Mrs Mo's Review: Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson

I have never had such an emotional reaction to a story as I had today when I read Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson. Patterson, one of the most successful crime/mystery/suspense writers has a collection of books that explore matters of the heart. This story has an autobiographical element to it. Patterson suffered personal tragedy in his 30's when a woman he was in love with died 2 years after discovering that she had a brain tumor.

Getting back to the story itself:

Katie is a woman who has just been dumped by Matt, or so it seems to her. The love of her life up and left without any reason except that he wasn't ready. Then, one day in the midst of her own period of mourning, she receives a package from Matt with a diary enclosed. A diary, written by Suzanne for Nicholas, both of which are or were Matt's wife and child. As Katie's reads the diary, she meets Suzanne and gets to like her. She wonders if Matt cheated on her, left her, if she left him, if she died, and so on. She reads about Suzanne and Matt's courtship, marriage and birth of their child Nicholas.

Without divulging details of the story, I will only say that Katie discovers something about herself that links her to Suzanne indefinitely and from Suzanne she learns some valuable life lessons. And instead of being mad at Matt, you hurt, no you ACHE for him and want him to be happy.

By the end of the book, I was sobbing uncontrollably. Probably more than I did at the end of the Notebook movie. There I was, sitting on the front deck of my in-law's beach house with Maddy just inside the door, sleeping in her playpen with tears welling up behind my sunglasses. I was sniffling, trying not to be too loud for Rob to wonder what was wrong. But when I closed the book and came inside, the tears flowed and I gave Rob a big hug as he comforted me. Then, I bent over and picked up my smiling baby girl and gave her a big hug as well.

So, I guess this is both a warning and an encouragement to moms to read this book. As you approach the end, gather up some tissues. If you're child is at home with you, give him/her a hug and kiss and even if they squirm because mom is being weird and mushy. Oh well too bad!


If you want to read and discuss this book with other James Patterson fans, join the JP community at http://jamespatterson.ning.com/.

I also just found that this was made into a Lifetime movie starring Christina Applegate and her ex-husband Johnathon Schaech.