For as long as he can remember, John has been angry. Angry at his mother who left when he was a baby; angry at his father who seems to have nothing to say to his only son; and angry at the world in general. Enlisting in the army seemed like the best thing to do, if not as something to focus his anger on, then just as something to do with his life.

But, on leave from the army, John meets Savannah, and his dull life immediately changes. After only a couple of weeks together, they both feel a love so strong for each other that they no they will survive a long separation while John finishes his duty in the army and that one day they will end up being married.

But when 9/11 comes and John feels the need to re-enlist, everything changes, and they both have to ask themselves whether their love is strong enough to make it through to the end.

~ My opinion ~

Although haven't read the book, The Notebook, I've seen the film and loved it, so when I saw that another of Nicholas Sparks' books was coming out as a film, I knew that I had to read the book first. I was quite excited to start this and had quite high expectations considering how brilliant and popular The Notebook was.

Sparks' writing style is absolutely brilliant and from the very first page I was thinking how great his writing is. He writes in this beautiful way that just captures you and makes you unable to look up from what you're reading, and this is the reason that the story is so good. I think if anyone else had tried to write it, it would be nowhere near as good, as he somehow makes everything seem so romantic and graceful. Even the things that aren't at all romantic, he still manages to make them feel it somehow and this made the entire story very moving.

The book is written from John's point of view so it's nice and different to get a guy's perspective on things for a change. John is a very easy character to like as, despite his temper and previous mistakes that he's made in his life, he is just too nice a person not to like. You immediately feel sorry for him due to his background with his parents and seeing his not very good relationship develop with his dad through the book, is quite touching to read about.

It's easy to see why John immediately falls in love with Savannah as Sparks describes her in a way that makes the readers want more of her too. She doesn't have a huge personality but there's something about her that is quiet, calm, vulnerable and maybe a little mysterious, and this makes her quite an intriguing and very likeable character.

To be quite honest, nothing properly major actually happened in the book and John just seemed to be plodding on with his life throughout it. When he meets Savannah, the story does get a lot more interesting as you can feel the connection between them straight away. Every time they met up I was edging for them to take their relationship further which is what made me unable to put the book down. Even waiting for their first kiss was agonising as it didn't happen until quite a way into the book.

I was expecting a lot from this book and, although those expectations were met, I didn't think it would go in the direction that it went in and this surprised me quite a bit. Saying that though, the ending was just so lovely and I couldn't help but smile at the strength of their love for each other.

This was a very good read and I can't wait to see the film now.