If You Like Nicholas Sparks
You may also enjoy these other heart-tugging, romantic stories.
The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans
Teenager Grace Maclean loses a leg in an accident while riding her horse, Pilgrim. Grace and Pilgrim are both emotionally scarred as well as physically devastated by the accident. Grace's mother Annie finds her savior in Tom Booker, a man well known in equestrian circles for his almost mystical skills with horses. Annie packs up Grace and Pilgrim, leaves Grace's father in New York, and moves to Montana for the horse whisperer’s help. Inevitably, love blossoms between the gentle horseman and the uprooted sophisticate, a love with both wonderful and tragic consequences. Also try The Loop.
The Last Promise by Richard Paul Evans
Once called Ellen back in her small Utah town, Eliana is now the wife of Maurizio, the Italian who swept her off her feet to Tuscany – before becoming a philandering pig, and the mother of sweet, asthmatic Alessio. Her husband won’t divorce her and she can’t leave Italy with her son due to the sexist court system. But one day Eliana meets American art lover Ross Story and begins to reevaluate her life. Also try Evans’ Christmas Box Trilogy and The Locket.
The Gazebo by Emily Grayson
As teenagers, Martin Rayfiel, scion of a wealthy family, and Claire Swift, who lives on the wrong side of the tracks, discover they are made for each other. They make a valiant effort to escape their social destinies, briefly defying everyone to pursue their dreams in Europe. When Claire is forced to return home to tend to her sick mother and Martin loses his inheritance, they reluctantly marry others. For 50 years, however, they have met once a year in the gazebo in the town square, to affirm their lifelong, and now platonic, love.
On Mystic Lake by Kristin Hannah
Devastated by her divorce, Anne Colwater retreats to her childhood home in Washington, where she encounters her old friend Nick, a widower with an emotionally scarred young daughter. Also try Angel Falls and Between Sisters by this author.
Friendship Cake by Lynne Hinton
Five women, working together to create a church cookbook, share their passions, loves, and losses, including pastor Charlotte Stewart, who is suffering a crisis in faith; widow Margaret, the town confidante; and Jessie, the only African-American in an all-white church. Also try Garden of Faith.
Candles on Bay Street by K.C. McKinnon
A portrayal of small-town life chronicles the efforts of Sam Hebert, the veterinarian of Fort Kent, Maine, to understand the secrets of Dee Dee Michaud, the beauty who left town only to return years later to begin a candle business. Also try Dancing at the Harvest Moon.
Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
Aurora is the kind of woman who makes the whole world orbit around her, including a string of devoted suitors. Widowed and overprotective of her daughter, Aurora adapts at her own pace until life sends two enormous challenges her way: Emma's hasty marriage and subsequent battle with cancer. Terms of Endearment is the Oscar-winning story of a memorable mother and her feisty daughter and their struggle to find the courage and humor to live through life's hazards.
Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson
Kate Wilkerson found her perfect man at last, then one day, without explanation, he disappears leaving behind only a diary for her to read. The diary is written by a new mother for her baby son, Nicholas. Soon it becomes clear to Kate that the man who left is the husband and father in this young family. Also try Sam’s Letters to Jennifer.
The Last Valentine by James Michael Pratt
Writer Neil Thomas Jr. wants to share his parents' love story with the world, and unenthusiastic TV reporter Susan Allison is given the "fluff" assignment. Unexpectedly intrigued, both by widower Thomas and his parents' story, Allison feels compelled to learn more about Lt. Neil Thomas Sr. and his wife, Caroline. The novel moves between 1944, with Lt. Thomas stationed in the Pacific and Caroline awaiting the birth of their child in Pasadena, and present-day California, where Susan and Neil Jr. fall in love as he describes events that took place 50 years ago. Also try The Lighthouse Keeper.
Where or When by Anita Shreve
When 44-year-old real estate insurance salesman Charles Callahan sees a photograph of poet Sian Richards, he recognizes her as the young woman he met three decades earlier at a Catholic camp for teenagers. Impulsively, he writes Sian, and sets in motion the love affair they were destined to have. Though both are married and have children, each is unfulfilled, craving true partnership. Also try The Last Time They Met.
Islands by Anne River Siddons
The islands of the title are on the South Carolina shore near Charleston, and Siddons's descriptions of this beautiful area are absorbing and maybe a little bit enchanting. With Anny as narrator, the story follows the lives of a group of men and women with lifelong ties to the area. Together the friends pledge to be there to support and care for each other for all their lives, and they do so through some terrible events, including Hurricane Hugo, fire and more.
The Stone Flower Garden by Deborah Smith
Raised by her grandmother, Darleen is the heir to Hardigree Marble Company, which controls the small North Carolina town of Burnt Stand, and Eli is the boy genius destined to make something of himself when his family is forced to leave. But now, years later, long-buried secrets are about to be, literally, dug up. A story about destiny, and a great love affair, this is a rich, gothic, Southern story about the darker side of family myths.
The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller
This is the story of Robert Kincaid, the photographer and free spirit searching for the covered bridges of Madison County, and Francesca Johnson, the farm wife waiting for fulfillment of a girlhood dream. It shows readers what it is to love and be loved so intensely that life is never the same again. Also try A Thousand Country Roads.
Hawke’s Cove by Susan Wilson
After the death of her first child, Evangeline Worth returns to her grandmother's home in Maine to await the return of her husband from World War II, but news that John is Missing-in-Action and the arrival of – and subsequent friendship with – handsome stranger Joe Green, will complicate the simple life she has fashioned for herself. Also try Cameo Lake.