Finally, thanks to the Reading Rush 2020 challenge of reading a book based on a movie you've already seen, I was able to take this one off of my TBR list. I've been meaning to read it for years!

I think that if I had read this book before ever seeing the movie, my thoughts and rating may have been different. But since the book was first published in 1996 and the movie was released in 2004 and I was only 7 and 15 at those times, that wasn't too possible. So here we are.

Honestly, I was a bit underwhelmed by this novel. The writing seemed very basic compared to Nicholas Sparks' later novels. I wasn't drawn to how the characters were written or portrayed, and I didn't feel emotionally connected through most of the book. Except for Noah's character in the last quarter of the book. I couldn't help but feel his love for Allie shining through then. And reading about Alzheimer's is never easy for me.

Mostly throughout this book, I couldn't help but compare each part of the story to the movie portrayal, and honestly, I think the movie was better. The visual displays of love in the movie were more than what the author was able to describe with words. And the movie had me bawling. This book only had a little tug on my heartstring and nothing more.

So all in all, it's an okay book and I'm glad I read it. I still want to read all of the author's books. And thankfully the second half was much better than the first half in my opinion!