The last person Landon thought he would fall for was Jamie Sullivan, daughter of the town's Baptist minister.

A quiet girl, Jamie seemed content living in a world apart from the other teens.

She took care of her widowed father, rescued hurt animals and volunteered at the local orphanage.

Landon would never have dreamed of asking her out, but a twist of fate threw them together when he found himself without a partner for the school dance.

In the months that followed, Landon discovered truths that most people take a lifetime to learn - about the joy of giving, the pain of loss and, most of all, the transforming nature of love.

Being with Jamie would show him the depths of the human heart and lead him to a decision so stunning it would send him irrevocably on the road to manhood ...