Nicholas Sparks has become synonmous with love and heartache. His novels, and film adaptations, have featured some of the big screen's most gorgeous leading lovers, from Channing Tatum to Ryan Gosling. Now, to celebrate the release of the latest Nicholas Spark’ adaptation, The Longest Ride, we take a look back at six of the hottest male leads who cemented their place in our hearts thanks to the master of modern romance.
Dear John (2010) and Channing Tatum
The heart-wrenching tale of a soldier who falls for a college student while he is home on leave, Dear John stars Channing Tatum as John Dyree, the soldier on leave. Channing has forged a career on essentially being our dream man – he can dance, he’s funny, and he has that body - but in Dear John, he added to that by showing off his senstive side.
The Lucky One (2012) and Zac Efron
The Lucky One follows a Marine soldier, Logan Thibault, who finds a misplaced photo of a mystery woman and decides to keep it, seeing it as his lucky charm after narrowly avoiding a number of attacks. It stars Zac Efron as said Logan, who upon his return home, he decides to find his ‘guardian angel’. With plenty of six-pack shots to go around, The Lucky One saw Zac turn into a full-fledged hottie.
The Last Song (2010) and Liam Hemsworth
The Last Song is based around Ronnie, a teenage rebel and talented pianist, sent to stay with her estranged father on the shores of North Carolina. It's here that she meets local good boy Will, who seems to be able to keep her grounded. The film’s stars (Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth) found love on set, but alas, their romance was not as lasting as their fictional counterparts. Australian hunk Liam took the lead in The Last Song, and he's since shot to fame as rebel warrior Gale in The Hunger Games, where's he's also proved his formidable action skills.
The Notebook (2004) and Ryan Gosling
The Notebook is arguably Nicholas’s seminal work - a romantic drama of two lovers in 1940 separated by social and financial differences, narrated in the present day by an elderly man to a fellow nursing home patient. Possibly the most well known of Nicholas’s novels, this love story is still known to bring grown men to tears. Ryan Gosling’s character Noah is an ultimate dream babe. He looks like Ryan Gosling, and he writes every day. You don’t get better than that really.
A Walk To Remember (2002) and Shane West
Way before The Notebook left viewers in emotional pieces, and 12 years before The Fault in Our Stars made them sob with its account of love in the time of terminal illness, there was A Walk to Remember, starring Shane West and Mandy Moore. Shane was a certified millennial hottie, and while we may see less of him on the big screen these days, we’ll never forget his turn as bad boy Landon, whose heart is well and truly melted by the secretly unwell Jamie.
The Longest Ride and Scott Eastwood
The tenth book-to-film adaptation from Nicholas Sparks, The Longest Ride introduces Sophia, an art student with dreams of moving to New York, and Luke, a former rodeo champ who is determined to make it back to the top. As complete opposites attract, they discover that love requires sacrifice. Scott, the son of Oscar winner Clint, has made his mark in action films including Gran Torino and Fury, but now, with magazine covers that go viral and his recent stint as the face (and body) of Davidoff, he is showing off his romantic side.
The Longest Ride is out in cinemas across the UK on Friday 19 June.