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Fiction. Literature. Romance. Suspense. HTML:In this #1 New York Times bestselling novel of first love and second chances, former high school sweethearts confront the painful truths of their past to build a promising future�??together. "Everyone wanted to believe that endless love was possible. She'd believed in it once, too, back when she was eighteen." In the spring of 1984, high school students Amanda Collier and Dawson Cole fell deeply, irrevocably in love. Though they were from opposite sides of the tracks, their love for one another seemed to defy the realities of life in their small town in North Carolina. But as the summer of their senior year came to a close, unforeseen events would tear the young couple apart, setting them on radically divergent paths. Now, twenty-five years later, Amanda and Dawson are summoned back home for the funeral of Tuck Hostetler, the mentor who once gave shelter to their high school romance. Neither has lived the life they imagined . . . and neither can forget the passionate first love that forever changed their lives. As Amanda and Dawson carry out the instructions Tuck left behind for them, they realize that everything they thought they knew�??about Tuck, about themselves, and about the dreams they held dear�??was not as it seemed. Forced to confront painful memories, the former lovers will discover undeniable truths about the choices they have made. And in the course of a single, searing weekend, they will ask of the living, and the dead: Can love truly rewrite the p… (more)
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Brittany B.
The Good: I really loved and appreciated the way Sparks took on the topic of alcoholism. He didn’t make the character the stereotypical dirty, violent, raging alcoholic. Instead he chose to showcase the character as a high-functioning alcoholic, a middle class, white collar, nice family man. I think Sparks made a great choice doing this because there are SO many families that experience alcoholism in a parent even though on the outside they may seem completely normal. Even successful, charming businessmen and women can fall into the traps of alcoholism. Sparks also did a magnificent job creating the worlds scariest brothers. Oh my. Ted and Abee Cole are some frightening characters. These are the type of guys who wouldn’t blink an eye at killing someone if they were provoked. They are the main character’s brothers and I don’t blame Dawson for hating his kin. There were actually passages that I cringed because the brothers were that creepy/scary. The one thing I ALWAYS love about Sparks books are the settings. I love the North Carolina southern-ish type of setting. He always describes the setting in such detail that I think I can visit North Carolina in my head rather than actually going there. It makes me want to move there!
The Bad: Okay. Besides being horribly predictable, this book is basically The Notebook/Message in a Bottle/Nights in Rodanthe mixed into one. Rich girl meets poor boy, they fall in love, girl is forbidden to see boy because her parents disapprove, boy and girl have fight, life goes on but both think about each other often, then something happens that brings them back together and they rekindle their “one true love” status but both believe things should go back to “normal” until one of them realizes that’s the wrong decision and then something tragic and bad happens and there is a sappy ending. Something else I’ve noticed is that the older I get and the more and more I read, the less and less Spark’s sentences seem unique. They seem a bit contrived, forced and cheesy honestly. I’m really not trying to dog on him because I truly do love him and his ideas, I’m just saying there are some things you don’t realize until you get older and the quality of his writing is one of those things. As far as the characters go, it’s hard to get attached to the characters because as far as I’m concerned, I’ve seen Amanda and Dawson in Sparks other novels. Whereas when I read The Notebook, Noah and Allie were such unique, different characters that I couldn’t help but fall in love with them. I also thought the character of Tuck could have been SO MUCH MORE. He was supposed to be this great character that represented the past for Amanda and Dawson but he just didn’t live up to the hype he was given in the first couple chapters. There’s a part where he leaves letters for Amanda and Dawson and Sparks builds up the scene like these letters are going to contain some serious information or advice and once the letters are revealed, they really aren’t anything great. I was highly disappointed.
Overall, I’m not denying the fact that I finished this book in a day and a half and that I plowed through it with intensity like I do for amazing books, all I’m saying is that this is a novel I’ve seen many times before, mostly from Sparks himself and I was hoping it would be a little different. I’m going to give this book a C.
The Best of Me starts out with Dawson and Amanda both making their way back to their hometown, they’ve been summoned by a lawyer after Tuck, their old friend and father figure, died. We quickly get a look at both of these characters, and learn a little about the person they were and how their lives have ended up. I found them both intriguing characters, particularly Dawson.
Whilst we only got to see Tuck through the eyes and memories of Dawson and Amanda I found that I really liked him as a character. I think I would have enjoyed reading a book about the younger Dawson and Amanda, and their relationship with each other and with Tuck.
The final third of the book felt to me quite different to the first two thirds. Characters who had not been featured very much start to take a more significant role and the narrative switches between them all quite rapidly. The twists and turns of the last few chapters unfortunately didn’t work for me, they meant the ending was very neat and tidy, and I saw them coming.
So, did I enjoy it? Yes, absolutely. Did I love it? No, the ending wasn’t really my cup of tea. Will I be reading more by Nicholas Sparks? Yes, I can see that my first experience with his books was not a true representation of them and I shall certainly be picking up some of his other books.
Dawson works on the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, 30 days on, 30 days off and has his money sent to places nobody could ever find if they tried.
When he was younger he fell in love with her, she was from the other side of the tracks and her father and mother held
Instead of going to unknown places with Dawson when school ended she took off to college, met her husband, now a dentist and an alcoholic with 3 kids, and one also had died from cancer.
He ended up in jail for an accident and he would send money to the the wife and kids of the guy he felt he killed. He had met Amanda through Tucker, who he lived with and had given him
a job fixing cars. Tucker had lost his wife recently and having Dawson there was good for him.
When Tucker died they both came to town and got time to talk to one another and were given instructions on the memorial service Tucker had wanted private and what to do with the things he owned.
Dawson was still having nightmares of an explosion that occurred on the oil rig. He keeps seeing the guy at different places, he knows he is seeing things and when he looks again the man is not there.
While at the cabin he tells her about his cousins, they are mean tempered.
She must return home and deal with family life again.
Love how the book all comes together at the very end, thus giving the title of this book true meaning.
When choosing books, I usually look for a good writer rather than a good story because I feel like a good writer can write any story and make it good. Mr. Sparks is just
In The Choice, each of the main characters must make a choice. One must choose between two men and the other must choose whether or not to pull the feeding tube on a coma patient.
In The Best of Me, high school sweethearts are reunited but their destiny is uncertain and, I must say, totally unpredictable. This one is reminiscent of The Notebook.
Like I mentioned before, I'm not usually into romance type novels but these are very well written and also very suspenseful. And both will keep you up late at night trying to find out what will happen next. I enjoyed them very much and I highly recommend anything by Nicholas Sparks. All of his books are National Best Sellers and three of them have been made into motion pictures.
Both were published by Grand Central Publishing.