What's super-funny about this is that I hate Nicholas Sparks anyway, and my coworker gave me this book for some light reading. So I read it, inasmuch as you can read something this poorly written (I've seriously seen better first drafts in writing workshops) -- it didn't take long, so I can't even be annoyed by losing hours of my life to it or anything. In addition to being poorly written, it's garbage. Just complete, utter, trite, cliched garbage.

So I took it back to my coworker and made a comment about how it was a "quick read," trying to be nice in case she had liked it. And she goes, "I didn't even make it past page 30 because I knew it wasn't going to end well."

Horrible. Horrible, stupid book.

I hope some day I can just phone them in like this. What's shocking is that this was one of his earlier efforts -- which means that crap like The Notebook and Dear John were still to come. It means that someone still wanted to publish his books even after this piece of garbage saw the light of day. To which I say WOW. Just... wow.

Sometimes, belonging to a book club (or two, or in my case, three) means that you are introduced to something that you would have never read on your own, that turns out to stretch your mind and lead to interesting discoveries...and other times, you are so aghast by someone's favorite that you avoid the discussion of the book so as not to hurt the person's feelings who suggested it. Here on Goodreads, I will pull no punches. This book reads like a Hallmark card, or a serial in a woman's magazine, or worse yet--a Lifetime movie. The premise is lame and unbelievable...how many dying husbands make pre-death arrangements for a dirty puppy to be delivered to the grieving widow on Christmas--in a cardboard box, no less? Why was the pup in such sad shape? Was the husband so ill that he ordered the pup from a substandard puppy mill? Ah, but with the wisdom that people about to die seem to have, he has chosen well, and she is thrilled to have the responsibility of training and caring for an enormous dog instead of being able to choose for herself if she wants to take this on, or perhaps choose a nice low maintenance goldfish instead. The rest of the story is so much like others of this genre that you may feel like you've already read it. The charming, handsome man who turns out to be psychotic, the man she thinks of as a "friend" who is really in love with her (and, of course, ends up being her savior at the end and she loves him too...yawn.) In stories like this, good people rarely die, even after being beaten to a pulp and left for dead in a ditch for two days (slutty hairdresser who isn't very bright); a cop found shot in the head, lying face-down with his head in a pool of blood near the end of the story is out of the hospital in a few days instead of being six feet under; a dog who has been poisoned with enough rat poison to kill six dogs, who moments before was gasping his last breath on the ground and unable to stand, suddenly flies through the air and attacks psycho dude, saving his owner, only to finally die of gunshot wounds inflicted by psycho dude. Weepy dog death scene follows, but psycho dude is dead and doggie has fulfilled being her guardian as in the book title, and everyone else goes off happily into the sunset. This is basically the song "My Life Will Go On" by Celine Dion mixed with a touch of "Old Yeller."

Muchos años atras lei esta novela y me encantó. Adoré a Singer y a Mike y esta novela me pareció la mejor de cuantas habia leido de Sparks. Y ahora queria volver a releerla. Al principio fue tal y como la recordaba, empezo MUY bien y Mike y Singer seguian siendo tan adorables como los recordaba. Pero pronto Julie empezó a caerme mal y todo su encaprichamiento con Richard (el malo) me parecia absurdo, por no decir que estaba siendo t-o-n-t-a y c-r-u-e-l con su mejor amigo, Mike. Julie SABIA que Mike estaba perdidamente enamorado de ella pero para ella era como "¿Mike? ¿Estas sufriendo? Lo siento, es que antes de decir sentar cabeza contigo tengo que explorar todas las opciones". No la soporté. Y Richard es lo peor, y da mucho miedo, y era taaaaaan obvio que todo en él era falso que era como "¿Julie, como eres tan ciega?". Despues Julie decide romper con Richard, gracias a cierta cita espontanea con Mike. Amé el capitulo 14 y el 15, se respiraba ternura. Por fin Julie no era tonta e iba a hacer muy feliz a Mike. ¿Os he dicho que Mike es un buenazo? Me encanta ♥. Pero la paz duró poco, la felicidad de este nuevo amor Mike-Julie se veia empañada por el acoso de Richard y a partir de cierto momento, era imposible respirar con esta novela. Me he pasado casi 382 paginas con un fuerte nudo en el pecho y ¡es una relectura, por lo que ya se que Julie y Mike no mueren aunque Singer el guardiàn si :/! No esperaba que esta novela me gustara tanto como la primera vez pero tampoco esperaba odiarla :('.

¡Amantes de la novela negra, esta es vuestra novela! Pero la mia no.

Aspectos salvables de esta novela: excelente escritura, adorable Mike, encantador perro Singer, y esas bromas Mike - Henry. Fin.