"It was, I remembered thinking, the most difficult walk anyone ever had to make. In every way, a walk to remember."
A Walk to Remember is a drama romance novel by Nicholas Sparks with a bittersweet ending. The plot is set in a small town of North Carolina; Beaufort. The story is a narrative by Landon Carter, a high school ruffian, of the time when he was first touched by the power and magic of love, in his senior year. Certainly, the last person he thought he'd fall in love with was the town's Baptist Minister's daughter, Jamie Sullivan. A quiet yet the most pure-hearted girl who always carried a Bible with her wherever she went. She was busy living happily in her little parallel universe without a care in the world what other teens think of her or if she fits in or not because she stood out. She used to take care of her widowed father, used to rescue hurt animals, and used to help out at the local orphanage.
Landon has always avoided her but fates collide and being the newly elected class president, he is desperate for a date to the dance. Sure as ever that she'll be available, he asks her out not knowing that his life would never be the same again. Then comes the town's tradition, the Christmas play where they both play parts. They rehearsed; they walked back home; they talked. Spending more time with Jamie makes him feel the depths of emotions he never thought he could handle. In short moments of ecstasy, he realizes that he has fallen in love with her. But fate has other plans for them. Jamie tells him her most feared and kept secret which makes him realize what he holds the dearest to himself and his heart, and how Jamie is too pure for this world.
Sparks will not only make you fall in love with the book but also with the idea of love, only to turn it into a tearjerker at the end. It is one beautiful perfect autumn fiction when thoughts turn into life’s journeys, both mapped and unmapped.