 - 5 Star Rating
The Notebook is an absolutely splendid romantic novel, certainly one of Sparks’ best in a whole string of romance novels. The Notebook reveals one of those rare occurrences of true love that usually only happens once in a lifetime if that.
It was setting up to be one of those endless lazy, hazy summers where school was out, romance was in the air and just about anything could happen. For Noah Calhoun, it all started the moment his friends, Fin and Sarah, introduced him to the new girl in town, Allie Nelson, at the annual summer festival. Noah was enamored right from the start with Allie and she was all he thought about day and night.
Allie liked Noah as well and they spent just about every waking moment together, albeit most of the time with Allie sneaking out or lying to her parents about where she was. Allie’s parents ran in wealthy social circles and didn’t think an ordinary boy with no real future was deserving of Allie’s time or affection.
Then summer was over, and Allie and her parents returned back to their home town. Her father had come to New Bern to take care of some business for his job just for the summer. It was heart breaking for both Noah and Allie, but being very young, just out of high school, she had to return back with her family.
Noah wrote letter after letter to Allie with no reply what so ever. All of his letters went unanswered for so long, that finally after 2 ½ years he wrote the last letter saying goodbye. He eventually went off to war and when he came back he struggled to try and live his life alone. He had never found anyone to replace Allie and found he faced her ghost constantly in almost everything he did.
Allie had went on with her life, staying in the elite social circles as her parents had planned for her eventually becoming engaged to a well-known and respected Southern lawyer. However, three weeks before her wedding, she saw an article in the paper about Noah and the old house he had just restored.
Fourteen years after that infamous summer in New Bern, Allie felt compelled to go see Noah and tell him of her engagement in person. What she didn’t realize was the flood of buried old feelings that would come back to the surface after that long away from Noah.
Now Allie found herself faced with the ultimate decision of whether to take the sure path which would provide her a stable good life that her parents had worked hard to prepare her for, or follow her heart and see what a beautiful love could create out of nothing.
Even if two people find true love, being able to recognize it and then have the stars aligned just right to take full advantage of something that powerful rarely happens. Instead what usually happens is people just settle for what is easy or they think will suit them the best in the future. Unfortunately, this makes for some sad hearts and broken relationships.
You owe it to yourself to find out the depth of the passion Noah and Allie shared and what Allie’s final decision was that would change the course of both of their lives forever.
Author : Nicholas Sparks
Barry Bostwick
Published By : Hachette Audio
Runtime : 6 hours
Categories : Romance
Price : $25.98 $15.28
A man with a faded, well-worn notebook open in his lap. A woman experiencing a morning ritual she doesn't understand. Until he begins to read to her. The Notebook is an achingly tender story about the enduring power of love, a story of miracles that will stay with you forever.
Set amid the austere beauty of coastal North Carolina in 1946, The Notebook begins with the story of Noah Calhoun, a rural Southerner returned home from World War II. Noah, thirty-one, is restoring a plantation home to its former glory, and he is haunted by images of the beautiful girl he met fourteen years earlier, a girl he loved like no other. Unable to find her, yet unwilling to forget the summer they spent together, Noah is content to live with only memories...until she unexpectedly returns to his town to see him once again.
Allie Nelson, twenty-nine, is now engaged to another man, but realizes that the original passion she felt for Noah has not dimmed with the passage of time. Still, the obstacles that once ended their previous relationship remain, and the gulf between their worlds is too vast to ignore. With her impending marriage only weeks away, Allie is forced to confront her hopes and dreams for the future, a future that only she can shape.
Like a puzzle within a puzzle, the story of Noah and Allie is just the beginning. As it unfolds, their tale miraculously becomes something different, with much higher stakes. The result is a deeply moving portrait of love itself, the tender moments and the fundamental changes that affect us all. Shining with a beauty that is rarely found in current literature, The Notebook establishes Nicholas Sparks as a classic storyteller with a unique insight into the only emotion that really matters.
"I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough."
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