Dear John: The Ending

*Contains traces of spoilers.*

 

I love the novel and the film of Dear John, both causing my emotions to self-destruct into a puddle of tears, however, the ending of the novel is very different to the film.

 

Closing the novel in the summer of '09, I was confused. Once again, Nicholas Sparks had left me in a daze; he made me think, made me wonder. They weren't together. Two of my favourite fictional characters did not end up with the ending that I wanted. Why was that? I was sad and emotional, but I simultaneously knew that Nicholas Sparks was teaching me a cruel but beautiful (and alright, in hindsight, necessary!) lesson.

 

After my mum read the novel, she comforted me, told me to stop crying and see the rainbow of a moral, the sunshine after a storm, the stars lighting the darkness: John was a good man. "It would be what he wanted," my mum said. I continued to wallow in self-pity before I found myself happier one Sunday evening. I saw the silver lining.

 

"I wanted them to be happy. I wanted her to be happy." It look me a long time to read this without crying but once I was enlightened by this silver lining, I smiled. The character of John Tyree touched me a lot and his ending opened my eyes. Even re-reading that Epilogue now makes me slightly nostalgic: longing for John and Savannah to have their story continue beyond the pages of the novel, but also feeling a comfort deep down in John's actions. In my eyes, the moon to John was Savannah and stood for everything good and everything sweet and innocent and pure. John watched as Savannah, too, relaxed in the moon's presence and to me, that is everything. That let me feel at peace and realise the beauty of that ending.

 

After reading the novel, I thought John had no future without Savannah. That's not true: John had memories and love in his heart and the knowledge that Savannah had that love too. John had the reminder that Savannah had made him a better man, a more caring man. Savannah gave John his future.

My book may be tear-stained, but my heart is smiling from the solemn, yet comforting ending to this novel.

 

Happy Endings & Beginnings,

 

The Girl in the Moonlight.

 

P.s. I may have exaggerated slightly about my reaction to the end of the novel, however any description of how I outwardly acted was what I was bottling up inside.



My 7 Favourite Nicholas Sparks Novels

Picking my top seven favourite Nicholas Sparks novels was literally one of the hardest things I have ever done. It should be known that the novels not mentioned were obviously all close to being in my top seven as I often changed my mind! There may be what you consider spoilers in this so do not read on if you haven't read the magic of these novels. I seriously spent time scratching my head and wanting to cry but here you go!

1. The Lucky One is based around Logan and his search for a girl that he believes saved his life as well as his life when he found her. I love The Lucky One because Logan is probably my joint favourite Nicholas Sparks male character. He is so caring and sweet and when I finished the novel I had to remind my self he's not real. Yes he's perfect, but he's not real. Beth is so strong but vulnerable, that these two together made my favourite novel that I return to if I have nothing to read. It is the perfect love story.

2. Safe Haven, a very gripping novel about the beautiful Katie overcoming her ex and finding peace with the lovely Alex never fails to have me up throughout a night reading. I have already raved about before: http://thegirlinthemoonlight.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/safe-haven.html and I just love Alex (my joint first favourite).

3. A Walk To Remember, I read in a night because I was so gripped with the characters of Jamie and Landon. The fact that they were polar opposites and yet their relationship was so fairy-tale-like gave me those goosebumps that can only be produced from books. I love how, when reading it, you see Landon change in front of you and how his love is so big for the lovely and selfless Jamie. "You have to promise you won't fall in love with me." When I first read Jamie saying this, I knew Nicholas Sparks was going to make my heart weep, and I thank him for it because this novel is just fantastic.

4. The Choice has to be in my top seven because I love the development of the characters in this novel. I fall in love with each male character in Nicholas Sparks novels too quickly, but I love Travis for different reasons. I love him for how he is with his friends as well as how lovely he is to Gabby, his neighbour who didn't return it straight away but yet he was still somewhat besotted with her, at first not knowing why. Reading the change in Gabby was incredibly sweet as, in her eyes Travis went from being someone who "knew" he was "really good-looking" from her being able to "imagine spending the rest of [her] life with [him]" and that's what makes this novel perfect to me.

5. Best of Me is heart-breakingly beautiful, not only because two teenage sweethearts regretfully went their separate ways, but because of the moral, yet incredibly needed ending. I loved the book so much that I wrote a song about it because, out of all of Nicholas Sparks' novels, Best of Me touched me in a really different and solemn way.

6. Message in a Bottle is based around Theresa Osborne, a journalist who becomes interested in a charming, but heart-breaking love story from a letter that washed up onto a beach in a bottle. I love this novel because I feel like the two main characters, Theresa and the lovely Garrett find some kind of calmness after overcoming events that happened before in their lives. Garrett, to me is charming and sweet and his troubles with moving on from Catherine make it all the more tragically beautiful.

7. True Believer really is joint sixth because I could not choose between this and Message in a Bottle. This novel is just an endearing and lovely story about a seemingly "cynical" man, Jeremy and one of my favourite of Nicholas Sparks' female characters, Lexie. She is so seemingly strong and independent that when her walls break down - so to speak - she becomes even more awesome. There's something about the way Nicholas Sparks presents small towns and even how some of his characters resent characteristics of them that makes me want to live in one all the more and this novel certainly captures why I do so much! The ending to this novel is my favourite ending ever...I genuinely was in tears for an hour.

Dear Nicholas Sparks,

Please can you write me my story?

x

Books & Hot Chocolate,

The Girl in the Moonlight.

Billy and Me

With  my copy of "Billy and Me" pre-ordered and ready for the 23rd May of this year, I am not sure as to whether I am fully prepared to weep at the romance and beauty of what I know will be perfection by Giovanna Fletcher.

Information on Amazon:

When you've got the dream boyfriend everything should be perfect, right?

So why isn't it? wonders Sophie May.

When Sophie and Billy met and fell in love, she thought she was living in a fairytale.

After all, Billy is an actor, a teen heartthrob adored by girls around the world - and he loves Sophie. She's the only girl for him.

But being on Billy's arm comes at a price. Their relationship has thrown Sophie right in the spotlight after years of shying away from attention.

Can she handle the constant scrutiny that comes with being with Billy? But most of all, is she ready for her secret heartbreak to be found out and shared with the nation?

Charming, heartwarming and utterly romantic, Billy and Me will completely capture your heart.

Link to pre-order: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1405909951/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d3_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1TQNM7F6NX0MHWYMYNF4&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=358549767&pf_rd_i=468294

Waiting to have a copy of this book will be a heart-warming torture and I shall embrace it every day! Giovanna's blog posts, tweets and photos are awesome and so I do not doubt for one second that this will be the perfect recipe coated in lots and lots of sugar-drops.

Sunsets & Shooting Stars,

The Girl in the Moonlight.