The Best of Me

Until this year, I had never read a Nicholas Sparks book. Based on recommendations, I bought 5 and read them all. After this one, I will never read another one. Plot was so predictable that it was boring. Ending was cruel.

The morals that Sparks weaves into this story:
(1) Women should stay with alcoholic husbands.
(2) There is no everlasting love because one person in the couple will definitely die before they can enjoy their love.
(3) There is only one true love in one's life.

*(2) and (3) are in all of his books.

I have to say, I told myself after "Nights in Rodanthe" that I would never read another one of Nicholas Spark's books because he tends to ALWAYS kill off the main character at the end. Let's see.... Walk to Remember, Message in a Bottle, Nights in Rodanthe, The Notebook (while bittersweet) -- main characters die at the end. I look to books to escape and while the stories are often told very well, and I like the characters, this has become really disappointing. You get to a point where you're finally happy about the story and then BOOM!, everything goes to hell and someone dies. If you want a happy ending and are looking to be inspired by hearing a true love story that ends making you feel happy, this is not the one.

This book has obviously been read before. I paid the extra few bucks for a new edition. I know it is not an expensive item but come on!

I have never had interest in chick flicks, but when my coworker asked me to watch the movie I thought, "I'll read the book first" (I love comparing the two). This was my first Sparks novel so I had low expectations, but I was VERY surprised at how much I enjoyed reading this story. I was on the edge of my seat wondering how the relationships would turn out and, well, I don't want to spoil anything. I will say, however, I always thought Sparks wrote "love" novels and while there is a bit of a love story in here, it's not as bad as I expected. The lack of sappy love and the suspense in the storyline is what brought this book to life for me. I'm keeping this one in the library.

First off, I am reviewing the story itself.

The main character, Dawson, works on an offshore drilling rig. The author did not take the time to properly research this industry, so if you are in or familiar with the oil and gas industry the beginning of the story will drive you nuts since much of it does not make any sense and is wrong/not how it actually works on a drilling rig. But fortunately that is a small part of the story & the rest of it is great.

I have only just started to read this.. awesome, but anyone who know his writing would know that

If you want to read a new released YA fantasy adventure trilogy novel check out Crepuscular Light In The Night. It's the first one in the series and it has all the right ingredients you want for a page-turning book with new creatures you've never heard about before. Dragon Vampires have been with us longer than Vampires have. The werewolfs and the Vikings have known about their secret for a long time. Now it's time to hear their story. Ones you start reading you will be hooked. Love, adventure, family, friendship and betrayal will leave you wanting more.
Crepuscular Light In The Night

I witnessed a miracle. A teenage girl.. put DOWN her cell phone for 4 entire days.. so she could read this book from cover to cover without being told to. No she wasn't grounded, or in trouble, she just wanted to read. Book was AMAZING. Would purchase again.

The Worst of Sparks
The book mirrors other of Sparks’ works and for someone who writes easy to read material he lacks originality or the ability to go in a new direction. I’ve read a handful of his books and find them all predictable leaving me with no desire to read more. While his writing style is easy to read I’m bored of reading the same set up: small town North Carolina, the female and male lead always ‘age well’, the female lead always has mother issues and of course, but it’s nothing the man can’t fix because he’s always just a tad better than her, and someone is always going to die - more often than not there’s going to be a ghost or a letter.
This book manages to recycle a few of his own books, an accident at the ‘bend in the road’ and the rich girl and boy from the n’er do well family recycles the Notebook. Once I reached the accident portion of the book early on I was so disappointed but having invested time already, hoped it would get better. Instead Amanda, the female lead spends most of the time in the book with her internal thoughts while Dawson’s character is flat, thinking of how he has little to offer in life but does little to change it and pines for two decades of the same girl - not uncommon for Sparks’ men. This leaves the characters with little interest as to why one would care for them and leaves the reader with an abundance of dull internal thoughts to skim over, making the book a faster read - which helps (skimming).
Ultimately Amanda’s mother is right, she is selfish. At the time of reading you don’t want to think that, but in the end (which is another point) the story is about satisfying Amanda’s happiness, everyone will sacrifice (even their lives) to make Amanda happy (because she’s not going to do it herself.)
In the end, ugh, Sparks tends to fail at endings. I don’t know if he loses interest and wants to move to another project by the time he gets to the end but it feels either rushed or anti-climactic. As is not uncommon for Sparks’ books, new characters get introduced in the last fourth of the book, characters we’re just meeting and have no reason to care about who take up a large section of the book when we should be wrapping up the characters we have invested so much time with. The overall theme throughout the book is that Dawson’s life should not be the predestine that is laid out for him but instead the book ultimately fulfills it for him, suggesting that if he does not fit in the perfect world laid out then he must die as there are no other choices for him. Amanda meanwhile must fit into the minivan, middleclass life securely solidifying what is ‘correct’ in the Sparks’ world. Meanwhile Tuck, the drive for this story is largely dumped about the time the new characters come in and while Amanda & Dawson spend much of the book vying for his advice post-mortem, once they get it they widely ignore it in the latter section of the book rendering Tuck’s character pointless. Above all else is the need to solidify Amanda’s choices as the right one and Dawson as a sacrifice when it’s all really just full of itself.
Other characters, Dawson’s ‘kin’ as they are so referred to are suggested to be ‘dangerous’ but they come across as anything but infected defects. Elmer Fudd has it together more than these two. Multiple chapters end with the idiotic pair ‘going after Dawson once and for all’ building some excitement that complete fizzles when it’s done so many times it comes a ‘crying wolf’. In the end the bad guys win, they are able to kill Dawson (their goal) who despite moving away from them, assisting in the carrying of another injured man is killed by Elmer Fudd at a distance while he is suffering from multiple head injuries (right….).
So the bad guys win and all the loss is for Amanda to complete her lack luster life of mediocrity and settling for less so she doesn’t have to suffer another loss of her own children. This is turn leaves the reader with a profound sense of mediocrity in the story, most of which is best when skimmed. The characters have no depth or honestly, any balls. Instead they’re pretty content to feel sorry for themselves, never make anything of themselves and wait for someone to have the opportunity to die to either end their life Dawson does little with (by his own admission) or to prolong another dull life, Amanda’s. The conclusion then leaves the reader with the feeling of blah, which is the best way to describe the entire novel.
One last note, the acknowledgements lists thanking his children who I found particularly creepy that he names his romantic leads after his children. I can’t imagine writing sexual encounter scenes using my own children’s names. To name they after sage like smaller character okay, but professing undying love with a sexual partner after your child’s namesake is just weird.

This book started out as a potential five-star rating. The story sucked me in from the beginning. I really liked Dawson and was rooting for him. Being raised by the dysfunctional Cole family, he still beat the odds and turned out decent. As for Amanda, I am undecided how I felt about her. I was so disappointed with the turn this book took. It was very apparent what was going to happen. *Spoiler Alert* I felt cheated as a reader to find out evil won in the end. Dawson, died by the hands of his low-life cousins, who finally got their way - ugh! If I wanted something so depressing, and hopeless, I'd turn on the nightly news! Nicholas Sparks - no thank you!!!