The Notebook

This is a love story, plain and simple. You’ll either be moved or be annoyed depending on your opinion of said love story.

The Notebook opens in a rest home. An elderly resident is telling us his story. He spends his days visiting a woman that often does not remember him. Each morning, he enters her room with a notebook containing memories of his life and love. He hopes that sharing these past events will jog her memory, but it is not to be. Yet, he tries each day and does not give up.

The second scene of the book takes place in October of 1946. Noah Calhoun has returned from the war and purchased his dream house in New Bern. He came into a windfall, bought the 1772 house, and restored it in an attempt to forget his past. We find out that his past includes a long lost love. This lady was his first and only love and she went away when they were teenagers. He has never forgotten her.

The Notebook then flashes back to Noah Calhoun and Allie Nelson meeting and falling in love in the summer of 1935. Fifteen year-old Allie is visiting North Carolina. She is introduced to seventeen year-old Noah and likes him immediately. They spend the summer together sharing everything including their first sexual experiences. By the end of the season, it is clear that these two are in love and meant for each other.

However, Allie returns home and loses touch with Noah. Her parents have implied that Noah is not right for their daughter because he is of a different class. Noah writes to Allie often, but his letters go unanswered. He moves on with his life as best he can by enlisting in the service and going to war.

Once she meets Noah face to face again, it is clear that the passion they shared so long ago is still there. They spend two wonderful evenings together sharing magical experiences. However, Allie must soon return to her other life and the man she is about to marry. Will Allie return home to a safe, comfortable life? Will she leave Noah a second time? Or will she stay in New Bern, where her heart belongs?

source: http://www.thebookhaven.net/Z_Notebook.html

The Last Song

Description

Seventeen year-old Veronica “Ronnie” Miller’s life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and alienated from her parents, especially her father… until her mother decides it would be in everyone’s best interest if she spent the summer in Wilmington with him. Ronnie’s father, a former concert pianist and teacher, is living a quiet life in the beach town, immersed in creating a work of art that will become the centerpiece of a local church. The tale that unfolds is an unforgettable story about love in its myriad forms – first love, the love between parents and children – that demonstrates, as only a Nicholas Sparks novel can, the many ways that deeply felt relationships can break our hearts… and heal them.
Did You Know
The Last Song debuted as #1 on both the USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists?
Miley Cyrus chose the name Ronnie for the main character?

Nicholas wrote the screenplay before he wrote the novel?

The Last Song is the longest novel that Nicholas has written?

The Last Song is both a love story and a coming of age novel?

Source: http://www.nicholassparks.com/LearnMore.asp?BookID=15

Beautiful Creatures Book Review & Summary

Shakespeare did it right with Romeo & Juliet, and in the past decade authors have been expanding on his vision. Instead of opposing families, we see opposing species—one human and one paranormal being—fighting to be together. In Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, there is no shortage of irresistible, addictive and forbidden love.

Beautiful Creatures Summary
Living in the small town of Gatlin offers no excitement for sixteen-year-old Ethan. Every day he drives passed the same three stoplights, to go to the same school, where he’ll see the same kids he has seen since he was born. Gatlin is as good as a cage. The only change he has ever faced in his life was last year when his mother passed away. His father retreated into his study, burying himself in his novel and relinquishing all his fatherly duties. With both parents virtually gone, Ethan began relying on Amma, his nanny/housekeeper who immediately took over the parental duties.
Lately Ethan has been experiencing vivid dreams about a girl he doesn’t even know, a girl that he’s completely in love with. But how do you love someone you don’t even know?

Then a mysterious new student shows up at Gatlin’s only high school, the niece of Old Man Ravenwood—the town’s looneybin. When his niece Lena arrives, the whole town begins to judge her. If she’s a Ravenwood, then she must be crazy too. Kids bully her at school, and even many of the adults want her kicked out of school. The rigid citizen’s of Gatlin won’t put up with anything or anyone who is different. Except for Ethan.

It’s her. The girl in his dreams. After a chance encounter on a stormy night, Ethan doesn’t want to leave Lena’s side. She’s different than everyone else at Gatlin. And he likes that. But Lena tries desperately to push him away. A family secret is keeping her at arm’s length, and she’s afraid that if Ethan finds out, he’ll be frightened, or worse. Lena is faced with a big decision. Should she tell Ethan her secret? Or face her sixteenth birthday—the day she has feared her entire life—all alone?

Beautiful Creatures Review

Despite its extensive length for a teen novel, Beautiful Creatures is written with such precision and intensity from page 1 to page 563. You won’t be able to put it down, particularly during the climax where everything that has been building from the first chapter slides into place. The best thing about Beautiful Creatures, aside from its vivid characterization, is that it has a sequel—Beautiful Darkness.

source: http://www.suite101.com/content/beautiful-creatures-book-review–summary-a254023

Twilight (series)

Twilight is a series of four vampire-themed fantasy romance novels by American author Stephenie Meyer. It charts a period in the life of Isabella “Bella” Swan, a teenage girl who moves to Forks, Washington, and falls in love with a 104-year-old vampire named Edward Cullen. The series is told primarily from Bella’s point of view, with the epilogue of Eclipse and Part II of Breaking Dawn being told from the viewpoint of character Jacob Black, a werewolf. The unpublished Midnight Sun is a retelling of the first book, Twilight, from Edward Cullen’s point of view. The novella The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, which tells the story of a newborn vampire who appeared in Eclipse, was published on June 5, 2010 as a hardcover book and on June 7 as a free online ebook.[1]
Since the release of the first novel, Twilight, in 2005, the books have gained immense popularity and commercial success around the world. The series is most popular among young adults; the four books have won multiple awards, most notably the 2008 British Book Award for “Children’s Book of the Year” for Breaking Dawn,[2] while the series as a whole won the 2009 Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Book.[3]
As of March 2010, the series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide[4] with translations into at least 38 different languages around the globe.[5][6] The four Twilight books have consecutively set records as the biggest selling novels of 2008 on the USA Today Best-Selling Books list[7] and have spent over 235 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list for Children’s Series Books.[8]
Thus far, the first three books have been made into a series of motion pictures by Summit Entertainment; the film adaptation of Twilight was released in 2008 and the second, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, was released on November 20, 2009.[9] The third film, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, was released June 30, 2010.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight_(series)

Dear john

Dear John is trademark Nicholas Sparks–romantic, sappy, sad and redeeming. If you like Sparks’ previous novels, you will probably enjoy Dear John, a love story about an army sergeant who falls in love shortly before 9/11. Sparks’ writing is smooth and easy, but the characters and plot are not particularly memorable. Recommended for those who like sappy romantic comedies (or tragedies, in Sparks’ case), but not for those who like a little meat in their reading.
Dear John starts in the present day with John watching Savannah from afar and thinking about how much he loves her and why their relationship dissolved. He then takes the reader back in time and narrates the story of their love.

There is, unfortunately, not much more to say about the book. Dear John has a pretty formulaic plot. Although Sparks is one of the first to set the age old boy meets girl love story in the modern, post-9/11 world, he does not delve into how the war affects the characters or go very deep in this area. In Dear John, it could be any war keeping them apart. This specific war is not important.

The interactions between John and his father create a nice sub-plot, and the descriptions of North Carolina were interesting to me, but that’s probably just because I live in the state.

Overall, I would describe Dear John as light reading that is not painful to read but also not extremely enjoyable to read. If you need some beach reading, go ahead and borrow it. It will give you a few hours to escape, if nothing else.

source: http://bestsellers.about.com/od/womenslitchicklit/gr/Dear_John.htm