The Bridge by Karen Kingsbury Published by Howard Books on October 23rd 2012
Pages: 258
Goodreads
Number one New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury delivers an instant classic with this heartwarming Christmas story about a hundred-year flood, lost love, and the beauty of enduring friendships. Molly Allen lives alone in Portland, but she left her heart back in Tennessee with a man she walked away from five years ago. They had a rare sort of love she hasn’t found since.
Ryan Kelly lives in Nashville after a broken engagement and several years on the road touring with a country music duo. He can still hear Molly’s voice encouraging him to follow his dreams; Molly, whose memory stays with him. At least he can visit The Bridge—the oldest bookstore in historic downtown Franklin—and remember the hours he and Molly once spent there.
For thirty years, Charlie and Donna Barton have run The Bridge, providing the people of middle Tennessee with coffee, conversation, and shelves of good books—even through dismal book sales and the rise of digital books. Then in May, the hundred-year flood swept through Franklin and destroyed nearly every book in the store.
Now the bank is pulling the lease on The Bridge. Despondent and without answers, Charlie considers the unthinkable. Then tragedy strikes, and suddenly, everything changes. In the face of desperate brokenness and lost opportunities, could the miracle of a second chance actually unfold?
The Bridge is a love story set against the struggle of the American bookstore, a love story you will never forget.
The Bridge was a book I picked up last year on sale and never got a chance to read it so I was really happy that I was able to dig this out and read it this year.
Now I should say that I mistakenly decided to watch the movie before reading the book and I have to say that I regret doing that because I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I did the movie. I in fact ended up loving the movie much more.
I was having a hard time getting into the book and I honestly think that was due to the fact i just watched the movie before picking up the book to read. Its very rare for me to say I don’t like something and this is the time I am honestly saying I didn’t enjoy it but I really wanted to because it was all about books and who doesn’t love books and bookstores?
The Bridge is a bookstore in Tennessee that is run by our main character Charlie and his wife. I loved the idea behind the bookstore and the connection of the name to people. Books are the bridge to our lives.
The other main characters are Ryan and Molly who are in Tennessee going to college and they end up spending a lot of time in the reading room at the Bridge and end up falling in love. That is until Molly’s father gets wind of this budding romance and quickly puts a holt to it because he has his daughter’s life mapped out and having a boy interfer is not something he wants. So they eventually go their separate ways.
Then fast forward to when the floods destroy The Bridge and Charlie is in financial danger and at risk of loosing it all decides he can’t live any longer. He contemplates taking his own life because he think Donna would be better without him. To scared to go through with it he ends up in a accident that could take his life away from him.
Everyone rallies around Charlie in hopes that he will eventually come back. Can they save him and The Bridge before its too late?