The Best of Me [Hardcover]

"The Best of me" by Nicholas Sparks follows the love story of Dawson Cole--a young man from a never do well family, who is sent to prison after he accidentally runs over the town's doctor, and upon release is nearly killed during an explosion in his new oil rig job--and Amanda Collier, his high school sweetheart who came from a wealthy family, and who, all those years later, is a married stay-at-home mom who occasionally ventures out to volunteer at the town's medical center.

The occasion for their union is the death of Tuck Hostetler, an elderly car mechanic who was their mutual friend and wished for them to scatter his ashes at a cottage owned by his ex-wife, the love of life who died before him, Clara. As Dawson and Amanda visit Tuck's estate and fulfill his wishes, they fall in love with each other all over again. But twenty years have passed, and Amanda's current married life and her mother's disapproval creates a huge obstacle.

But this is not the only problem Dawson faces. Elsewhere in town, his cousins Ted and Abee found out his back in town and want to plot their revenge for Dawson beating them up all these years ago. Not satisfied with a confrontation, Ted plots to murder Dawson. Meanwhile, Abee is caught up in a romance of his own--one that ultimately turns dangerous for all the participants involved.

My thoughts: as in many of Sparks' previous novels, this story is told from different points of view. This is an effective device that Sparks uses, letting the reader get intimately acquainted with all of the characters. Right off the bat, we know that Dawson wears his heart on his sleeve--and is a vulnerable character--weighted down by guilt, lost love, and loneliness. Amanda is less of a dreamer than Dawson--preferring to stay in the present, and deal with the cards she's been dealt. Ted and Abee are both emotionally unstable, violent characters who lack any sort of morality or practicality. And Tuck is a father-figure character, who is above any of the negative events taking place throughout the book, and more of a symbol of how the characters should have acted, but never did.

There's some paranormal elements to this story, but also a kind of nostalgic feel of lost time. You really root for Dawson and Amanda to get back together. But Sparks makes their relationship a mystery--up until the last third of the book. The conflicts created by the presence of Ted and Abee, Amanda's unpleasant mother, and Dawson's own demons are nicely incorporated into the plot. The ending is unpredictable, as the storylines of different characters are unexpectedly connected. The character who seemed so minor only a few pages ago, now has a major role in the story's outcome. And the story keeps you guessing until the last chapters.

I love Nicholas Sparks books, but lately have been disappointed. It is as if he has written every good plot he can think of so now, in desperation, turns to the cliches that are sure-fire tissue twisters. In Safe Haven, which I really did like because it was so different than his other books, Sparks added the element of suspense and a tiny bit of a ghost angle. Well, after experimenting with it and seeing it pleased his fans, he's gone all out with it in this book, landing a ghost as a secondary character and throwing in a couple of back hill goons with a love for their Glocks.

Here's the plot in a nutshell. Dawson Cole, the kid from the wrong side of the track and Amanda Collier, the rich pretty girl fall in love. Alas, their love is doomed, so they part ways, but this love was so very strong Dawson could never find it in him to love another and led a loner life. (I ask ... how many guys would go their ENTIRE lives without ever being with a woman or wanting a family, content to keep company with a memory?) Amanda though, has married a dentist who drinks too much and makes her miserable. She compares herself to an otter asleep on the side of his cage at the zoo, knowing this isn't the life she's supposed to live but with no way out. Even on her wedding day, she wished the poor man at the end of the aisle away, longing for Dawson.

The book begins with Dawson knowing that he should have died when the oil rig he worked on had an explosion. But instead, after he flopped in the water, this dark haired man in a wind breaker appears and Dawson swims towards him to safety. Suddenly this wind breaker guy is popping up here and there, sometimes just a flicker in the corner of his eye, but Dawson can never get a close look at him before he disappears. (That weird secondary character I mentioned earlier.)

An old man from his hometown dies and his attorney requests Dawson's presence. This old man, named Tuck, was a friend so he goes and, lo and behold, who else should the attorney have also called into town, but Amanda, who was also friends with Tuck. Now Tuck was a raging romantic and he'd planned before his death in great detail a fabulous, bring out the sex night away for these two at a little cottage set in paradise. (which brings to mind the already done Nights in Rodanthe.) I will leave you hanging so you can breathlessly turn pages to see if they give in to temptation. I thought this whole bit was cliched, due to the fact a thousand novels have been written about sisters, friends, mothers and daughters, and ex-lovers who are forced together due to a funeral. It's not exactly a surprise what happens.

While all of this romance and rediscovery is happening, there is the threat of some of Dawson's wrong side of the law cousins. (Sparks makes these guys like comic book villians with no real personalities.) Suddenly between these rough neck characters and another surprise event, the novel goes from the sinewy muscles of Dawson's arms' and the heat of his breath on her neck, to a breakneck switch that throws the readers out of their dreamy state into a bucket of cold water.

And then the end. Sparks does his best to make it a fine mix of happy slash sad. He always tries to get in those hankie moments and he really goes for broke with the last pages. One can see what's coming, and whether you're clinging to your tissue and saying, "Oh Sparks, you did it again," or "I can't believe it's come to this - a recycled tear jerker' - either way one must admire Nicholas Sparks. Many a woman would love a man who can think so romantic and put so much of his heart into words.

Or is it just that he has a formula for novels he knows will sell?

Either way, I will continue to read every novel Nicolas Sparks puts out there. There's always a hope the next one will be better and there have been some really great ones already written. Safe Haven is one of those and I can't wait until the movie comes out(mentioned in Acknowledgments).

In ending, read it because truly you can't go wrong with anything he writes but don't expect a novel that will knock you away with its fresh plot.

I tremendously enjoy Spark's books so I wish I had not added this one to my collection to taint the mix. I considered giving this a single star but out of respect for the obviously talented author and the character development of Dawson & Amanda, I begrudgingly gave it two. I have read this book before. The characters have had different names and are set in different times and places and were written by different authors but this story line was hardly original which is unfortunate because the two main characters, along with Tuck were believable for the most part. I agree with another reviewer that Dawson's perpetual fidelity was poignant but unrealistic; reminds me of a sad country song. Shades of John Tyree's touching altruism were revisited (Dear John) but to a much more painful degree which left me wanting something entirely different from the way the last half of the story was written. I was a bit aggravated when I suspected where the story was headed and skipped ahead to confirm my suspicions which is something I rarely do. Incidentally, I hope future offerings from Sparks will avoid the magical, mysterious, paranormal characters that have been lurking in the periphery of some of his more recent books. I find them a little contrived and distracting. I do appreciate that Mr. Spark's books are character driven and that his stories focus on human emotions rather than dragging the readers through a mire of profanity and meaningless copulation that so many of this genre fall to. I am looking forward to his next book but this one just didn't do it for me.

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