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Title: The Last Song
Author: Nicholas Sparks
ISBN/Publisher: 978-0-446-55564-7/Grand Central Publishing (part of Hachette Book Group)
Age Group/Genre: Young Adults and older/General Fiction
Ronnie is a seventeen year old from New York. But she won't be spending her summer after senior year with her New York friends. Her mom is sending Ronnie and her little brother, Jonah, down to a North Carolina beach town to spend time with their father.
Here's the problem for Ronnie...she's been upset with Steve (her dad) since he walked out on the family. Steve left New York after his marriage ended apparently due to the strain from leaving his teaching job at Julliard to travel and become a concert pianist. His dreams never came true and now he's living in the small town he grew up in.
Ronnie never forgave Steve for what happened. Actually, she hasn't talked to him in the three years. So when she's in the beach town with her Dad and brother, she is trying to figure out how to get her butt back to New York. But then she meets the troubled Blaze and her boyfriend Marcus, and the cute volleyball player, Will. These three will make her want to run even faster away from North Carolina, but also pull her in.
Will Ronnie's relationship with her father change and how will the three people she meet change her life???
Nicholas Sparks, a bestselling author, does it again with this novel. He does such an amazing job incorporating themes involving Christianity, love, fate, and tragedy. And again he adds in the importance of silence between people...page 133 in this book (I've noticed that he mentions this in all the books I read by him).
The characters in this novel are beautifully written and somewhat realistic. The novel is broken down in chapters that are told in four different perspectives: Ronnie's, Steve's, Will's, and Marcus's. But I will have to say that personally I found the first three the most important to me. It is the love between a father and his child. Also the love between a girl and a boy. These two relationships are the keys to what unlocks the beauty of Nicholas Sparks' writing. I also have to say that Jonah became my favorite scene stealer...he is such a cute kid (I wish I had a little brother like him).
The Last Song is a novel I will recommend to everyone, especially fans of Nicholas Sparks. The story was kind of predictable, but the emotions that I felt throughout the novel were still strong. This is a book for young adults to adults...my mom and I both loved it!!!
A few favorite parts...
"I'm not a little kid anymore. It means pissed-at-men syndrome." -Jonah, page 23 (In regards to what PMS means)
She couldn't eat here, not because she was a vegetarian-on-principle kind of person, but because she was a vegetarian-because-she-didn't-want-to-feel-sick kind of person. -Description of Ronnie's idea of being a vegetarian, page 70 (This is kind of my thoughts on why I'm a vegetarian).
"There are guys who grow up thinking they'll settle down some distant time in the future, and there are guys who are ready for marriage as soon as they meet the right person. The former bore me, mainly because they're pathetic; and the latter, quite frankly, are hard to find. But it's the serious ones I'm interested in, and it takes time to find a guy like that whom I'm equally interested in. I mean, if the relationship can't survive the long term, why on earth would it be worth my time and energy for the short term?" Will's sister, Megan, page 206 (If I was ever able to put into words my thoughts on relationships...this would be it. Now where can I find this type of guy? I'm kind of tired of waiting and the right guy is hard to find...LOL)
There's also a part in the end of the book I loved, but I'm afraid it will be a spoiler...so that just means you have to read it!!!
My Rating and also my mom's (even though I rounded hers up...she rated it 4.999999999):
(I bought this copy from a store called FullyBooked) BTW-The movie version is coming out in April 2010
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