NICHOLAS SPARKS
1) Dear John
Author
Lexile Measure
850L
Summary
An angry rebel, John dropped out of school and enlisted in the Army, not knowing what else to do with his life--until he meets the girl of his dreams, Savannah. Their mutual attraction quickly grows into the kind of love that leaves Savannah waiting for John to finish his tour of duty, and John wanting to settle down with the woman who captured his heart. But 9/11 changes everything. John feels it is his duty to re-enlist. And sadly, the long separation...
Author
Summary
Is there really such thing as a lucky charm? The hero of Nicholas Sparks's new novel believes he's found one in the form of a photograph of a smiling woman he's never met, but who he comes to believe holds the key to his destiny. The chain of events that leads to him possessing the photograph and finding the woman pictured in it is the stuff of love stories.
3) The guardian
Author
Summary
Four years after her dying husband gave her one last gift, a Great Dane puppy, and promised to always keep her safe, twenty-nine-year-old Julie Barenson is finally ready to love again, but danger lurks as she tries to decide which of two men will make her happy.
4) The notebook
Author
Series
Lexile Measure
850L
Appears on list
Summary
In a Southern nursing home, an 80-year-old man reads from his diary to his wife, suffering from Alzheimer's. It's the story of their teenage romance, followed by years of separation because he was from the wrong class, followed by her decision, on his return from World War II, to be her own woman and marry him. Set amid the austere beauty of coastal North Carolina in 1946, The Notebook begins with the story of Noah Calhoun, a rural Southerner returned...
6) The wedding
Author
Series
Lexile Measure
930L
Summary
After more than twenty years of marriage, Wilson Lewis, son-in-law of Allie and Noah Calhoun is forced to admit that the romance has gone out of his marriage. Desperate to win back his wife Jane's heart, he must figure out how to make her fall in love with him again.
Author
Lexile Measure
790L
Summary
"Seventeen-year-old Veronica 'Ronnie' Miller's life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains alienated from her parents, particularly her father-- until her mother decides it would be in everyone's best interest if she and her brother spent the summer with him"--Jacket.
8) The choice
Author
Lexile Measure
870L
Summary
Travis Parker has everything a man could want: a good job, loyal friends, even a waterfront home in small-town North Carolina. In full pursuit of the good life--boating, swimming, and regular barbecues with his good-natured buddies--he holds the vague conviction that a serious relationship with a woman would only cramp his style. That is, until Gabby Holland moves in next door. Despite his attempts to be neighborly, the appealing redhead seems to...
Author
Lexile Measure
730L
Summary
Recently selected as the 'Best Author' by readers of Entertainment Weekly, Nicholas Sparks is one of America's preeminent storytellers. Now Sparks spins a tale about a man, a woman, and the devastating secret that threatens to keep them apart ... Miles Ryan's life seemed to end the day his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident two years ago. Missy had been his first love, and Miles fervently believes she will be his last. As a deputy sheriff in...
11) The longest ride
Author
Summary
Ira Levinson is in trouble. Ninety-one years old and stranded and injured after a car crash, he struggles to retain consciousness until a blurry image materializes beside him: his beloved wife Ruth, who passed away nine years ago. Urging him to hang on, she forces him to remain alert by recounting the stories of their lifetime together. Ira knows that Ruth can't possibly be in the car with him, but he clings to her words and his memories, reliving...
12) True believer
Author
Series
Jeremy Marsh volume 1
Lexile Measure
880L
Summary
As a science journalist with a regular column in Scientific American, Jeremy Marsh specializes in debunking the supernatural and has a real nose for the strange and unusual. A born skeptic, he travels to the small town of Boone Creek, North Carolina, determined to find the real cause behind the ghostly apparitions that appear in the town cemetery. What he doesn't plan on, however, is meeting and falling hopelessly in love with Lexie Darnell, granddaughter...
14) Safe haven
Author
Lexile Measure
830L
Summary
"When a mysterious young woman named Katie appears in the small North Carolina town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. Beautiful yet self-effacing, Katie seems determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into two reluctant relationships: one with Alex, a widowed store owner with a kind heart and two young children; and another with her plainspoken single neighbor, Jo. Despite her reservations,...
15) The rescue
Author
Summary
Taylor McAden, a volunteer fireman, is always first to leap into a dangerous situation, but never willing to let himself fall in love. Then he meets Denise Holden, a single mother who has moved to Edenton, N.C. to start a new life with her son.
16) See me
Author
Lexile Measure
830L
Summary
"Colin Hancock is giving his second chance his best shot. At 28, he's focused only on walking a straight line - getting his teaching degree, working out at the gym religiously, and avoiding all the places and people that proved so destructive in his earlier life. The last thing he's looking for is a serious relationship. But when Maria Sanchez crosses paths with him on a rainswept night in North Carolina, his plans are upended in a way that will rattle...
17) The best of me
Author
Summary
This is the story of two small-town former high school sweethearts from opposite sides of the tracks. Now middle-aged, they have taken wildly divergent paths, but neither has lived the life they imagined, and neither can forget the passionate first love that forever altered their world. When they are both called back to their hometown for the funeral of the mentor who once gave them shelter, they will be forced to confront the choices each has made,...
18) The return
Author
Summary
#1 New York Times bestselling author Nicholas Sparks returns with a moving new novel about an injured army doctor and the two women whose secrets will change the course of his life. Trevor Benson never intended to move back to New Bern, North Carolina. But when a mortar blast outside the hospital where he worked as an orthopedic surgeon sent him home from Afghanistan with devastating injuries, the dilapidated cabin he'd inherited from his grandfather...
19) The wish
Author
Summary
In 1996 everything changed Maggie Dawes. Living with an aunt she barely knew in Ocracoke, a remote village on North Carolina's Outer Banks, she could think only of the friends and family she left behind. She meets Bryce Trickett, handsome, genuine, and newly admitted to West Point, Bryce gradually shows her how much there is to love about the wind-swept beach town, and introduces her to photography, a passion that will define the rest of her life....
20) Two by two
Author
Summary
"At 32, Russell Green has it all: a stunning wife, a lovable six year-old daughter, a successful career as an advertising executive and an expansive home in Raleigh. He is living the dream, and his marriage to the bewitching Vivian is the center of that. But underneath the shiny surface of this perfect existence, fault lines are beginning to appear...and no one is more surprised than Russ when he finds every aspect of the life he took for granted...