The Last Song

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The Last Song is a romantic novel written by Nicholas Sparks.

Veronica "Ronnie" Miller Used to Be a Sweet Kid - she was cheerful and considered a piano prodigy under the tutelage of her father Steve. But when her parents divorce and her father moves away supposedly because he was cheating on their mother, her life is turned upside down. Upset, she stops playing the piano. Three years later, she has alienated herself from her family, becoming a rebellious, angry, stubborn eighteen-year-old who regards anything regarding her father with disdain. This is forced to change, however, when her mother Kim drives her and her brother Jonah to their father's cabin in an attempt to get them closer to their father.

Ronnie initially hates the town of Tybee Island, and not just because it was where her father grew up. Her attitude towards her father remains condescending and apathetic, despite the fact that Jonah and her father reconnect easily - Steve even lets his son help him on a stained glass window he's working on for the local church (gossip says that it was Steve who'd set fire to the local church). She's clearly miserable, and this shows in her attitude towards everyone, including handsome, athletic Will Blakelee, but they reconcile later. In the interim, Ronnie's already met Blaze, a rebellious outcast who lives with her beautiful, abusive boyfriend Marcus. Marcus hits on Ronnie which leads to Blaze jumping to conclusions and she gets revenge by framing Ronnie for a watch theft. She is, of course, promptly arrested.

Will and Ronnie begin to fall in love when, on his aquarium volunteer work, he meets her guarding a nest of sea turtle eggs she'd committed to guarding. As their relationship deepens, Ronnie also begins to reconcile with her father and brother. All's fine and good, though, until Steve collapses in a coughing fit and it's revealed he'd been diagnosed with cancer prior to the start of the story. What follows is a story of redemption, love, and forgiveness as Ronnie is faced with the task of caring for him.

Yup, definitely everything you can expect from Nicholas Sparks.

Sparks wrote the movie, which premiered in 2010, as a star vehicle for Miley Cyrus, (who stars as Ronnie, with Greg Kinnear as Steve and Liam Hemsworth as Will) and then the wrote the novel to go along with it.

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Contains examples of:

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Blaze to Marcus.
• Alpha Bitch: Ashley.
• Award Bait Song: When I Look At You by Miley Cyrus
• Broken Bird: Blaze.
• Crash Into Hello: How Ronnie and Will meet - he crashed into her while playing volleyball and spilled her strawberry milkshake all over her shirt.
• Color Wash: And how, Will brings sunny daylight to otherwise somber occasions.
• Deadpan Snarker: Blaze, and to a lesser extent Ronnie.
• Designated Love Interest: Some see Will as this.
• Embarrassing First Name: Blaze's real name is Galadriel. Her mother was apparently a big fan.
• Fake American: Australian Liam Hemsworth playing southern boy Will, and strangely enough, his costar as well. Although Miley Cyrus is certainly an American, she is definitely not from New York like her character, Ronnie is and you can tell.
• Floating Head Syndrome: One of the posters might just contain the most literal example ever of Floating Head Syndrome. Liam's Hemsworth's face is shown in profile, framed against the sun, with his neck cut off at the base of his jaw and skull, making it absolutely nothing but a floating decapitated head.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: The Japanese dub of the Film of the Book has Alto Saotome and Akari Hinomoto fall in love in the oceanside.
• Morality Pet: The turtles, of all things, seem to be one for Ronnie.
• The Mourning After: After Steve dies.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Ronnie was named after Miley's grandfather, Senator Ron Cyrus, by Miley herself.
• Odd Friendship: Blaze and Ronnie.
• Preacher Man: Charlie Harris.
• Romance on the Set: Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth fell in love while filming the movie.
• Scully Box: With Miley at just under 5'6 and Liam at 6'3, it makes sense and can be seen in certain full promo shots like this one.
• Secretly Wealthy: Will.
• Standing Between the Enemies: Ronnie stood between Marcus and Scott to stop them from fighting.
• Tsundere: Ronnie.
• Talent Double: Averted. Miley learned how to play the piano for this movie in just three lessons.
• Turtle Power
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Ronnie.
• Your Cheating Heart: All throughout the book Ronnie believed that her father cheated on her mother when in fact the mother was the one cheating. Ronnie's father didn't tell her because he didn't want it to get in the way of their reconnection.