Book Review / Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks

Shimmering with suspense and emotional intensity - takes readers on a hunt for the truth about a man and his memories, and about both the heartbreaking fragility and enormous strength of love.

Nicholas Sparks is our very best chronicler of the human heart. His stunning first novel, The Notebook, has been given by friend to friend and lover to lover all over the world as a testament to the timeless power of love. But if we thought he could never again move us so deeply, he now shows us he can-in a story that renews our faith in destiny...in the ability of true lovers to find each other no matter where, no matter when... Message In A Bottle

Thrown to the waves, and to fate, the bottle could have ended up anywhere. Instead, it is found just three weeks after it begins its journey. Theresa Osborne, divorced and the mother of a twelve-year-old son, picks it up during a seaside vacation from her job as a Boston newspaper columnist. Inside is a letter that opens with:

My Dearest Catherine, I miss you my darling, as I always do, but today is particularly hard because the ocean has been singing to me, and the song is that of our life together...

For "Garrett," the man who signs the letter, the message is the only way he knows to express his undying love for a woman he has lost. For Theresa, wary of romance since her husband shattered her trust, the message raises questions that intrigue her. Who are Garrett and Catherine? Where is he now? What is his story? 

Challenged by the mystery, and pulled to find Garrett by emotions she does not fully understand, Theresa begins a search that takes her to a sunlit coastal town and an unexpected confrontation. Brought together by chance-or something more powerful-Theresa and Garrett are people whose lives are about to touch for a purpose, in a tale that resonates with our deepest hopes for finding that special someone and everlasting love. 
 

Published:     1st April 1988
Publisher:  Warner Books
Goodreads :  Click Here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:  Owned

 

MY REVIEW

I can't tell you the number of times I have read this book over the years, but if you were counting fingers you would run out of them!  Message in a Bottle is one of those books that I just keep coming back to time and time again.  There's just something bittersweet about it but also romantic.  Romantic fiction, more particularly of the dramatic kind, was my first book genre love and they say you never forget your first book love!  

What I love the most in this story is the story of Garrett.  He has loved and lost in the most tragic of ways and we now see him meeting Theresa and it just might be possible that he could find love again - twice in a lifetime.  Beautiful story.