Dear John by Nicholas Sparks


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
***This review contains spoiler alerts.***

Savannah and John meet at the beach in Wilmington on John's leave from military duty. It's love at first sight. They spend every day together and their love grows stronger. They promise to write each other when he is away and they write regularly. On his next leave they spend those two weeks inseperable. He goes back and is 6 months away from an honorable discharge when 9/11 hits and he decides to re-enlist. Savannah doesn't take this well and their relationship starts to falter. However, the relationship he has had with his father become's stronger. I found this part of the book very heart-warming, because as an adult, John starts to realize why his father is the way he is and learns to love him unconditionally and realize's his father was a good father to him. Later Savannah realize's she can't handle the distance any longer and break's everything off. Hence, 'Dear John'.

Years later, John goes back to visit Savannah and finds that she has married. This the part that really got me. Savannah's husband is in the hospital, dying, and she and John are going over when they first met and all their memories and admit how much they still love each other. And the whole scene become's way to intimate for a married woman and an ex-lover. However, John realize's, as much as he wants to, he can't destroy a marriage. So the book ends half-way decently.

What I did get from this book, though, was that when you love someone unconditionally, you put their happiness before your own. Also, some people come into our lives when we least expect but when we need it the most, even if we don't realize it.

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