Safe Haven is a novel by New York Times bestselling author Nicholas Sparks. Written in 2010, Safe Haven was adapted into a movie of the same name in 2013. Like most of Sparks’s novels, the setting of this story is North Carolina. The author often uses his home state as a backdrop to his romances, incorporating the beauty and history of the state as a central motif. In this novel, Sparks contrasts the beauty and warmth of a North Carolina spring and summer against the frozen landscape of an East Coast winter. By doing so, Sparks expands on a theme of hope contrasted against a theme of despair. Other works by this author include The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, and The Longest Ride.

This study guide refers to the September 2010 Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc., e-book edition of this novel.

Plot Summary

Katie is a waitress at Ivan’s, a charming diner in the small town of Southport, North Carolina. She arrived in Southport with just enough money to put down a month’s rent on an old hunting cabin and not much more. She often visits a local store, Fisher’s, because it is close to her cottage. The owner of the store, widower Alex Wheatley, notices her right away. He makes several attempts to speak to her in his clumsy way, but she appears reluctant to interact with anyone but his five-year-old daughter, Kristen.

One day, while Alex is checking Katie out at the register, her attention is drawn to the security cameras that survey the dock. When Alex looks to see what has drawn her attention, he is spurred into action at the sight of his son struggling in the water. Seven-year-old Josh was dragged into the river when the line on his fishing pole got caught up on a departing boat. Alex jumps into the river and pulls his son out, grateful that his son is okay and for Katie remaining at the store to console his daughter during the ordeal.

Katie meets her new neighbor, Jo. One evening, they share a bottle of wine and Katie divulges to her new friend the story of a young woman who thought she’d met a great guy who saved her from a brutal attack, only to discover during their honeymoon that he was the real monster.

Katie begins spending more time with Alex and his kids. One evening, Katie tells Alex about the abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband Kevin, the ways in which he controlled her, and her decision to leave him. She also reveals that Kevin is a detective with the Boston Police Department and that her name is not Katie; it is Erin.

Jo, who seemed to push Katie toward Alex, suddenly warns her to leave Alex alone if she is not ready to fully commit to him. She decides to ask Alex to help her get her driver’s license, taking a first step toward making her life in Southport—and her Katie Feldman identity—permanent.

As Katie and Alex’s relationship grows stronger, Kevin searches for her. After a neighbor dies and he learns that Erin had a secret friendship with her, he begins to suspect Erin might have stolen the identity of the neighbor’s deceased daughter, Katie Feldman. Kevin’s friend runs a check on the woman’s name and comes up with Katie’s home address in Southport, as listed on her newly issued driver’s license.

When Kevin finally locates Erin at Alex’s home above the store, he watches the house, convinced Erin and Alex are laughing at him as they commit adultery in the bedroom. His strong Biblical beliefs remind him that fire purifies. For this reason, he decides to burn the house down around them.

Katie is alone in the house with the children when the fire starts, and she manages to escape with them. However, Kevin is waiting for her with a gun. Katie sends the kids away and confronts Kevin. They struggle, and Katie fights back for the first time. Alex arrives and knocks the gun from Kevin’s grip by slamming into his hand with his jeep. Kevin flees.

Alex and Katie realize that Kevin has gone to Katie’s cottage where Alex has just left the children. Katie confronts him with his gun which she picked up in the store parking lot. They wrestle with the gun, catching it between their bodies. Kevin pulls the trigger thinking the gun is pointed at Katie. Instead, it is pointed at him. Kevin dies.

Katie pauses outside Jo’s cabin, confused by the abandoned look of the place. She distinctly remembers Jo hanging a wind chime and repairing a shutter, but there is no evidence of that now. Confused, Katie wonders if she imagined her friend, Jo. However, when she reads a letter Alex’s deceased wife Carly wrote, she begins to understand the truth. Jo is Carly, who somehow transcended death to bring Alex and Katie together. Katie is reassured by the letter and decides she will do the best she can to fulfill Carly’s final wishes.