The Last Song

The Last Song
By Nicholas Sparks
Fiction
$7.99 Paperback or $7.99 Kindle www.amazon.com
Released August 20, 2009

I will start this review and end this review with the same words...sniff.sniffle..sob...sniff ..Could someone get me a tissue please...
Now on to the book. We already know by now that Nicholas Sparks tends to write books about love and heartbreak. To be fair; happiness too (sometimes). This book is certainly no different. It was released at the same time that my own father was battling colon cancer. I don't want to issue a spoiler alert but there is a powerful father-child storyline here and it may be just the timing that made me really connect with this novel.
This is the story of 17 year-old Veronica "Ronnie" Miller. She and her ten year old brother Jonah are sent to spend the summer with their father, Steve, at his beach cottage (not his vacation home but his real home). No surprise her parents are divorced and she's pissed about it and blames her dad for  running out on the family. He was a world-renowned composer and pianist. Ronnie is a very talented pianist herself but has a self-imposed ban on playing or writing just to spite her dad.
You get the picture that Ronnie is a moody, rebellious teen that isn't happy about her forced vacation to the beach. She's way more big-city wears black kinda girl and doesn't fit in with the bikini beach crowd. From the beginning of this book you also get little hints about the health of her dad, Steve.
Her first month at the beach she pretty much spends ignoring her father (hard to do in his one room cottage) and hanging out with the wrong crowd. Enter in trouble making duo Marcus and his girlfriend Blaze. Mean-ass teens who make Ronnie miserable.
Eventually Ronnie catches the attention of local rich boy Will Blakelee. They bond over the rescue of a sea turtle nest and spend the rest summer falling in love. Ronnie also slowly begins to repair her relationship with her dad.
There are many little stories woven in to the main plot. An unsolved church fire, recreating a stained glass window, teen drama, and family secrets. At the very heart of this book, though, is love. The love we have with family and friends and the power of love in our lives. Sniff.....sniffle..sob...sniff ..Could someone get me a tissue please...
Read it: Yes!
But: Don't blame me if it makes you want to call your dad and say "I love you" or wish that you still could.
Bonus: There is a movie based on this book starring Miley Cyrus. Please don't judge the book by the movie.