Message in a Bottle, by Nathan Sparks is a romantic tragedy. It teaches the powerful lesson that life can and must go on no matter how terrible the grief and gives all hopeless romantics hope that true love does in fact exist.
             The novel first takes place in Cape Cod Bay where Theresa is on vacation from her home in Boston. It is in Cape Cod Bay that Theresa finds the first of three letters. Further south along the Atlantic coast is the town of Wilmington, North Carolina. Garret, the man writing the intense love letters, lives here. Both Boston and Wilmington have access to the ocean; however, they are uniquely different from each other. This separation and difference in locations is one the biggest conflicts in the novel.
             Theresa Osborne is a thirty-six year old single mother of a twelve-year-old boy. She has given up on the thought of true love after she discovers her husbands 2 year long affair. That is, until she finds the letters. The letters to her are proof that true love does exist and it gives her hope that she will someday soon experience it. Garret Blake is a handsome man in his late thirties who was, at one time, a very happy, very alive man. When the life of his wife is taken, he gives up on love and happiness, and lives his life alone and depressed. He writes the letters to his late wife and sends them out to sea for her. When he meets Theresa he is given hope of true love again and begins to his life.
             The novel begins with Theresa on the shores of Cape Cod Bay where she finds a message in a bottle. The letter is addressed to Catherine from Garret. After she posts the letter in her column, The Boston Times, she is sent two more letters from her readers that say they too found a message in a bottle. All three letters are addressed to Catherine and from Garret and are written with the same sailboat stationary. After much research, she locates Garret Blake in Wilmington, North Caro
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