Name: Message in a Bottle
ISBN: 9781410406200

Nicholas Sparks

The author of the runaway bestseller "The Notebook" pens a tale of self-discovery, renewal, and the courage it takes to love again--now offered in trade paperback.

Message in a Bottle

In this New York Times bestseller, a single mother sets out to find the North Carolina man who sent a message meant for someone else . . . and the journey may change her life forever. Divorced and disillusioned about relationships, Theresa Osborne is jogging when she finds a bottle on the beach. Inside is a letter of love and longing to "Catherine," signed simply "Garrett." Challenged by the mystery and pulled by emotions she doesn't fully understand, Theresa begins a search for this man that will change her life. What happens to her is unexpected, perhaps miraculous-an encounter that embraces all our hopes for finding someone special, for having a love that is timeless and everlasting.... Nicholas Sparks exquisitely chronicles the human heart. In his first bestselling novel, The Notebook, he created a testament to romantic love that touched readers around the world. Now in this New York Times bestseller, he renews our faith in destiny, in the ability of lovers to find each other no matter where, no matter when...

Stefanie Sugia

Let me think of how to begin this review... 
Firstly, I'll say that this book totally impressed me. The way everything's described, the characters, the fast-moving plot which excites me and make me grew curious of what's going to happen next. Despite the sadness and depressing effect it gives me, the book still is a perfect love story. The kind of romance that show what love really is. 

On with the story. As the title stated clearly, the story has a lot of things related with Message in a Bottle. Actually, everything in the story started with it. 

The story is about a Boston columnist named Theresa, a divorced woman living with her son Kevin. She's divorced from her ex-husband David because he had an affair with someone else. Even though David already married someone else later after their divorce, he still care very much about Kevin, which is enough for Theresa. 

And one day, Theresa went on a vacation with her friend - Deanna. Something unexpected happened to her. She discovered a bottle at the beach, with a letter rolled inside it. It was a love letter from a guy named Garrett to a woman with the name Catherine. When she read the letter, she was so incredibly touched by the letter that she cried. She showed Deanna the letter, and her friend got the same feeling after reading it. With a lot of hesitation, Theresa published the letter in her column. Which leads her to finding another letter from the same writer, written to the same person. She began to do some research about message in bottles, and then she found herself the third letter. Reading those three letters made her knew a little about this guy named Garrett, but she was really curious about him. 

With a bit of help from Deanna, Theresa was able to find where Garrett lives and his workplace. Garrett is a diving instructor, living in Wilmington - a small town, a thousand miles from Boston. It was time for her to finally see Garrett herself. She doesn't have anything in mind of what's going to happen when she meets Garrett. But things started to happen without them expecting it. Naturally, Garrett and Theresa attracted each other and their relationship grew fast in a few days. But even though they love and care for each other, there's always something bothering their relationship: the guilt Garrett is feeling toward his ex-wife Catherine - who died in an accident, and their long-distance relationship. 

The story mostly tell how Garrett still remember a lot of things about Catherine and seems difficult to let go. But thank God there's Jeb - Garrett's father, who is officially my favorite character in the book. :) I have a lot of things to say about this book, but if i tell the story further it will be spoiled then. 

So, overall I think this book satisfy me in a lot of ways, because this is the kind of story that i expected from Nicholas Sparks. A heart-wrenching story that makes me hold the book so tight when reading. A wonderful love-story that i respect. 5 stars to you Mr. Sparks! ;)

Jimena Vázquez Oliver

** spoiler alert **
           Honestly up until the last about 10 pages or so this would’ve been a 2-star rating. The death of Garrett really did make me appreciate it slightly more. 🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️