All 24 Nicholas Sparks Books in Order

Nicholas Sparks is an American novelist and screenwriter, famous for his romantic stories that can melt even the coldest hearts. He was born in 1965 in Omaha, Nebraska but lives in North Carolina which is the setting of many of his novels that have also been adapted to film, such as The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, and Message in a Bottle.

Editor’s Note: This bibliography has been updated in November 2023 to include the most recent news regarding Nicholas Sparks’ upcoming books.

How Many Books Has Nicholas Sparks Written?

Nicholas Sparks has written 24 novels, many of which have been made into very successful movies. 

Nicholas Sparks Books in Order (At a Glance)

1. ‘The Notebook’ (1996)
2. ‘Message in a Bottle’ (1998)
3. ‘A Walk to Remember’ (1999)
4. ‘The Rescue’ (2000)
5. ‘A Bend in the Road’ (2001)
6. ‘Nights in Rodanthe’ (2002)
7. ‘The Guardian’ (2003)
8. ‘The Wedding’ (2003)
9. ‘Three Weeks With My Brother’ (2004)
10. ‘True Believer’ (2005)
11. ‘Dear John’ (2006)
12. ‘At First Sight’ (2005)
13. ‘The Choice’ (2007)
14. ‘The Lucky One'(2008)
15. ‘The Last Song’ (2009)
16. ‘Safe Haven’ (2010)
17. ‘The Best of Me’ (2011)
18. ‘The Longest Ride’ (2013)
19. ‘See Me’ (2015)
20. ‘Two By Two’ (2016)
21. ‘Every Breath’ (2018)
22. ‘The Return’ (2020)
23. ‘The Wish’ (2021)
24. ‘Dreamland’ (2023)

Nicholas Sparks Books in Order (By Release Date)

1. ‘The Notebook’ (1996)

Sparks’ first novel and still one of the most famous and beloved. It has also been adapted into one of the most unforgettable love movies ever, starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as Noah and Allie.

Noah is a rural Southern man who has recently returned from World War II and is still haunted by the image of a beautiful girl he fell in love with 14 years ago. He can’t find her anymore and decides to cherish the memories, but everything changes when she returns to town to see him once again.

2. ‘Message in a Bottle’ (1998)

This is another beautiful, heartbreaking story about a divorced single mother who finds a bottle with a letter inside and decides to keep it and read it. It is a wonderful love letter to a woman he, Garrett, lost many years ago and can’t stop thinking about.

Driven by unexplained emotions, Theresa embarks on a journey to find Garrett and soon finds herself in a coastal town, confronted with a man she only knows from his few words. But it was destiny and we are to witness a love story that was simply meant to happen.

3. ‘A Walk to Remember’ (1999)

Langdon Carter remembers his last year in Beaufort High, North Carolina. It was 1958 and he was a popular jock who enjoyed his teenage years dating girls and hanging out with his friends. And then he met Jamie Sullivan, a girl he would never think of falling in love with.

It was fate that changed his life forever, being with Jamie has made him a better man, and taught him to care more deeply and passionately than he ever thought he would.

4. ‘The Rescue’ (2000)

Taylor McAden is a brave volunteer fireman who goes where his colleagues would never go and is always the first to make terrifying risks. But not when it comes to love. He simply can’t find love and always meets women who need to be saved and when their crisis is over, he breaks up with them.

But when a storm hits his small Southern hometown and a young single mother Denise Holton gets in a car accident after which her son Kyle disappears, Taylor will begin to understand that this rescue is completely different from all the ones he has made until now.

5. ‘A Bend in the Road’ (2001)

Miles Ryan is a deputy in New Bern, North Carolina who believes his life ended two years ago when his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident. He is still grieving for Missy but is also determined to find the unknown driver and bring him to justice.

But when Myles meets Sarah, his son’s second-grade teacher with her own emotional wounds, he will slowly start to open himself to the possibility of loving another woman. But there is a shocking secret that both of them are linked to and that will make them question everything they believe.

6. ‘Nights in Rodanthe’ (2002)

Adrienne Willis is forty-five and has come to a moment in her life when she needs to rethink all her past decisions, faced with the fact that her husband left her for a younger woman. Sad and desperate, she flies to the small town of Rodanthe in North Carolina to tend to her friend’s inn for the weekend.

When a storm hits the town, Adrienne is convinced that her getaway will be anything but nice, but she will soon change her mind when she meets a new guest at the inn, Paul Flanner who has just sold his medical practice and is haunted by his own past.

7. ‘The Guardian’ (2003)

Julie Barenson has lost her young husband who has left her with two things before his unfair death, a Great Dane puppy named Singer and a promise he would always be watching over her. 

Four years after this tragedy, Julie is ready to start anew, but with who? Richard Franklin, a gentle engineer who is treating her like a princess, or Mike Harris, her husband’s best friend? It should be an easy choice, but it will bring Julie more problems than she has ever imagined.

8. ‘The Wedding’ (2003)

The sequel to his The Notebook, The Wedding takes us thirty years into the future where we meet Wilson Lewis, Allie and Noah’s son-in-law who is aware that his marriage is nothing like it was before. 

He is desperate to win his wife Jane’s affection and love but he doesn’t know how to do it. He is about to marry his daughter and has to face the fact that he has grown apart from his wife and is not even sure if she still loves him.

9. ‘Three Weeks With My Brother’ (2004)

This is Nicholas Sparks’ autobiography, a memoir about his three-week-long journey with his brother to the most exotic places in the world. The adventurer Micah and the more quiet and down-to-earth Nicholas have spent these days together, reminiscing about their childhood and thinking about all the ones they lost.

It is a powerful and wonderful confession that teaches us to embrace life and never forget to tell our closest ones how much we love them.

10. ‘True Believer’ (2005)

Jeremy Marsh is a typical New Yorker who has just made his first TV appearance, after writing about supernatural occurrences for Scientific American. Soon he receives a letter about ghostly lights that appear in a cemetery in Boone Creek, North Carolina.

He is certain to leave stay there for a week, but when he meets the beautiful Lexie, disappointed with her past relationships, Jeremy will change his mind and soon find himself in front of a big decision.

11. ‘Dear John’ (2006)

John is a school dropout and has enlisted in the Army, completely oblivious of what he would do with his life. Until he meets beautiful Savannah, the girl of his dreams. They fall in love madly and can’t wait to spend their future together.

But the events of 9/11 will change everything since John will feel the obligation to re-enlist and a long separation from Savannah will result in her falling in love with someone else.

12. ‘At First Sight’ (2005)

Jeremy Marsh has always been certain he would never leave New York City, but he is now living in the small Southern town of Boone Creek, engaged to Lexie, the love of his life and can’t wait to start his new life with her.

This is a sequel to True Believer where everything seemed to be perfect until a mysterious e-mail will change the course of Jeremy and Lexie’s relationship and force everyone to rethink how well they know the ones they love the most.

13. ‘The Choice’ (2007)

Travis Parker has everything a man might want, a good job and great friends and his own waterfront house in a small town in North Carolina. He is always having a good time and is convinced that there is no room for a serious relationship in his life.

Until he meets Gabby Holland, a beautiful girl who moves next door and forces him to change his opinion and values and makes him wonder how much he would do for true love.

14. ‘The Lucky One’ (2008)

Logan Thibault is a U.S. Marine who finds a photograph of a young woman no one can tell him more about so he ends up carrying it in his pocket. Once back in the USA, Logan can’t seem to get the woman from the photo out of his mind and decides to cross the country to find her.

On his way to the unknown, Logan meets Elizabeth, a young single mother and falls in love, keeping the story about the photo to himself. But this secret will bring so many unwanted situations to Logan and Elizabeth’s lives, threatening to destroy them.

15. ‘The Last Song’ (2009)

Veronica Miller was 17 years old when her world completely changed after her parents’ divorce. Her father left for New York and now, three years later, Veronica is still angry and estranged from her parents, especially her father.

Suddenly her mother comes to the idea that it would be good for Veronica to spend the summer with her father in Wilmington, where he leads a quiet life, occupied with a work of art for the local church.

16. ‘Safe Haven’ (2010)

Katie is a mysterious young woman whose arrival in Southport, a small North Carolina town raises many questions about her past. Katie keeps to herself, determined not to get close to anyone in town, but soon she friends herself in two relationships.

One is with Alex, a widowed store owner and the other with her neighbour Jo. Soon, Katie begins to open up and finds herself spending time with Alex and his family. But even in this almost perfect situation, Katie still struggles with a terrifying secret that forced her across the country.

17. ‘The Best of Me’ (2011)

The summer of 1984 was the summer of destiny for Amanda Collier and Dawson Cole who fell irrevocably in love but some unexpected and horrible events have set them apart and put them on completely different paths.

Twenty five years later they meet again for the funeral of a man who believed in their love and they are now forced to confront all those painful memories and face the choices they have made.

18. ‘The Longest Ride’ (2013)

Ira Levinson is 91-year-old, alone in the world and not too healthy anymore and he finds himself stranded on an isolated embankment after a car crash. He is trying to stay focused and not lose consciousness, convinced he sees and hears his beloved late wife Ruth.

While Ira is reminiscing his past years, only a few miles away from him there is another love story about to happen. Sophia meets a young cowboy named Luke who introduces her to a completely new world to her and makes her dream about their future together if Luke’s secret doesn’t destroy it first.

19. ‘See Me’ (2015)

A somewhat atypical Sparks, especially for the ones well acquainted with his beautiful romance dramas. This is still a love story, but as with Safe Haven, there is a bit of thriller inside which makes it a bit different.

Colin Hancock and Maria Sanchez’s lives are about to change when a chance encounter forces them to change their minds about one another and makes them fall in love until some events from Maria’s past begin to torment her.

20. ‘Two By Two’ (2016)

Russell Green is 32 and lives the life of his dreams, married to a beautiful woman, with a wonderful 6-year-old daughter, a successful career and an expensive home in Charlotte. 

But his life is about to take a huge turn and he will soon find himself without his wife and job, tending to his little daughter and having to face the challenges of a single parent he has never imagined.

21. ‘Every Breath’ (2018)

Hope Anderson is having a hard time after her father is diagnosed with ALS and her boyfriend of six years shows no intention of making their relationship something more meaningful. She decides to spend a week at the family’s cottage in Sunset Beach, South Carolina and prepare the house for sale.

Tru Walls is Hope’s complete opposite but they are about to become very close when he is summoned to Sunset Beach to deal with his mother’s early life after he receives a letter from a man claiming to be his father. 

22. ‘The Return’ (2020)

Trevor Benson is forced to come back to New Bern, North Carolina after devastating injuries he received in Afghanistan. He is now spending time tending to his grandfather’s bees with no intention of falling in love with anyone.

But when he meets Natalie Masterson, all his wishes and ideas will disappear and they will start an unusual relationship, with a constantly distant Natalie, obviously keeping a secret. And to make it even more complicated, there is a teenage girl named Callie who is in some way connected to the mysterious circumstances of Trevor’s grandfather’s death.

23. ‘The Wish’ (2021)

1996 was the year when everything changed for Maggie Dawes, after being sent to live with her grandmother somewhere on the Outer Banks. She will meet Bryce Tickett, a handsome teenager who will introduce her to photography.

It is 2019 now and Maggie is a famous photographer who needs to take a break during Christmas and dependant on her young assistant she begins to tell him the story of another Christmas decades ago and a love story she has never forgotten. 

24. ‘Dreamland’ (2023)

Colby Mills, once destined for a musical career, finds his world changed when he meets Morgan Lee, a daughter of affluent Chicago doctors with dreams of becoming a star in Nashville. As they fall in love, Beverly, fleeing an abusive husband with her son, embarks on a journey to build a new life. In a single week, the lives of Colby, Morgan, and Beverly intertwine, challenging them to confront the exhilarating highs and heartbreak of first love and the weight of their pasts.

Will there be more books written by Nicholas Sparks?

Nicholas Sparks has two untitled books in the works, the first set to be released in 2024 and the second in 2026. This is as much as we know at the moment, but we will update this as soon as more info comes around.

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