7 reviews for The Best of Me
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The Best of Me
by Nicholas Sparks
Description:
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.
About The Author
Nicholas Sparks is one of the world’s most beloved storytellers. All of his books have been New York Times bestsellers, with over 105 million copies sold worldwide, in more than 50 languages, including over 75 million copies in the United States alone.
Sparks wrote one of his best-known stories, The Notebook, over a period of six months at age 28. It was published in 1996 and he followed with the novels Message in a Bottle (1998), A Walk to Remember (1999), The Rescue (2000), A Bend in the Road (2001), Nights in Rodanthe (2002), The Guardian (2003), The Wedding (2003), True Believer (2005) and its sequel, At First Sight (2005), Dear John (2006), The Choice (2007), The Lucky One (2008), The Last Song (2009), Safe Haven (2010), The Best of Me (2011), and The Longest Ride (2013) as well as the 2004 non-fiction memoir Three Weeks With My Brother, co-written with his brother Micah. His eighteenth novel, See Me, published on October 12, 2015. His newest book, Two by Two, will be published on October 4, 2016.
Film adaptations of Nicholas Sparks novels, including The Choice, The Longest Ride, The Best of Me, Safe Haven (on all of which he served as a producer), The Lucky One, Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, Nights in Rodanthe, Dear John and The Last Song, have had a cumulative worldwide gross of over three-quarters of a billion dollars.
In 2012, Sparks and his publishing agent and creative partner Theresa Park, launched Nicholas Sparks Productions, with Park as President of Production. A film version of The Guardian is currently in development, as is a film based on Football Hall of Famer Gale Sayers’s friendship with Chicago Bears teammate Brian Piccolo.
Sparks lives in North Carolina. He contributes to a variety of local and national charities, and is a major contributor to the Creative Writing Program (MFA) at the University of Notre Dame, where he provides scholarships, internships, and a fellowship annually. He co-founded The Epiphany School in New Bern, North Carolina in 2006. As a former full scholarship athlete (he still holds a track and field record at the University of Notre Dame) he also spent four years coaching track and field athletes at the local public high school. In 2009, the team he coached at New Bern High School set a World Junior Indoor Record in the 4 x400 meter, in New York. The record still stands. Click to watch the Runner’s World video with Nicholas.
The Nicholas Sparks Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit committed to improving cultural and international understanding through global education experiences for students of all ages was launched in 2011. Between the foundation, and the personal gifts of the Sparks family, more than $15 million dollars have been distributed to deserving charities, scholarship programs, and projects. Because the Sparks family covers all operational expenses of the foundation, 100% of donations are devoted to programs.
Skryf Review
“Excellent Book”
Sejal
In the novel, Dawson Cole returns to his hometown for the first time after twenty years to fulfill the last wishes of his dear friend and surrogate father, Tuck Hostetler. When he arrives, Dawson is surprised to find that Tuck arranged for Dawson’s high school girlfriend, Amanda, to join him in fulfilling these last wishes. In fact, it soon becomes apparent that Dawson and Amanda seeing one another again and perhaps rekindling their old romance is the main goal of Tuck’s final wish. However, Amanda is married and Dawson’s family, a group of notorious criminals, pose a danger that could alter not only Tuck’s plans but Dawson’s future irrevocably.The following day, Amanda and Dawson visit Tuck’s lawyer and learn that they are to scatter his ashes at a cabin he owned with his wife. This means another full day together. Amanda and Dawson have lunch together and discuss their plans. When Amanda goes home, Dawson remains at Tuck’s to repair a car Tuck was working on when he died. As Dawson works, he is unaware that his cousin, Crazy Ted, is stalking him with plans to kill him for a feud that began years ago. As Crazy Ted sneaks up to Tuck’s, Dawson sees the same man he saw the day of the oil rig explosion and chases him through the woods. This causes Dawson to find Crazy Ted’s truck and learn of his danger. Dawson confronts Crazy Ted, beating him and returning him to the family compound.Two years have passed since Dawson’s tragic death. Amanda has divorced her husband, who has started seeking counselling to repair their damaged marriage. Dawson’s cousins, Abee and Crazy Ted have been arrested and put in jail for murdering Dawson. Amanda also learns from her son that it was Dawson’s heart her son received as a transplant.
Angaan
After meeting the author Nicholas Sparks last October 28th here in Manila and get him to sign my book, i started reading his latest novel which is obviously entitled “The Best Of Me”. I tried so hard to refrain myself in reading this though it was really hard for me because i’m really curious about it. So here it goes, the book is definitely good! As the same as his other novels it is filled with flashbacks and old memories that in due time came back to the protagonists of the story. It was one of the most touching story I’ve ever read and it is also one of those who makes me cry the whole time. I finished reading it the other night at around 11pm and guess what?? my eyes are scorching red from tears after reading it. It makes me feel sad as well as happy because even in a small span of time while reading it i was able to fit myself in Amanda and Dawson’s shoes. I felt how they felt during the hard times and feel the happiness and love they feel whenever they are together. I guess this story just moves me a little for i’m a big sucker for romantic things and love. Silly me for crying at this but my tears just started pouring especially when Amanda (protagonist) says this lineIn all, Nicholas Sparks still never really fail to show the main aspects of his novels. There’s still the flashbacks, the memories, the tragedy and the everlasting love. This story would surely move you and touch those little heart strings of yours. YEY! 🙂
Pooja
The Best Of Me written by Nicholas Sparks is a beautifully written romance novel that will pull at all the appropriate heartstrings and leave you speechless.The novel follows Dawson Cole and Amanda Collier, teenage sweethearts who were once bound by a love so powerful, until such love drove them apart. However, fast forward twenty five years later when the two meet again after the death of their beloved mentor and find themselves embroiled in a much familiar love affair.The story of Dawson and Amanda is so touching to watch as Spark’s written ability makes it hard not to fall in love with each of them as each chapter passes. Dawson is a complex character who has cheated death so many times, he could be considered immortal. His love for Amanda never subsided, therefore seeing her after years of absence brings back all the feelings he once had. Whereas, Amanda has built a career and a family since leaving Dawson all those years ago and isn’t sure if she should risk her marriage for a long awaited encounter with Dawson.The Best of Me is Sparks’ seventeenth novel following the theme of both love and heartbreak. It is a moving story, but one cannot expect any less from the mastermind behind The Notebook and A Walk to Remember. Furthermore, one of the pleasures of reading a Sparks novel is that it does not matter whether you are a first time reader or an avid one, as no two books are the same so you are given the chance to fall in love with him all over again.I would recommend The Best Of Me to anyone who is a fan of romance novels.
Tisha
In his seventeenth novel, “The Best of Me,” Nicholas Sparks seems to have the romance novel formula down to a science. Attractive boy and girl from different sides of town meet and fall devastatingly in love? Check. Couple torn apart by war, parents, spouses, or traumatic past? Check. Shocking tearjerker ending? Double check. Sparks has mastered the art of writing novels that tug at readers’ heartstrings, evident from his novels selling over 77 million copies worldwide.In “The Best of Me,” Sparks adds the presence of unexplained mystical presences that help shape the characters’ lives. Ultimately, “The Best of Me” is about the characters being haunted –haunted by ghosts, past loves, and the possibilities of what could have been. But in the end, readers may be left feeling haunted by the somewhat undeveloped love story and overly dramatic conclusion.”The Best of Me” tells the story of Dawson Cole and Amanda Collier. Amanda is the popular Southern belle of the small town of Oriental, North Carolina, raised in an elite rich family who has high expectations and overbearing opinions. Laying the classic foundation for a tragic love story, Dawson is poor and born into a family that traditionally breeds “moonshiners and drug dealers, alcoholics, wife beaters, abusive fathers and mothers, thieves and pimps, and above all, pathologically violent” members. The two meet in high school and fall in love, but parental disapproval forces them apart. Twenty years later, we meet Dawson when an oil rig explosion nearly kills him. A mysterious vanishing “being” saves his life thus introducing the first element that haunts the characters – ghosts. Â
Harishruta
The two antagonists in the novel are Dawson’s cousins, Abee and Ted. Sparks seems to struggle with creating believable evil characters, probably because he is more accustomed to writing about men who wish to sweep women off of their feet as opposed to men who wish to sweep the floor with another man’s face. Indeed, his attempts to produce fearful enemies fall flat. It is difficult to feel threatened by a character who dates a girl named Candy, uses phrases like “shorty shorts,” or considers the nickname “little miss cheerleader” to be derogatory. Sparks uses these characters to heighten drama and ultimately create a heartbreaking ending, but it would have been better if they were characters that readers could really hate as opposed to just find plain annoying.In addition, Sparks does not focus too much on Dawson and Amanda’s young relationship, so it is hard to sympathize with and support their unrelenting forbidden passion for each another as adults. Readers instead must learn about the couple’s young love through flashbacks and tender reminiscences, not from being in the moment with the characters while their love is blossoming. Focusing on the couple twenty years after their relationship instead of giving readers the opportunity to witness it as it grows allows the novel to escape being a teenage romance story, but sacrifices adequate reader empathy towards the couple. At one point, Amanda’s mother worries that her adult daughter’s behavior with Dawson is a repeat of her rebellious teenage years, and it is difficult not to agree with her since Sparks only reveals the lustful surface of the couple’s connection.But Amanda and Frank are a married couple dealing with the untimely death of their child while raising three other children. Amanda and Frank’s relationship may not have the mind-blowingly lustful passion that Amanda feels with Dawson, but maybe because her twenty-year long marriage with Frank has been riddled with complications and emotions that she never had with Dawson. The novel might have fared better focusing on a marriage wrought with real-life pain as opposed to a teenage love reunion filled with anxieties of everything that never was.Nicholas Sparks is not known for having the most complex characters and impressive literary language. But the man sure knows how to make readers shed a tear. Despite “The Best of Me”’s melodramatic and far-fetched ending, it still manages to add an emotional punch like a Hallmark card. Fans of Sparks will enjoy this novel because it fulfills every desire they have to swoon and be shocked. But those Sparks fans looking for a fresh storyline will not find one in “The Best of Me”; they will find a recycled formula that has been proven successful millions of times over. Overall, Sparks’ seventeenth novel is an easy beach read, but it certainly could not be called the best of his work so far.
Skryf Review
Excelent Read
Nicholas Sparks has that unique quality of writing powerful, heartrending, memorable stories. While the genre of this book is tagged ‘romance’, one would be forgiven for thinking the main theme is love and romance. The themes are on love, yes, but also forgiveness. The characters are perfectly ordinary.
The author touches on their personal lives and intrigues, which are as unique as the love they have for each other. The Best of Me is an awe inspiring novel because of the wide array of characters. The author etches characters that are unique from each other. The variation and difference is viewed in each single character that comes across to the reader. Due to this, the reader is allowed to step in the perspective of each character.
His writting style is very descriptive. Book is an never ending love saga. Worth reading..
Highly Recommended.