A Walk to Remember (1999)

With its cliche-riddled prose and plot twists that can be predicted after skimming the prologue, Nicholas Sparks' latest, A Walk To Remember, reads more like the script for a bad after-school special than anything approaching literature. ''First you will smile, and then you will cry,'' the narrator helpfully warns. Wealthy teenage slacker Landon has nothing in common with Bible-thumping Jamie. But after spending time visiting orphanages and seeing her golden hair — usually wound in a tight, minister's-daughter bun — cascading past her shoulders, he falls in love. Tragedy ensues. Lives change. Violins, please.