The Best of Me

Title: The Best of Me
Author: Nicholas Sparks
Read: January 28, 2014

Summary: THE BEST OF ME is the heart-rending story of two small-town former high school sweethearts from opposite sides of the tracks. Now middle-aged, they've taken wildly divergent paths, but neither has lived the life they imagined . . . and neither can forget the passionate first love that forever altered their world. When they are both called back to their hometown for the funeral of the mentor who once gave them shelter, they will be forced to confront the choices each has made, and ask whether love can truly rewrite the past. goodreads

Review: I feel like every review for a Sparks novels starts out with me stating that this was a typical Sparks novel. Everything that you expect to happens, happens. There is a love story with some ups and downs and all of his normal themes. Part of this irks me but part of it is safe and enjoyable. This book was by no means life changing but it was an easy love story. The irking part of Sparks is that sometimes I feel as though I've already read this story. This book for example is pretty much the exact same as the beginning of The Notebook. I've read the book and seen the movie and I have to admit, I loved the movie more. It's one of my all time favorites which I think just comes with the territory of being a girl in high school/college when the move came out. Not to mention Ryan Gosling. Swoon.

But back to this story! It's exactly like The Notebook. Two kids who fell in love when they were younger. One from a high society family and the other from the other side of the tracks. Her parents don't want her to be with him but she is anyway. They spend 20 years apart but them miraculously run into each other in their home town. Come on, Nicholas!!! I know you can do better! You write romance novels for a living for God's sake, there's more than one way to start a love story and you already told that one. That irked me!

The rest of the story is very different from The Notebook but still pretty predictable. If you are okay with that, as I sometimes am, it's definitely worth a read. But if you are looking for a great love story, look elsewhere. There are many more creative, passionate, believable stories out there if you need a good romance. In conclusion, I'm irked but I'll probably irk myself again by reading another one of his novels.