A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks

Nicholas Sparks is one of my favourite writers and this is the fifth book written by him that I have read. However, it is his third novel. Sparks was born in 1965 and is an American novelist, screenwriter and producer. So far he's written seventeen novels and one non-fiction together with his brother.

A Walk to Remember was published in October 1999 and the genre, as the rest of Sparks's novels, is romantic drama. The story takes place during 1958 in the small town of Beaufort, North Carolina. Landon Carter is 17 years old and behaves like most teenagers, mocking those who are different. Among those are Jamie Sullivan the Baptist reverend's daughter who goes to the same class as Landon. Jamie is about the last girl that Landon can imagine falling in love with. But destiny wants differently and Landon is in for the most  life changing year of his life. A year that makes him mature a lot and realize that looks aren't everything in life.

This novel is, as the others that I have read, easily read and you want to know what happens next. What I like about Spark's novels is that they are both predcitable and unpredictable at the same time. They are love stories but there is usually a problem that the two lovers have to overcome and there isn't always the happy ending that you would wish for, but the protagonist usually finds comfort in his/her situation. This is probably what makes his novels feel so suitable to turn into a film and eight of them have been adapted to film so far. A Walk to Remember was adapted in 2002, starring Shane West and Mandy Moore.

While this is a story that pulls at your heart strings and well worth reading, I don't think it is the best of Spark's novels that I have read so far. But I warmly recommend those who like a good love story to read it.