Book 83 - The Best of Me

My eighty-third book was The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks. I have read all of his other books and was super excited when I saw this one at Kroger. This book was definitely not Sparks's best but it was still good. Dawson Cole has a bad reputation through no fault of his own. His family is known around their small community for being troublemakers and criminals. From the start, Dawson is determined to prove that he is nothing like the rest of his family. When he meets Amanda Collier in 1984, he was sure that his luck had finally turned around. Soon, he and Amanda are deeply in love, defying both family's expectations. But Dawson's life is ruined after Amanda leaves him for college and an unfortunate accident sends him to jail. In present day, Amanda is married to an alcoholic with three children and Dawson lives on his own, working on an oil rig for months at a time. The one thing that still connects them is an elderly man named Tuck. When they receive word of his death, they both come back to the small town of Oriental to say their goodbyes. But, little do they know, while they're saying goodbye to Tuck, they'll be saying hello again to their former relationship.
Grade: B+
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Book 23 - Message in a Bottle

My twenty-third book was Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks. This was my last Nicholas Sparks book to read, having read the majority of them last year. I was not really looking forward to reading this book, but I don't have any books in my room that I haven't read yet, so I decided to go ahead and read it. I was very pleasantly surprised. The movie stars Kevin Costner and Robin Wright, both actors I don't really like. But the book was actually very good. Theresa is a divorced woman who, on vaction, finds a message in a bottle washed up on the beach. After reading the letter, she publishes it in her column that she writes for The Boston Globe. The reader response is immediate. She finds two other letters from the same man, both as romantic and heartwrenching as the first. She decides she has to find this man and, when she does, something happens that she (or he) never saw coming.

Book 14 - Nights in Rodanthe

My fourteenth book was Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks. This was a pretty short book. Especially by Sparks' standard. I've read almost all of his books, this is my next to last. I wasn't really looking forward to reading it, because I wasn't a fan of the movie, but I was pleasantly surprised. The book only took me a day and a half to finish. The book is about Adrienne, a woman who has just been divorced by her husband, is watching her friends' inn for the weekend. The only guest is a man named Paul, who is also divorced. They talk and fall in love over the weekend. However, they both know he is leaving on Tuesday to go to Ecuador for a year, to reconnect with his son. So, they decide to wait for each other for a year, while he's away. But, in true Nicholas Sparks fashion, something happens to keep them apart.

Book 8 - Safe Haven

My eighth book was Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks. All Nicholas Sparks books are romances. But not many are thrillers, too. This one is. Katie is a troubled girl who has just moved to a small town in North Carolina and is working at a restaurant called Ivan's. She is befriended by her neighbor, Jo, and the owner of a local store, Alex. She is eventually romantically involved with Alex and tells him about her past. It turns out that she ran away from her abusive husband, Kevin, and that he is still probably looking for her. But just when she starts to feel at home in Southport, someone from her past shows up and tries to bring her back...

Book 3 - At First Sight

My third book was At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks. Sparks' books are some of my favorites. He not only makes memorable stories, but characters that the reader can really invest in. This book is his only sequel (if you don't count The Wedding, which was a sequel to The Notebook...since it only had one character from the original story, and was about different people, I don't really see it as a sequel). The characters from the first book True Believer are back and are going to get married. They also are going to have a baby. But they run into trouble when someone starts questioning who the baby's father is. Everything looks like it will work out in the end, but, because it is a Nicholas Sparks book, will it really?