Breathing Pages

After almost a year of it sitting on my shelf, I finally read "The Best of Me" by Nicholas Sparks. (I am now one step closer to lifting my book buying ban. /insert evil laugh here)

I started reading around 4pm, with minor pauses because of work. I finished it at around 11:56pm. My reading speed is not that bad. Then again, it's never about speed. It's about the book and how it makes you stay in one place with it. This one just got me seated upright and reading non-stop.

(I placed a page break to hide the spoilers from the dashboard. Just click on read more to continue reading.)

I am completely mind-blown by the story despite the ending's predictability. I had that desire to finish it. There's was that "No, no matter what I need to do, I need to read it because Dawson and Amanda are back together and I still have roughly a hundred more pages to go." thought running around my head so I finished it. 

Just like the other NS books I read, at first, I am confused as to why it started like that. It starts in an exploding oil rig. True Believer starts at a studio of a television show. The Lucky One starts with the cop on the mountains. I think most of the Nicholas Sparks novels start out like that before it grows and explains things. I don't hate that, though; I'm just one impatient reader and wanted to drown into the romance and drama of the lovers promised in novels written by Nicholas Sparks. Haha, cheesy, yes.

Sad to say, I didn't like The Notebook. I just didn't. Weird, right? That was supposedly romantic -- if not THE most romantic, right next to A Walk to Remember. But this novel,The Best of Me, had me thinking, "This is how The Notebook should've sounded like." In fact, this novel reminds me of the movie version of The Notebook and I demand that Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams team up together again for this one, if they'll make a movie out of it. Haha. Of course, I do think that the novel version of The Notebook has its own charm. It just didn't charm me as much as the other novels -- and I admit that I have high expectations because of the movie.

Anyways, before I get lost in other novels, this is supposedly about my enraged (?) feelings over The Best of Me. I would summarize the novel as this: Two star-crossed lovers meet again after a common friend dies. They lead different lives since they broke up. They patch things up over the weekend. Decisions are made. Shit happens. Life goes on. Yes, those six sentences do not justify the marvel of how the story developed into something really magical and fascinating. But the story took a turn into something... cheesy and predictable. I love it nonetheless because everything that happened prior to the cheesiness and predictability is very much heart-wrenching and truly romantic. The ending is also worth it because it's "real" in the sense that it clearly shows the main lesson that Amanda's character is supposed to teach the readers.

Overall, it's a good read. I would love to read move novels that show the readers how powerful love can be and how life can be beautiful even with all of the troubles and turmoils it presents.