The Lucky One (novel)

The Lucky One is a 2008 romance novel by American writer Nicholas Sparks.

Themes
The book deals with the themes of starcrossed fate and destiny. Despite the allusions to such themes made in the novel, Sparks admitted that he does not necessarily believe in either. He adds, however, that he is "a big believer in the fact that people have the ability to influence the future in a way that seems coincidental and when that happens, the feeling of fate or destiny is amplified. [...] In the end, when writing The Lucky One, I wanted to explore the subject of fate or destiny, but in a way that reflected the reality of the world."

Plot
U.S. Marine Logan Thibault finds a photograph of a smiling young woman half-buried in the dirt during his first deployment in the Iraq War. He carries the photo in his pocket and soon wins a streak of poker games, then survives a battle that kills two of his closest buddies. His best friend, Victor, seems to have an explanation for his good fortune: the photograph, his lucky charm.

Back home in Colorado, Thibault begins to believe that the woman in the photo somehow holds the key to his destiny. He sets out on a journey across the country with his German shepherd, Zeus, to find her and eventually encounters Elizabeth "Beth" Green, a divorced mother with a young son, Ben, in North Carolina.

Caught off guard by the attraction he feels, Thibault keeps the story of the photo and his luck a secret. He and Beth begin a passionate love affair, but the secret of the photo soon threatens to tear them apart, and by continued interference in their lives by Beth's ex husband, the town's Sheriff and son of town's most eminent person and businessman—destroying not only their deep and true passionate, romantic love but also their very lives.