Friday, January 15, 2010

Dear John by Nicholas Sparks... An Audiobook Review

"And when her lips met mine, I knew that I could live to be a hundred and visit every country in the world, but nothing would ever compare to that single moment when I first kissed the girl of my dreams and knew that my love would last forever..."

Nicholas Sparks knows how to whisper to our hearts. Some of his wonderful love stories include The Notebook and Message in a Bottle, both of which brought tears to my eyes... Dear John by Nicholas Sparks is no different... get out your tissues! It is a heartwarming, wonderful love story.

This review is for the audiobook, which I downloaded onto my iPod and listened to over the course of a few days. If I had the book I would have probably been feverishly turning the pages, but since it was an audiobook, I was forced to relax and take it all in...

First the story - the beauty and heartache of a love so genuine between two complete opposites. John meets Savannah while on leave from the Army. She's a college girl, wholesome, down to earth, sweet, and helping to build houses for Habitat for Humanity. He's a bit of a bad boy, but he captures her attention as he saves her purse from drowning... As they slowly get to know each other, they slowly fall in love, and Savannah promises to wait for John as he finishes his tour.... But things have a way of not working out sometimes, especially after 9/11, when many lives changed and John feels obligated to re-enlist to help his country. Savannah slowly dies inside every time she is separated for these long periods of time, she must decide if she can wait out another tour of duty... But the story goes beyond the love story between John and Savannah and the obstacles they must overcome, it is also a love story between a father and son, as John tries to understand his father who raised him alone and who suffers from Asperger's disease.

Holter Graham narrated Dear John and is wonderful. The story must be good to hold your attention, but in an audiobook so must the voice of the narrator. Holter Graham has a long list of audiobooks under his belt, his first recording in 2004. Holter's voice has a warm quality to it, with subtle inflections that added to my enjoyment of his reading. Holter's timing is perfect as he guides us through the story and his voice is interesting as it changes into Savannah and the other characters in the story. Holter was easily able to convey the emotions felt as he read the story, and all these qualities made this audiobook a winner, and a nice change of pace.

Listen to the soothing voice of Holter Graham reading you a story... not just any story, a love story that will have you question the way life can sometimes turn out, and if you would have done anything differently. *Remember to make sure you have a box of tissues where ever you are!

The unabridged audiobook is 8 CD's. Listen to an excerpt of Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. I want to thank Anna of Hachette Book Group for sending me a review copy! I enjoyed listening to this audiobook so much! AND, you can find the unabridged audiobook for Dear John on sale for under $10 at Audio Editions right now!

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