The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks and The Choice

While I'm not normally a sappy romantic, I have recently finished two books by Nicholas Sparks, The Choice and The Best of Me. 

When choosing books, I usually look for a good writer rather than a good story because I feel like a good writer can write any story and make it good.  Mr. Sparks is just such a writer as every book I have read by him has me on the edge wanting more and I always have this feeling of wanting to hurry up and find out what happens next.  

In The Choice, each of the main characters must make a choice.  One must choose between two men and the other must choose whether or not to pull the feeding tube on a coma patient.

In The Best of Me, high school sweethearts are reunited but their destiny is uncertain and, I must say, totally unpredictable.   This one is reminiscent of The Notebook.  

Like I mentioned before, I'm not usually into romance type novels but these are very well written and also very suspenseful.  And both will keep you up late at night trying to find out what will happen next.    I enjoyed them very much and I highly recommend anything by Nicholas Sparks.  All of his books are National Best Sellers and three of them have been made into motion pictures.

Both were published by Grand Central Publishing.

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

After reading Stephen King's colossal 11/22/63, The Notebook was like a decadent, rich, and smooth midnight snack.  I read the whole thing in about three hours.

The setting is coastal North Carolina, 1940's and Noah Calhoun is haunted by the ghost of a girl he once loved.  Everywhere he looks and everywhere he goes he is reminded of the love they once shared.  But she has been out of his life for more than a decade.

Allie Nelson is also haunted by the past and passions lost.  She is engaged to be married to another but she cannot go through with it until she is sure that is what she really wants.  So makes a trip back to New Bern, North Carolina to flirt with the past and see where her heart takes her.

She finds Noah sitting on the porch of his family home, alone and over the next few days, the two try to rekindle the flame that never went out. Will Allie follow her heart and stay with the man she never stopped loving or will she return to the socialite lifestyle she is expected to live?

"I would love to tell you that everything will work out for us, and I promise to do all I can to make sure it does.  But if we never meet again and this is truly good-bye, I know we will see each other again in another life.  We will find each other again, and maybe the stars will have changed, and we will not only love each other in that time, but for all the times we've had before."

I usually don't go in for romance novels but I knew that this book was a bestseller for over a year, all over the world and that it had been made into a movie and I found it at a thrift shop so I thought, why not?  I'm glad I did.  Every girl wishes for such a passionate romance and soul partner that Allie has found in Noah.  This is one of the greatest love stories ever told.