Book Review - The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks

 

Published: September 11th 2014

Publisher: Sphere

Pages: 336

 

 

Blurb

 

They were teenage sweethearts from opposite sides of the tracks - with a passion that would change their lives for ever. But life would force them apart.

Years later, the lines they had drawn between past and present are about to slip . . . Called back to their hometown for the funeral of the mentor who once gave them shelter when they needed it most, they are faced with each other once again, and forced to confront the paths they chose. Can true love ever rewrite the past?

 

 

Review

 

This is the first Nicholas Sparks book which I have read although he has been on my list of authors to read for some time, so when I won a copy of this in a giveaway I was delighted, thank you Sphere and Little Book Café for this copy.

The Best of Me is the story of first love between Dawson Cole and Amanda Collier. They fall madly in love when they are teenagers but sadly are split apart when Amanda goes off to college and Dawson to prison. Years later they are reunited when their old friend Tuck dies and they come together to say goodbye. As the feelings come flooding back to them Amanda has to decide to give her love with Dawson one more chance or return to her husband and children.

I loved both of the main characters.  Dawson is such great male lead, very early on you realise just how much he seems to be driven by a sense of guilt and duty for events in his past and I think meeting again Amanda helped him to realise it was time to move on let it go. I bet he was an incredibly sexy brooding teenager so there is no wonder Amanda fell for him. Amanda seems to be a lovely person who is devoted to her family life even though her marriage to husband Frank does not seem ideal. When she meets Dawson again she is torn between following her heart and rekindling their love and her head telling her not to break her family up.

Dawson’s two cousins Abee and Ted for me added a comical touch to the book as they just reminded me of the two buglers in the Home Alone movie the way they could never quite get to Dawson and I’ll be interested to see who plays these characters in the movie.

This is a beautiful will they, won’t they story where you feel emotion of these two characters all the way through, which made my heart ache and the ending was not something I was expecting and it totally threw me and I wasn’t sure it was the ending I wanted but now I’ve thought about it for a few days it does seem a very fitting end to a beautiful love story.

After reading this I think I have caught the Nicholas Sparks’ bug and definitely need to read more of his work soon it’s magical.

Rating 5/5