The Best of Me

The Best of Me

by Nicholas Sparks

Love stories usually aren't my favorite type of books, though I will occasionally read one now and then. There are a few authors I like and Nicholas Sparks is one.

The story is typical, it is about love and it has all the elements that make a good story: The girl, the boy, the forbidden love that they overcome. Amanda was more high society and Dawson was from across the tracks. Amanda was headed to college and Dawson was just trying to escape his family's violence and drug trade. Though they fell in love, Dawson and Amanda couldn't get past her mother's fears. So Amanda went on to college and Dawson spent four years in prison due to a car accident that really wasn't his fault.

Now it's twenty years later, Amanda is married and Dawson works on an oil rig out in the ocean. Unknown to the other, they both receive a letter from the home town lawyer requesting their presence at the reading of a will. Their mentor and friend, Tuck Hostetler, had died.

Once they meet again, they realize their love has never died and is only rekindled. Amanda has important decisions to make. Dawson wants her to run away with him. Should she leave her alcoholic husband?

Business in town finished, she's headed home to rethink her life when she gets a telephone call. Her son and husband have been in a terrible auto accident and the boy may not make it. Amanda races to the hospital.

Several subplots weave their way throughout the book, each affecting our two main characters. Jumping from scene to scene is a nice way to tell the whole story - until you realize that one subplot has stopped. It was then that I knew exactly where this book was headed and I was not happy.

I know that not everything goes exactly the way we hope, but sometimes it would be nice if it did.

Nicholas Sparks said this book was one of the hardest that he ever wrote. Well, Nicholas, it was one of the hardest that I ever read too!