The Last Song

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Unlike most of Nicholas Sparks's novels, "The Last Song" didn't grip me right from the start. In fact, it took about 100 pages before I really started enjoying the story, which is told in four different narratives (alternating with chapters). One thing that bothered me in the beginning of the book is the main character, Ronnie. When we meet her she's a spoilt, selfish, immature 17-year-old who's forced (as she sees it) to spend the summer at her father's place in North Carolina with her younger brother --- far away from her home and friends in New York. Ronnie's parents got divorced several years earlier, and she hasn't spoken to her father since. I found her very annoying at first, and the way she acted around her father unreasonable.

By the time I'd read about a third of the book, though, I realized that it was necessary for Ronnie to be the way she was in the beginning, because otherwise the change she goes through over the course of the summer wouldn't be obvious. She learns about actions and consequences, truth and forgiveness, the joy of falling in love, and eventually the pain of loss. The romance between her and Will is really sweet.

This is a book that made me smile, and made me cry. Of course it made me cry --- I don't think that I've ever read a Nicholas Sparks novel that didn't make me cry at some point. The ending of "The Last Song" is neither a happy nor an unhappy one --- it's a little bit of both. Does that make sense? Read the book, and then you'll understand what I mean.

"The Last Song" is not my favorite book by Nicholas Sparks --- that would be either "The Choice" or "Dear John" --- but it still tells a very beautiful story, and I am glad I read it.

I am looking forward to the movie adaptation starring Miley Cyrus, Greg Kinnear, Kelly Preston and Liam Hensworth.