If you like "The Locket" by Richard Paul Evans...

Thank you for asking the Central Rappahannock Regional Library for a
Book Match. You requested books similar to The Locket. If you like
Richard Paul Evans, you may like these books:

The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks
Set amid the austere beauty of coastal North Carolina in 1946, The
Notebook begins with the story of Noah Calhoun, a rural Southerner
returned home from World War II. Noah, thirty-one, is restoring a
plantation home to its former glory, and he is haunted by images of the
beautiful girl he met fourteen years earlier, a girl he loved like no
other. Unable to find her, yet unwilling to forget the summer they spent
together, Noah is content to live with only memories...until she
unexpectedly returns to his town to see him once more. Allie Nelson,
twenty-nine, is now engaged to another man, but realizes that the
original passion she felt for Noah has not dimmed with the passage of
time. Still, the obstacles that once ended their previous relationship
remain, and the gulf between their worlds is too vast to ignore. With
her impending marriage only weeks away, Allie is forced to confront her
hopes and dreams for the future, a future that only she can shape. Like
a puzzle within a puzzle, the story of Noah and Allie is just the
beginning. As it unfolds, their tale miraculously becomes something
different, with much higher stakes. The result is a deeply moving
portrait of love itself, the tender moments and the fundamental changes
that affect us all. (catalog summary)

Sam's Letters to Jennifer, by James Patterson
This...compulsively readable novel is cut from the same sentimental
cloth, with the narrative hook here being not diary entries but letters
that an elderly woman writes to her beloved granddaughter. When
Jennifer, a grieving widow and columnist for the Chicago Tribune, hears
that her grandmother Samantha has fallen and is in a coma, she races to
Sam's town of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. At Sam's home on the shores of the
lake, she finds a packet of letters addressed to her; their text,
recapping Sam's life with an abusive husband but also with a mysterious
lover she calls "Doc," occupies half the novel. In counterpart runs
Jennifer's romance with a childhood friend, Brendan, she reunites with,
only to learn that he is dying of brain cancer-a romance that allows her
to heal her grief for her dead husband, Danny, who drowned the year
before. The novel's structure works brilliantly, with Patterson as usual
using brief chapters and simple prose to propel the reader onward; more
thrust comes from the plot questions: Will Sam survive? Who is Doc? What
will become of Jennifer and dying Brendan? The answers will leave
readers satisfied...(Publishers Weekly)

These do not deal with romance, but they are gently inspiring:

Walking Across Egypt, by Clyde Edgerton
This second novel by the author of Raney is warm and comforting, like a
visit to Grandma's. Mattie Rigsbee, at 78, is slowing down. She plans
her funeral so as not to be a burden; she supports the local Baptist
church and entertains herself with hymns at the parlor piano; she tries
not to meddle in her children's lives, though she does wish they'd
marry; she longs for grandchildren. Then comes Wesley. Reared in an
orphanage until he graduated to the reformatory, Wesley touches her
heart, revives a life gone to seed. Just as he needs a grandmother's
love and stability, so Mattie needs his challenge, dependence, and love.
How she reconciles that need before family, neighbors, and church
congregation is a beautiful story of determination, made more poignant
by a Southern small-town setting. (Library Journal, Thomas L.
Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale)

The Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom
At an oceanside amusement part, 83-year-old maintenance mechanic Eddie
is killed while trying to save a little girl. Instead of floating
through the cliched tunnel-and-light territory, Eddie meets five people
whose lives intersected with his during his time on Earth. The novel
comes down firmly on the side of those who feel that life matters, that
what we do as individuals matters, and that in the end there will be a
quiz. The touchy-feely phobic need not be afraid: this is not judgmental
ax-grinding; nor does it favor any religion. Before you finish reading,
you can't help thinking about your own life-Albom's whole point, of
course. Morrie fans will want to read this first novel, and readers
daring to examine their own lives may enjoy as well. (Library Journal,
Mary K. Bird-Guilliams, Wichita P.L., KS)

Bee Season, by Myla Goldberg
"Myla Goldberg's "Bee Season" is a bittersweet coming-of-age in which
wise little Eliza Naumann's quirky passion for spelling bees unites and
divides her family while revealing universal truths about the often
crippling pain of love".--Martha McPhee, author of "Bright Angel Time"
(catalog summary)

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, by Richard Bach
...the life of a seagull who aims to fly faster than any of his peers
and eventually arrives in a perfect world---one of love, understanding,
achievement, hope and individuality. (catalog summary)

I hope you find something you like in the list above. If we can help you
further, let us know the particular aspects of a novel which appeal to
you, and we'll see what else we can find!

Michele R. Brown
Reference Librarian