I think when I was a teen, which is like donkey years ago, I
would like such novels.
However, age has a way of slashing away the rosy veneers and I
have since found that Nicholas Sparks writes in a style that I
don't enjoy so much. There's just too much sentimentality and
romanticism which, in our real life, is just not very
believable.
I watched The Notebook and though I cried, at the end of it, I
thought, well, it can only happen in the movies. I can't
really remember much of it if you ask me now.
I'd only pick up a Nicholas Sparks novel if I'm really really
like depressed and need something to help me turn on the tap so I
can bawl my heart out for no reason at all. 
Nicholas Sparks is kinda like a modern-day
Barbara Cartland, IMO.