Review: Dear John

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"What does it truly mean to love another?... I fell in love with her when we were together, then fell deeper in love with her in the years we were apart"

John Tyree on the outside seems like a normal crew cut soldier, an isolated and rebel teenager who enlisted in the army to get his act together for his future. His father is also a very isolated and particular man, in which persuades John to enlist as well. His father's only joy is his coin collection, in which John took great interest in as a child, but as he matured, he believed there were far more important things than bonding with your lonely father. During a furlough in 2000 when he returns for a week in his hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina, he spent his day surfing at the beach. While sitting on the pier, he said hello to a brunette and he "heard something friendly and understanding in her voice, something akin to coming home...". Her bag filled with all of her belongings fell into the ocean, and John made a darn good first impression by retrieving her bag in the ocean for her.

"Up close, she was more beautiful than I'd first realized, but it had less to do with the way she looked than the way she was. It wasn't her slightly gap-toothed smile, it was the casual way she swiped at a loose strand of hair, the easy way she held herself..."

After John's rescue of Savannah's bag, she offered him to eat dinner at their rented house right along the beach, in which he complied. She described to him that the 20+ college students living at the home were to build houses as she was for a club at her school, but Savannah simply had a heart for the family that desperately needed the home, where the other sum of college students wanted a spring fling of sorts on the beach. Savannah and John soon begin to fall for each other, and in the single week they were together, it was pure bliss for the two of them, and it was a heartache for John to return to Germany for a year. On the last night before John leaves, Savannah takes him to the house she is in the midst of building where she finally tells him she loves him. This part is the crucial part of their relationship because they both feel the same way about each other, oh and because there will be tears shed here as well. When Savannah herself brings up wanting to visit John's father, it is so sentimental and remarkable that you can't help but fall more in love with Savannah and John. (I am intentionally leaving a lot of there week together out because I do not do this book justice, their chemistry is so relatable and you can't help but fall in love with their relationship).

"She had the rare ability to be exactly what people needed when she was with them and yet still remain true to herself. I couldn't think of anyone who remotely resembled her in appearance or personality, and I wondered again why she'd taken a liking to me."

"One instant we were talking, and in the next she leaned toward me. For a second, I wondered whether kissing her would break the spell we both were under, but it was too late to stop. And when her lips met mine, I knew that I could live to be a hundred and visit every country in the world, but nothing would ever compare to that single moment when I first kissed the girl of my dreams and knew that my love would last forever."

On one of their final days together before John's leave is over, Savannah gifts John a book to help John on his relationship with his father. He totally flips out and takes her intentions the wrong way. She is simply wanting to help John with his troubles. On the way out, he punches Savannah's best friend, Tim, and back home he ventures. The best of him starts to read the book and he can't help but be aware of his father and his relationship. He apologizes to Savannah and leaves for Germany on a good note (Also, the letter Savannah leaves John with makes you cry uncontrollably, just an FYI)

While John is in Germany for the next year, Savanah and he exchange phone calls and letters nonstop, like every week, and each one is better than the last. After counting down the days, his leave is fastly approaching, and he can't wait to be in Savannah's arms. The day finally comes, and Savannah is waiting with open arms! However, since John has been gone, Savannah's life seemed to continue, and she is busy with school and all of her friends and appears to have no time for John. Fast forward, John returns back to Germany and they realize that they both still love each other more than any two people can.

Okay, so this is the heart wrenching and cry worthy part that will stick with till eternity... John is in the twin tower attacks of 9/11 and days after, he receives a letter from Savannah that she loves someone else, and she is unwilling to keep their relationship. She says its too hard on her and she is tired of waiting for something that is never going to be there. John is completely heartbroken (and so is the reader), and he decides to extend his time in the army. His father soon after dies as well, and he plays a crucial role in his life with Savannah at the end. John returns to Wilmington for his father's funeral, and instinct tells him to drive to Savannah's ranch. He finds where she lives, and sees that she is married. I am not going to say anything else except that this book is one to remember. The end is very unexpected and it will leave you crying as much as I did. I hope you treasure this read as much as I have!!



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Review: My Sweetest Escape

My Sweetest Escape by Chelsea M. Cameron
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"A guy wearing a baggy hoodie and equally baggy jeans jeans over torn-up high-tops was looking at me like I was something he'd never seen before. He had darkish skin, cropped black hair, but the most astonishing green eyes. They popped in his face, especially since they were fixed on me"

Jos Archer was once the girl with the perfect life- she wore proper clothes and made good grades in school, and her whole life was ahead of her, until the night it came crashing down in flames. Nine months later, she is reckless, parties all the time, gets drunk, and does not have a strong well being for a 19 year old. She is hiding a secret she will not even expose to her older sister, Renee, who she is forced to live with after her dangerous lifestyle.

At the first moment she arrives at her sister's house who she shares with three different couples, she feels like the odd man out because of her transferring schools and not being in love, not that she wants to be anyway. On an occasion of tagging along with her sister's volunteer work at the hospital, she tumbles across handsome, smiley, and snarky Dusty Sharp. As fate as it, Dusty is a friend of Renee, and so he hangs frequently around where Jos lives. Her guilt and worry of her past resurfacing (which I won't spoil), causes her to not be interested in love. She feels as if she doesn't deserve it. However, as she spends more and more time around Dusty, and with the help of her new best friend Hannah, Dusty seems to pull Jos out of her shell.

"He leaned, and I leaned and we leaned and my head was spinning and I was afraid I was going to go off balance, but I was falling just as much into his eyes...

For Jos in this situation, she is at conflicting attitudes. With her strict sister keeping her eye on Jos 24/7, how will Dusty and Jos become he couple they are both afraid to begin? Similar to Jos, Dusty hides a dark past that he hides with his optimistic and self-confident attitude. And also like Jos, he has never told a soul about his fears and not wanting to face reality of his past.

"This was only a completely different planet compared to all the there kisses I'd had before. Those had been... adequate. Serviceable. Good enough. Kissing Dusty was like.. quenching a thirst I'd been living with my entire life. And once I got one drop, one taste, I knew I wanted more. I kissed him like I was drinking him in, taking him and making him a art of me. This was a life-altering kiss."

Both Dusty and Jos share a connection they have never felt before, and when Jos finds a picture of Dusty with his brother, she flips out. (This is part of her dark past). However, once Dusty and Jos share their secret that they have been hiding for so long, they realize they having the shared experience brings them closer together than ever before.

"A beautiful mess I don't know how I got myself roped into..."

Jos and Dusty's story is so sentimental and caring it is not hard to sympathize with their heartaches and troubles. They seem as if they were meant for each other, and you can't help but cry tears of joy at the end because they had been through so much together. I truly hope the you enjoy this book as much as I did!




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Review: The Best of Me

The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Everyone wanted to believe that endless love was possible. She'd believed it once, too, back when she was eighteen..."

Amanda Collier and Dawson Cole grew up in the same town during their childhood, but they couldn't be any different if they tried. Where Amanda grew up in a rich and supportive home, Dawson's life consisted of what seemed to be "the survival of the fittest", where he was beaten by his father, cousins, and his mother left early in his childhood. Dawson eventually began to live in the garage of a man named Tuck Hostetler, who soon plays a role in their love story. In the spring of 1984 though, Amanda and Dawson fall deeply and irrevocably in love, and their love seemed to defy the realities of their lives in the small town of Oriental, North Carolina. After Tuck passed, both Dawson and Amanda cross paths 25 years later, where they both end up at Tuck's home where they spent time together as teenagers.

"He'd loved Amanda once and he'd never stopped loving her, and spending time with her tonight hadn't changed that simple truth.

After attending Duke University as Amanda was guided to do by her parents, she married a man that she wishes were Dawson instead. After 4 kids, 1 passed from cancer that separated her husband and herself further apart. Her husband, Frank, began to drink heavily, and it caused problems in the family with her kids and her relationship with Frank as well. At a point, it seemed to be two individual adults living under the same roof, with no connection. So Amanda and Dawson rekindle their love for one another during the weekend of Tuck's funeral. They separately plan to pay their respects for Tuck and leave, but the total opposite happens.

"With Dawson, she was reminded of what it was like to have her thoughts divined before she uttered them. When they were young, a momentary glimpse or the subtlest of gestures had often been enough to signal a world of thought and emotion."

Amanda nor Dawson have lived the life that had imagined, and neither of them can forget the passionate first love that forever changed their lives. Over the course of the weekend, they both seem to realize that they are meant for each other, but they both respect the fact that Amanda is married with 3 children. Trouble brews around Dawson, as his cousins and family discover that he is in town and they plan to kill him any way possible.

"He still loved her, she was certain of that now, and the realization was intoxicating. She knew it was wrong, and she tried to force the feeling away, but Dawson and their past had taken root once more, and she could no longer deny the simple truth that for the first time, she'd felt like she'd finally come home."

The plot of this book is so unexpecting and I really do not want to spoil the real honest and true parts of the novel, but Dawson's past changed his life. While working at the oil rigs, an explosion caught him off guard, and he was supposed to be dead, but he miraculously survived. A ghost follows him around ever since the accident, but even more so while in Oriental. Near the end, this ghost directs him to a place that will forever alter his life, as well as Amanda's. After her time with Dawson is gone, she spends time with her unsympathetic mother, when the worst thing for a mother occurs, her oldest son and her husband were in a car accident (ultimately caused by Frank's drinking). So her son is on the rink of death, and the doctors need a heart transplant for him to survive. I'm not going to say it, but I bet you can guess who's heart it is... :'(.

My review does this book no justice! This book has so many elements in it that make it a masterpiece. Like most of the book I read, I cried, laughed, and was grateful that I read this book. The ending makes you uncontrollably sob, but this book is so so worth it. Dawson and Amanda's love for each other is so natural, and it is truly heart wrenching when they do not get to be together at the end. :)

"I gave you the best of me..."









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