Book Review of The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks

The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks

Book Review: (SPOILER FREE)

Title & Author- The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks

Genre- Adult Fiction, Romance, Contemporary

Rating- 1.5/5

Synopsis- "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 the small town of Oriental, 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 to Oriental 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 two 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 past?"

Review- Ugh.  I read this book a while ago and I'm just now getting around to writing its review.  Well... actually, I've been putting it off.  Having to think about this book again makes me want to sleep.  If you have seen my goodreads updates, you'll know I literally fell asleep multiple times reading it.  You'll also notice that a lot of my updates/thoughts on the book have made it into this review (I frequently use my goodreads updates to write these reviews).

I was over halfway into the book and I wasn't even hooked.  I knew the future rating for it wasn't looking to good.  I was so tempted to skim through the entire last half of the book since the first half was so dull.

I bet you're wondering, "Did she cry at all in this book?"  The answer is no, I didn't cry.  Not because I'm not an easy cryer; I've read about ten books that have made me cry, three of which were written by Nicholas Sparks (I've only read four of his novels).  It's just, other than boredom and annoyance, I hardly showed any emotion throughout this book.  You'll see why as you continue to read my review.

Through out almost all of the story, I was uninterested and bored; I had no connection to it and I couldn't relate to any of the characters.  Yes, I get that this is a book for adults; the woman has three children and a husband.  I'm pretty sure they were in their late forties so I might not have completely understood the appeal to the book, but it just draggggggs on with boring detail, none of which I found very entertaining or intriguing.  It was a lot of telling and not enough showing.  All Sparks had done so far was tell me about Amanda and Dawson's past, how "it's always been..."  Nothing stood out as a reason for why Dawson loved her or why she loved him other than what was said about their past.  It was pretty much instalove.  

Also, I did not think it was necessary to add in all of those POVs.  I get that in some cases, it was necessary to the story.  But for a few other characters, I felt as if they were just making the book feel longer.  The only time I felt engaged was during Ted's POV. Yeah, he's an anti-feminist, incestuous asshole who was willing to do whatever meant necessary to get what he wanted but at least his character was complex/different.

No spoilers, I promised!  I just wanted to mention how much I disliked it.  Yes, it's good for drama but honestly, I felt like I wasted my time reading the book.  If the ending was good or at least less of an unrealistic, chaotic tragedy, I wouldn't have been so annoyed; it probably would've gotten a whole 2/5.  The book was so damn slow 95% of the time and then all of a sudden a lot of shit happens left and right.  Because of that, I would say this book is not worth your time.