The Week's Most Talked About Book: The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks
Fiction
Grand Central Publishing
September 2009
If you can’t go to the beach, let the beach come to you, in the guise of another fantastic read by Nicholas Sparks. The author of 15 New York Times bestsellers, Sparks does it again — he leaves you crying and celebrating.
“The Last Song” is, of course, a tear-jerker, but it’s so much more than that. This coming-of-age love story is also the ideal substitute for soft, white sand and a salty ocean breeze, without leaving the comfort of your favorite chair.
North Carolina’s Wrightsville Beach is the breathtaking setting where Steve, and his two kids, Ronnie and Jonah, get reacquainted after a three-year separation. This is their first summer together.
How does a father go about reclaiming the lost years? It’s not going to be easy, and his daughter Ronnie makes sure of that. Even as she settles in the old, out-of-place bungalow, situated amid oceanfront mansions, she too feels out of place. Compared to New York, it looks like one long, boring, hot summer. Then she meets up with a strange, rebellious girl called Blaze.
The two seem to hit it off at first; they do have at least one thing in common — Blaze and her mother don’t get along so well either. Their attempt at becoming friends is short lived. Who or what is standing in the way?
Well for starters, a few hoodlums, love, and a desire to do the right thing. Fire and water, opposing elements, play a memorable role, in this intensely emotional and impulsive tale.
As the summer heats up in more ways than one, Ronnie fears the worst, and protects her emotions from the two men she loves most, her father and now Will, with as much rigor as she protects the endangered sea turtle preparing to lay eggs at the water’s edge. Is this “thing” with Will just a summer fling or is it something way more serious?
In contrast, Jonah’s world is easygoing; it’s just a father and son getting to know each other, again.
A melody of music and self-realization, “The Last Song” gives you permission to reconnect with someone you love. As with all Spark’s novels, his memorable characters portray a wide range of emotions. Page after page, “The Last Song” hits the right notes by evoking feelings of fear and bravery, blame and forgiveness, hate and love, joy and grief.
And how does the Carolina coast figure into these miracles? Maybe it’s the serenity of the beach … the long, barefoot walks; the private conversations with God; the captivating, endangered sea turtles; or maybe it’s the peace that comes with the rise and fall of the miraculous ocean tide.
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