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 THE LAST SONG Book Review By: Sandra

Surely, we all know that the book is always better than the movie, at least in most cases. Well the same thing goes for The Last Song. The Last Song is a Major Motion Picture, starring Miley Cirus, but is also an amazing book. This book is a tear jerking, heart wrenching, romance novel written by, the one and only, Nicholas Sparks! We all know that Nicholas Sparks is a wonderful author, especially if you’ve read any of his books, such as, Message In A Bottle, The Notebook, Three Weeks With My Brother, and Dear John. There are so much more books by him! Veronica (Ronnie) is forced to live with her dad for the summer. Ronnie starts her summer, in North Carolina, full of hate and anger against her father. But when Ronnie leaves North Carolina, she is a completely different person, from when she arrived. Ronnie can never forgive herself for what she did in the past, but she can change things in the future, for the better. I highly recommend this book, reading about how Ronnie changed her life will make you look more closely at your own life, present, past, and future.  As a result of her parents divorce, Ronnie’s (Veronica’s) life falls into a downwards spiral. For the next three years, Ronnie and her thoughts were in a really dark place. This not only changed the relationship between her mother and father, but also her friends. Three years later her mother thinks it would be in every bodies best interet for Ronnie to spend the summer at her fathers place, on the beach, in North Carolina. Already on the first day there, Ronnie meets two new people, Will and Blaze. As her opinion about North Carolina begins to change, so does Ronnie’s opinion about her father. Obviously, him walking out on her family had nothing to do with her. In fact, all he wanted to do was follow his conscious, his will. She could tell that her father genuinely loved her. As the summer wore on, Ronnie’s father got weaker, but their relationship got stronger and stronger, it just kept growing. Ronnie and Will also began to have something more than a friendship. But Ronnie knew that it was useless, she was leaving at the end of the summer anyway. Then, one day the unthinkable happened, Ronnie watched her father cough blood all over his hands. At that moment, Ronnie knew something was wrong. From that moment on, her life changed before her eyes forever. When I read this book, I didn’t really know how Ronnie would react. But to my surprise she did amazingly well. As Ronnie realized she had no control over what was going to happen, she tried her best to do the right thing, but she also went on with her life. If you would like to know what happened to Ronnie (and her father) and what changed her life so dramatically, then you should definitely add this book to your list of books to read.   Ronnie grew up in New York City, a normal city girl, until her parents got divorced. From then on, things took a turn for the worst. Meanwhile Ronnie began shoplifting, getting caught twice. She got accepted into Juilliard, because of her talented piano skills past down from her father, but claims she is not going. One thing that hadn’t changed (during the book) was her relationship with her (annoying) brother, Jonah. Although he could get on her last nerve sometimes, nothing could take away her love for him. And strangely enough, he had a serious obsession with cookies. Steve, Ronnie and Jonah’s father, wanted to have his kids over for the summer. There is no way Steve could know what is going to happen in the future, for this reason, he wanted to see his kids for as long as he could. After all no one knows what is going to happen in the future. Will is a good looking boy, who is enjoying his summer vacation before it’s time to start his first year in college. During a volleyball tournament, he meets Veronica. Will is getting mocked about his relationship with Ronnie. But to Will, Ronnie meant so much more to him, than any other girl he has went out with. But is Will going to let a few mean words get to him? Blaze is a little different from the other kids in her town. For this reason she has very few friends. But then she meets Veronica, another misfit, just like her. They became friends, but before long, their differences takes them two different directions. Blaze manages to get Ronnie into so much trouble. Blaze will blaze up so dangerously big, for just the smallest bit of revenge. Marcus is a far cry from normal, compared to the rest of the kids in this small town. After seeing Ronnie from a distance, he is suddenly determined to meet her. Marcus’s determination gets him into trouble, as well as his past. What I like the most about the characters is how they all have something different going on in their lives, but they still in some way are all linked together. I mean these people are the complete opposite of each other. I think you should read this book, for many reasons. But mostly because it was so realistic. What I mean by that is this stuff could happen in real life. So a lot of the people who read this book will be able to relate to it. The stuff that goes on in these character’s life, can happen to any one else in the world. In addition to that something I found that was unique about this story, is that the author is a male. This might not mean anything to you, but many romance novels are written by females. I was surprised when I saw that on the cover of the book. It seemed almost like a rule to me. No running in the hallways, No chewing gum in school, Males are not allowed to write romances. I was also dumbfounded when I finished the book, and realized how astoundingly well it was written. I was equally astonished when I remembered that it was written by a male author. Immediately after reading this book, I put //**Nicholas Sparks**// on my list of favorite authors. I really liked how Nicholas was very passionate about his writing, it all seemed so realistic to me. It was so good, that while reading this book, I actually felt like I was in it. In conclusion, you __//**HAVE**//__  to read this book. Not reading The Last Song is like not breathing, impossible, even deadly. To not read this book, you would have to be absolutely insane. A friend had recommended this book to me. After I was finished reading it, I wished she had told me about it earlier. I read this book twice, and am very thankful that I did. The first time I read this book, I was in sixth grade. I liked the book, but there was a lot of stuff I didn’t understand about it. After reading this book the second time around, it really got to me. I actually cried, because of how emotional it was. Although many parts of the book was very sad, there was plenty of funny parts. Nicholas Sparks is an amazing author. The way he put this simple story into words, put me in awe. Boy’s and girl’s alike should try to read this book. Yeah, just because this story is a romance novel, doesn’t mean guys can’t read it. ( Besides, are you forgetting that Nicholas Sparks is a guy, who by the way has a family.) I hope after you read this, you go to the nearest library and get the book. After all, we do need to breath.