The Best of Me (2011) (edit title/settings)

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Characters edit see section history

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• Amanda Collier: The high school sweetheart of Dawson. She is now married with three children but her marriage struggles because her husband has a drinking problem. She's struggling with the knowledge that her life is not what she hoped it would be and wonders how it would've been different had her and Dawson stayed together when they were 18.
• Dawson Cole: The high school sweetheart of Amanda. He hasn't dated another girl since her. He goes to jail for killing someone in a car accident. Does not fit in with his crime family - the Coles.
• Tuck Hostetler: The old man that lost his wife and let Dawson stay in his garage while they formed a bond. He becomes close with both Amanda and Dawson. He is the reason they reconnect.
• Frank: Amanda's husband. Frank has a drinking problem that ruins their marrige and drives her into Dawsons arm's more.
• Crazy Ted Cole: Dawson's cousin. He is very aggressive and disregards all rules of society.
• Abee Cole: Dawson's cousin that tries to kill Dawson and is very protective of his girlfriends.
• Clara: Tuck's Wife
• Dr. David Bonner: Doctor who was killed in a car accident by Dawson.
• Marilyn Bennett-Bonner: Her husband dies in a car accident caused by Dawson. Because of this she has a difficult time raising her family and doesn't like Dawson.
• Evelyn Collier: Amanda's mother, who doesnt approve of Dawson. Even when they were teenager's she never has approved and she never will. Evelyn is a "typical" southern mother who is very concerned with her appearance and what others say and think.
• Morgan Tanner: Tuck's lawyer that sets up the funeral for Tuck and puts his plan to reconnect Dawson and Amanda in motion.
• Jared: Amanda's oldest child. He is in a car accident after he has to pick his father up because he drank too much.
• Lynn: Amanda's oldest daughter.
• Bea: Amanda's 3rd child.
• Annette: Amanda's youngest daughter.
• Alan Bonner: Son of Dr. Bonner who has a run-in with Abee and Ted Cole in the Tidewater bar.
• Candy: Add a description of this character.
• Dawson: he was tough but loving
• Lauren
• Leo
• Ron
• Melody
• Eugenia Wilcox
• Buster Tibson
• Emily
• Ella
• Tommy Cole
• Martha Ann
• Roger
• Alice Russell
• Amanda Ridley: simple romantic girl
• Mr. Tanner
• Irvin
• Lynn Harris
• Booklist
• Micah Sparks
• Dr. Mills
• Happy Bapetsi

Quotes edit see section history

• “I gave you the best of me, he'd told her once, and with every beat of her son's heart, she knew he'd done exactly that.”

  Amanda Collier

• “"If you love someone, you're supposed to let them go, right?"...... "And if they come back, it's meant to be?......"”

  Dawson Cole

• “that's because you were there. i knew you wouldn't let anything happen to me. i always felt safe when you were around.”

  Amanda Collier

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• Love, after all, always said more about those who felt it than it did about the ones they loved.

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• “Being together isn’t about a honeymoon. It’s about the real you and me. I want to wake up with you beside me in the mornings, I want to spend my evenings looking at you across the dinner table. I want to share every mundane detail of my day with you and hear every detail of yours. I want to laugh with you and fall asleep with you in my arms. Because you aren’t just someone I loved back then. You were my best friend, my best self, and I can’t imagine giving that up again.”

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• Life was messy. Always had been and always would be and that was just the way it was, so why bother complaining? You either did something about it or you didn’t, and then you lived with the choice you made.

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• “You might not understand, but I gave you the best of me, and after you left, nothing was ever the same.”

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• What the younger generation didn’t understand was that the grass was greenest where it’s watered,

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• There’s a lot of magic between you, ain’t no denying that. And magic makes forgettin’ hard.”

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• Everyone wanted to believe that endless love was possible. She’d believed in it once, too, back when she was eighteen. But she knew that love was messy, just like life. It took turns that people couldn’t foresee or even understand, leaving a long trail of regret in its wake. And almost always, those regrets led to the kinds of what if questions that could never be answered.

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• The past can be escaped only by embracing something better, and he figured that was what she’d done.

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• It was a life, she eventually concluded, that had been lived in the middle ground, where contentment and love were found in the smallest details of people’s lives. It was a life of dignity and honor, not without sorrows yet fulfilling in a way that few experiences ever were.

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• Contents Front Cover Image

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Oriental, North Carolina: The town where Amanda, Dawson & Tuck grew up.
• Southport
• Philadelphia
• Wilmington
• Dorchester
• Atlantic City
• North Carolina
• Boston
• Chinatown

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Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Nicholas Sparks (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813

Notes for Parents edit see section history

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Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction

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