Nights in Rodanthe is a romantic love story novel by American writer Nicholas Sparks in September 2002. Set in Rodanthe, North Carolina, the story follows the intense and close romance of a divorced mother, Adrienne Willis, and a divorced father and surgeon, Paul Flanner. The novel's two main protagonists meet in an inn in Rodanthe and fall strongly in love. However, fate and destiny falls upon them when they realize that leaving Rodanthe would mean going back to their separate lives. Sparks based parts of his story on his own life's events, particularly his courting of the woman he married, Cathy Cote. Themes of genuine romantic love, and sacrifice are incorporated into the novel. Nights in Rodanthe was adapted into a 2008 film of the same name. Plot summary The story has a framing device set in Rocky Mount, North Carolina in 2002 where part-time librarian Adrienne Willis is comforting her daughter Amanda, who is struggling to raise her children because she is still mourning her husband’s death. To show her daughter she will eventually recover, Adrienne tells Amanda about the time she met a surgeon named Paul Flanner when Amanda was thirteen. In 1988, Adrienne managed a Rodanthe inn for a friend taking a leave of absence, for an opportunity of escapism. She had divorced her husband, who abandoned her for a younger woman, and she was taking care of her sick father while raising her three children. As soon as she arrives at the inn, a major storm is forecast. Her only customer is Paul Flanner, a 54-year-old recently divorced surgeon also wanting to escape his hectic life, who had sold his house and was being sued for malpractice. The two fall in love throughout the week but realize they will have to go back to their old lives. After conversations about their families, Paul decides to join his estranged son in an Ecuadorian medical clinic to rework their relationship, communicating with Adrienne through letters when she returns to Rocky Mount with her family. The romance continued, but Paul later died. In the present, Amanda is annoyed her mother did not tell her and her two brothers about the situation. She reads Adrienne’s last contact from Ecuador, written by Paul’s son Dr. Mark, thanking her mother for helping his father realize how arrogant he had been. Writing Sparks developed the rudiments of Nights in Rodanthe while he was