The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

~I read this last summer and have not the slightest idea why I never posted it.

So here it is, dear readers! Please note I may have exaggerated on the severity of the sexual content. *sheepish grin* I tend to do that sometimes...~

Published: July 5^th, 2004

Publisher: Bantam

Pages: 214

Rating: 4/5

The reason I read this book was for two reasons. First, my mom is crazy in love with the movie. Second, I was in the mood for a romance. I wasn’t sure how it was going to be. I had read The Last Song last summer and couldn’t really get into it. I was sickened by the emotional tension between the characters and disgusted at the many cuss words. But The Notebook was different. In a way.

            Noah is just a country guy who buys and fixes up an old house his hometown of New Bern, North Carolina (I love books that take place in my home state!). Allie is just a city girl who is engaged to a successful lawyer. One summer many years ago, they fell in love. But it wasn’t just any old summer romance. It was rare and life-long. That love was rekindled when Allie goes in search of Noah three weeks before her wedding. They relive all the memories of that summer long ago as the world fades away and the only thing left is each other. But seems it can’t last forever. Allie must decide what she wants- do her duty to her parents and marry a man she doesn’t truly love, or throw it all away for her Noah?

            First off, I was so surprised at the kind of love stories that Nicholas Sparks writes. I mean, he’s male! I just never knew that GUYS could write like that.  I loved loved loved this book. I usually don’t go for the unimpassioned, stiff, adult romance kind of novels, but this one was nothing like those at all. Unimpassioned? Far from it. Stiff? Hardly.  This book was so romantic. *sigh* I loved the part when Noah took Allie to the little lagoon filled with fowl of every shape and kind. To be honest, I loved the first part of the book, when Noah and Allie are still young, but I hated the last part, when they are old and Allie has Alzheimer’s. The very last page is good, though.

            Of course, there were several things that Nicholas added that were inappropriate. Some cuss words here and there. But the “love scenes” blew me away. The way I felt after reading them can be described in one word: guilty. I’ve never read anything like them before. God forgive me, I should have skipped them. I’ve never seen the movie, but apparently, those scenes weren’t left out. There are most definitely ways to communicate to your readers what is going on without all the steamy descriptive stuff. But I digress. The Notebook is an amazing read about true and faithful love, and whether you let it or not, it will sweep you off your feet and make you long for the rare kind of love Allie and Noah had.

Quick Content Review:

Profanity: Mild

Violence: None

Sexual: Heavy