No sé por donde comenzar a describir este libro. Pero bueno, lo intentaré.
Mi amado Sparks, otra vez, logro cautivarme con sus historias de amor. Aunque en este libro, él, maneja un romance que a mí ya se me es un poco difícil de entender, ya que todo ocurre más precipitadamente que en los otros libros que he leído de él, pero aun así logra convencerme totalmente de que ese tipo de amor y romance puede ocurrir. Y es que sinceramente, este hombre llega a escribir una pagina del porque los hombre lobos existen, y yo le creo sin chistar (contradecir) ni una sola palabra.

Nicholas ejerce una atracción como autor de romance en mí, que ningún otro autor a logrado. Y es que no sé como explicarlo, ya que he leído muchas historias de amor las cuales me han gustado, incluso encantado, como es el caso de Yo antes de ti, pero siempre me han hecho sentir como que ese tipo de amor solo ocurren en las novelas, pero la forma de escribir de Sparks hace que crea en ese amor profundo e irracional de una forma muy rara.
Ya sé que puede parecer una tontería, pero cada una de sus palabras en sus libros me encantan.

*looks at his own rating nervously* Are you guys gonna hate me? Bash me? No? Good! Bcz one needs to have the freedom to dislike or hate any book, no matter how well received it is in general.

I picked this book bcz of a suggestion and well, as the rating tells you, it didn’t work out well. Not that I hated the book but I found it to be like an incessant droning voice. If anyone, most of you, like or love how this book reads, I am truly happy for you but for me personally it was so so so bland that I almost didn’t write a review for this.

I mean look at it objectively, what’s the story here, really. Allie and Noah were in love way back when they spent a summer together and then they got separated. They spent 14 years apart, which might I mention are 14 more years than they spent together but are still unable to move on. One fine day Allie, who is engaged to another guy now btw, decides that she really needs to see Noah even if it risks her marriage and off she goes. They meet, they “make love” and then they fall in love all over again and now Allie needs to make a decision about which guy to choose. That’s the nutshell of this book.

The characters are completely two dimensional and the story was super flat and the prose boring. There are no touching moments in the book that justify all the falling in love. There are no real moments here. The part towards the end with Allie and Noah being sickly is solely there to add a bittersweet feeling of having spent a life together which must end and I gotta tell you that it falls so flat.

Finally, there is also my pet peeve in this book (not exactly but close enough) that completely makes it a waste of time for me. Allie betrays 2 guys in this book. Allie goes and sleeps with Noah (they were in love, I get it, but even so) while she was already going out with another guy at that time. And she says she was glad it happened. Guess what, I am not! Then years later, Allie repeats the act, only this time it’s even more serious. This time around Allie is engaged with a decent guy who she lies to in order to come see Noah and then she sleeps with Noah despite being engaged to someone else and having her marriage in 3 weeks!

You can look at it and say that she was so deeply in love with Noah but from where I sit, I see this as a betrayal and cheating on your partner. More than that, the repetition of the act makes me doubt Allie as a character, makes me feel that this is her nature and then it makes me ask myself what is to stop her from doing the same to Noah. For me, this is an act that I find unforgivable. Sure this isn’t exactly an extra marital setting but for me, engaged and married aren’t much different. It’s all about a commitment. If you can break one, then you can break the other.
I also read in one of the reviews for this book that the author had the same situation of girl cheating on her fiancé in one of his other books. Now I am not sure if that is true but if it is, then it confirms what I felt through this book. The author is romanticizing cheating on your partner in the name of “love” and I find that absolutely abhorrent!

I also wanna comment on the author’s writing style but I am sorta afraid that some defender of the book/author will rise up to teach me how to read the book and which genre it fits into and all that crap. But let’s be honest, the day that I let my fear of such people rule me and keep me from writing an honest review will be the day I quit GR for good.
I found the author’s writing style very bland and poor, tbh. I didn’t see any spark there that would make me feel that this is a renowned author who has multiple books under his belt. I mean seriously, this is his writing style? This is so unimaginative and so lifeless. So damn dull that I can’t even. The writing on itself is completely unable to stimulate any emotions at all. I have come across writing styles like these only when I accept review copies from debut authors. Tbh with y’all, I have written review that are more poetic than this book. I am sorry but I failed to see just how this author is so well received. This book, this author is not for me.

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks is a story about two teenagers from opposite sides of the track who meet one fateful summer and fall in love for a lifetime. This novel was engaging and steady paced. I was able to read it in one sitting as I was drawn into the lives of Noah and Allie. Nicholas Sparks has created a poignant story about two people who try to recapture the love they once shared despite the passage of time.

Noah Calhoun is a simple boy with simple dreams. He loves poetry, his life in a small town, and a girl that was never meant to be his. Allie Nelson is accustomed to a life of riches and luxury, but she desires much more for herself. She loves art, music and spending time with a boy her parents do not approve of. As they explore their love for one another during their summer together, they realize that theirs is a love meant to last a lifetime. However, circumstances pull them apart for over 14 years and they are faced with trying to find a way to get back what they once had.

I enjoyed the story, but I feel the author could have spent a little more time telling the readers about Noah and Allie’s reunion and a little more of what they went through to make a life for themselves. It was interesting to experience this story through the eyes of Noah as he enters the last chapters of his life.

Compare Book to the Movie

I’ve never seen the movie nor read the book, so it was enjoyable to do both back to back. After finishing the book in one sitting, I watched the DVD and was immediately able to compare the differences between the two. I feel the book was well written and the movie did a great job of bringing the main events to screen.

One of the differences I noticed was the encounter between Allie and Martha. Martha was a love interest of Noah that never fully developed because he could not bring himself to move on. In the book, Martha leaves Noah well before Allie comes back into Noah’s life. In the book, they break up after Noah and Allie spend the night together, so obviously the timing was off, but it still worked well.

Another difference I noticed was the way the movie depicted Noah and Allie’s relationship as somewhat volatile. They fought and told each other on several occasions that they hated each other, when that never happened in the book. In the book, their love was perfect and steady. In the movie they fought quite a bit and their breakup in the movie was disheartening, which didn’t happen that way in the book. So there were differences in their character development between both.

The main difference between the book and the movie was the ending. As that would be a big spoiler for this review, I will not provide a detailed account, but let’s just say I felt the ending in the movie was more appropriate for this storyline.

Overall, I enjoyed both the movie and the book and I’m glad I chose this for my reading challenge.

Sure, pleasant story, but just too sweet and a too limited challenge for me I'm afraid. Although I also have my moments that I just want to enjoy a romantic story without too much thought. We can't always be reading high top unreadable literature... ;-) It's the ideal mix, tailormade to what the reader mind wants at a certain point in time. Two stars, therefore.

I decided to read this book because I absolutely love the movie. It's pretty muc the story of Levi and I, except that we're aren't old yet. He had to kind of convince me to date his, and it was the greatest summer of my life. We were separated by his time at Basic training and his mission to Taiwan. Neither of us had much closure when the relationship had to end. When he returned from his mission I was engaged to someone else, but I had already stated to realize that it wasn't meant to be for he and I. I ended the engagement long before I realized that Levi was the one for me. Levi and I were engaged when he'd been home from his mission for a month, and married 6 weeks later.

Back to the actual review....I positively adore this movie. Everything about it. So I thought I should read teh book it's based one. And I was disappointed! I like the movie much more. It's so much more descriptive. They are both very passionate characters, and Sparks depicts this is certain ways in the book, but leaves out important ways. Neither seems to have a temper in the book, which I think is part of being passionate. Feeling things strongly. I love that in the movie that are arguing in one anothers' faces on minute and sucking them the next. =o) I can think of several movie moments like this. None in the book.

I truly love the love story between the "old" Allie and Noah. It is the true love story, I feel. It is depicted well in both versions, though I like the movie ending better where they die together. In the novel, Sparks seems to focus more on the details of the older couple. I prefer the movie that takes two separate love stories and intertwines them seamlessly. It may be that Sparks wanted to write a love story for "seniors" and Hollywood knew that wouldn't fly and so they added things of their own. But I like Hollywood's version better.

I think I remember Nicholas Sparks saying that the movie is how the book should've turned out. I agree. I feel bad saying bad things about it because I love the story so much, I just prefer the movie version better.