Written by best-selling author Nicholas Sparks, this novel was adapted into a movie in 2002.

It’s a coming-of-age story concerning a pair of unlikely* young lovers.

In a corny flashback* device that mimics “The Notebook,” 57-year-old Landon Carter spirits himself back to his fateful senior year in high school in Beaufort, North Carolina, when he was an archetypal* troublemaking teenager of the 1950s, changed forever by an unexpected first love.

Jamie Sullivan, the Bible-toting minister’s daughter, with her drab* brown sweaters, spinster* hairstyle and sincere, beatific* advice, is the obvious target of high school ridicule*. Despite conspiring in Sullivan’s derision*, class president Carter, desperate for a date for the homecoming dance, finds himself asking Sullivan. Afterwards, she asks him to participate with her in the metaphor-laden school Christmas play (Sullivan plays the angel). Carter endures the taunting* of his friends and forms an uneasy friendship with Sullivan, which is carefully supervised by her father.

The teens visit needy orphans, give Oscar-worthy performances in the school play and share dreams watching the sunset. Carter realizes he’s in love with Sullivan, but, of course, she is hiding a devastating* secret that could wring her from Carter’s arms forever. Now tortured by his knowledge of what will be her terrible fate, he must make the decision that throws him into adulthood.

The book is available at online bookstores like jd.com.(SD-Agencies)