The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks

The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks


                Oh, how the mighty have fallen. I went through an entire Nicholas Sparks phase where whenever I needed a lighthearted easy to read, romance novel I turned to him. The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, The Lucky One and countless others were quite enjoyable and great at passing the time. I was a Sparks fan. I bought The Best of Me earlier this year thinking I would give him a shot again. Then I did a quick browse through my Nook and realized that I already owned it. A look back at a prior reading list showed me that I had already read it too. Well, this didn’t look good at all. But I decided to pick up and read it anyway since I remembered absolutely nothing.
                Here is what happened: A teenager from the wrong side of the tracks dated a girl on the right side of the tracks and her parents hated him. His family had a really bad history and you know, in a small town, family means everything. They break up because he knows she can do better. The teenage guy ends up in a jail after the teenage girl goes off to college. Over twenty years pass. She is married. He is not. His family is still horrible. Her family still dislikes his family. They are still in love. Drama ensues. Tragedy happens. The end.

                Sparks isn’t a bad writer. He is actually a really good writer. He just has to weave together extravagant and unnecessary plot lines. This whole story was ridiculous and unnecessary. I didn’t care about any of the characters. He couldn’t forgive himself for his past mistakes. She was a grown woman still acting like a little girl scared of her mother. Then in the background you had his crazy cousins running around wanting to find him and kill him. I didn’t care at all about this novel. I read it because I was hoping to feel that spark (pun intended) that I used to feel when reading Sparks novels. I realized after reading this for a second time that I hadn’t read a Nicholas Sparks book since reading this one for the first time in 2012. This is November of 2015. I give this a 2 out of 5 stars. 

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