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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