Breathless

When I was seventeen and in full obedience to my heart's most urgent commands, I stepped far from the pathway of normal life and in a moment's time ruined everything I loved - I loved so deeply, and when the love was interrupted, when the incorporeal body of love shrank back in terror and my own body was locked away, it was hard for others to believe that a life so new could suffer so irrevocably.

—Scott Spencer, Endless Love (Chapter One)

Sometimes heartbreaking, definitely unforgettable, first love can define or change the trajectory of one's life. Dismiss the awful movie and the schmaltzy Diana Ross/Lionel Richie duet; Scott Spencer's novel Endless Love captures the dizzy exhilaration of young passion with remarkable clarity. The exquisite ending is startling in intensity, truly one of the best.