** spoiler alert ** Mmmmmm Kay

Normally I love Nicholas Sparks' books. He's got us crazy, unpredictable chicks down to a "T".

This is a very iffy book for me to review because there were things that I loved and things that I hated.

For starters: Has there ever been a less sympathetic female heroine in all of literature to rival that of Bella Swan? Not in recent years. Amanda is a train wreck. She has no idea who she is or what she wants. When she sees Dawson and she starts going at him about how she can't believe he never moved on blah blah blah then come to find out that she's just as in love with him as he is with her but she chose to simply power on in a loveless marriage simply to prove to herself that she could. Then when their romance is rekindled she chooses to make out with him and hold his hand and let him undress her but they do not have sex? Come on Nick, you can do better than that! The idyllic world that most of his novels reside in is ideal because there's at least a semblance of reality most times, this just missed the damn mark. She has no spine, a very cloudy sense of right and wrong and the last 1/4 of the book being all about her kind of made me want to quit. I found myself hoping for Dawson's sake that they'd end up together but....we'll get to that.

I happened to though, love Dawson. I love how earnest he is, how he is genuinely plagued by his family name and their history in the town. I love how strong and willing he is. I do not though, understand how he has loved this weak woman all these years. ( I should mention that I've been with my husband since I was 16, my high school sweetheart. I'm not some jaded serial dater who thinks that love like this is a fairy tale, quite the opposite. )

The story kind of dropped off and went bonkers after they arrived back at Tucks after caring for his ashes. They mention the accident and how there was another car on the road but never wrapped that up (I assumed they'd find that it was his cousins that had driven him off the road). They went right into Amanda's stuff and left the scene at the Tidewater hanging. I'd rather have heard things from Mrs Bonner's perspective as she heard what had happened. And what are the odds that someone from her hometown wouldn't have mentioned to Amanda's mom that Dawson had died? And if they had, how could she not have found an appropriate time to tell her herself?

All in all this thing was a cluster. Unanswered questions and too much time on the waif that is Amanda. My biggest problem though is that, after Dawson died...Amanda never "saw" him. They made such a big deal about their deep love and they spent so much time on the Tuck story, and then they never elaborated with Amanda and Dawson. A complete mess. For shame, Mr Sparks!