Title : The Best Of Me

Author : Nicholas Sparks

Synopsis : Everyone wanted to believe that endless love was possible. She'd believed in it once, too, back when she was eighteen."

In the spring of 1984, high school students Amanda Collier and Dawson Cole fell deeply, irrevocably in love. Though they were from opposite sides of the tracks, their love for one another seemed to defy the realities of life in the small town of Oriental, North Carolina. But as the summer of their senior year came to a close, unforeseen events would tear the young couple apart, setting them on radically divergent paths.

Now, twenty-five years later, Amanda and Dawson are summoned back to Oriental for the funeral of Tuck Hostetler, the mentor who once gave shelter to their high school romance. Neither has lived the life they imagined . . . and neither can forget the passionate first love that forever changed their lives. As Amanda and Dawson carry out the instructions Tuck left behind for them, they realize that everything they thought they knew-about Tuck, about themselves, and about the dreams they held dear-was not as it seemed. Forced to confront painful memories, the two former lovers will discover undeniable truths about the choices they have made. And in the course of a single, searing weekend, they will ask of the living, and the dead: Can love truly rewrite the past?

*

Sigh.

Sigh.

Siiiiggggghhhhhhh.

You know a book just isn't working for you when every time you turn the page, only one question is at the forefront of your mind -

But maybe it's just me. The romance wasn't what I imagined it to be at all - I thought it was about two people reuniting with some good ol' comedy as dislike slowly morphed to love......but instead what I got was a dreary tragedy. That's right. A tragedy. Somebody dies people. Surprise!

The whole tone of the book was solemn, which was apt considering they reunited due to a funeral. Not the most subtle of foreshadowing I would say. Everything was just so serious, they had breakfasts seriously, they whispered honeyed words seriously, their dates went seriously......there wasn't much fun.

Safe to say, this romance ain't no 50 First Dates. This romance is for those who view love in a very practical and realistic light, for those who prefer their books to veer away from the happily ever after cliche, even if that means death is involved. This is a saga, a tearjerker, one of those if only stories that will haunt you forever.

I guess for this particular reader, it just wasn't enough. Now excuse me while I dig out my Sophie Kinsella to cheer myself up.

Wrap it up now - stars or stones? Rocks. BIG rocks.