notebook. This novel has since been adapted into a film and a Broadway musical production. Sparks’s subsequent novels include Message in a Bottle (1998), A Walk to Remember (1999), The Rescue (2000), A Bend in the Road (2001), Nights in Rodanthe (2002), The Guardian (2003), The Wedding (2003), True Believer (2005) and its sequel, At First Sight (2005), Dear John (2006), The Choice (2007), The Lucky One (2008), The Last Song (2009), Safe Haven (2010), The Best of Me (2011), The Longest Ride (2013), See Me (2015), Two by Two (2016), Every Breath (2018), The Return (2020), The Wish (2021), and Dreamland (2022).
After The Notebook, Sparks’s novels The Choice, The Longest Ride, The Best of Me, Safe Haven, The Lucky One, Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, Nights in Rodanthe, Dear John and The Last Song were also adapted into movies. Sparks has worked as a screenwriter and producer on numerous of these cinematic projects.
Many of Sparks’s novels take place in North Carolina, where the author has resided since his move to North Bern in 1989 with his then wife Cathy Cote. Sparks also co-founded The Epiphany School in North Bern and runs a nonprofit called The Nicholas Sparks Foundation, which provides “scholarships and fund educational programs for underprivileged and disadvantaged youth” (“About.” Nicholas Sparks). Sparks’s literary success has allowed him to contribute “more than $15 million dollars […] to deserving charities, scholarship programs, and projects” (“About”). Sparks’s other ventures and accomplishments include attending Notre Dame University and coaching track and field.
Genre Context: Contemporary Romance
Counting Miracles is a work of contemporary romance. The novel is reminiscent of Sparks’s preceding 23 novels, in that it features a central romantic relationship and explores how the characters’ complex pasts impact their lives in the present. Works of contemporary romance like Counting Miracles promise a happily ever after. Indeed, in Sparks’s 2024 novel, Tanner Hughes and Kaitlyn Cooper end up in a committed relationship by the novel’s end in spite of their challenges throughout the narrative.
True to the traditions of the genre, Counting Miracles uses tropes to inspire its primary conflicts and relationships. In particular, Sparks employs the forced proximity trope. In this scenario, two characters are compelled to spend time with one another due to unexpected or unprecedented circumstances. Over time, their physical proximity inspires romantic, sexual, and emotional connections between them. In Counting Miracles, Tanner finds himself trapped in Kaitlyn’s hometown of Asheboro, North Carolina when her daughter wrecks his car, and he’s forced to wait in town until the repairs are completed. These events challenge Tanner to remain in one place for longer than he’s used to and compel him to communicate with Kaitlyn on a semi-regular basis. In time, he and Kaitlyn develop feelings for each other.
Sparks also subverts the expectations of the genre by incorporating more complex narrative scenarios and toying with structure and form. Sequences from the third primary character Jasper Johnson’s storyline punctuate Tanner and Kaitlyn’s burgeoning romance and offer perspective on their connection and their personal pasts. The novel also shifts between the primary characters’ consciousnesses and toggles between the past and present. These formal aspects of Counting Miracles set it apart from other contemporary romance novels, and are characteristic of Sparks’s now iconic style.
The novel is reminiscent of other romantic titles including Salley Rooney’s Normal People, Annabel Monaghan’s Summer Romance, and Kristen Arnett’s Mostly Dead Things. Like Counting Miracles, Rooney’s, Monaghan’s and Arnett’s novels feature atypical romantic relationships and explore the entanglement of finding love and healing from trauma.
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