The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks

Reading Level: Adult Contemporary

# of Pages: 480 (Mass Market Paperback)

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; 1 Mti edition (February 23, 2010)

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.

I have always enjoyed Sparks’ books but we all know that we can only read his books at certain times (at least for me) because we CRY! I have heard about this one because I don’t live too terribly far from where it is filmed (my great pal Kathryn lives super close!!) and it was taunting me at Target last week. I bought it on Thursday, picked it up on Friday night to start reading it, went to bed reading it, picked it back up on Saturday and finished it!

This is probably my favorite out of all of his books. I have read almost all of them and so far, this one takes the cake. Ronnie is such a relatable character to me on many levels and the whole first love/coming of age story is something that we have all experienced. I fell in love with the characters, cried when they cried (of course), got mad when they did stupid things, and was rooting for Ronnie the entire time. Throughout the novel, you see Ronnie’s complete transformation and realization as to who she is as defined by herself and not by those she surrounds herself with. So often we tend to adapt to those around us and do our best to fit it at any cost (emotionally, physically, etc.) and for the past few years that is what Ronnie has done. It is not until she is forced to come see her dad that she finds out who she is and what is truly important in life.

This is Sparks’ longest novel and he couldn’t have done any better with it in my opinion. I highly recommend it to teens and adults alike and will definitely be going to see the movie at the end of March.

Miley Cyrus, Kelly Preston, Liam Hemsworth, and Greg Kinnear star in The Last Song due out March 31, 2010. Check out the trailer below and visit Nicholas Sparks here for more information and fun facts about his books!