PUBLICATION DATE: SEPTEMBER 23, 2012

olly Allen comes from a life of privilege, Ryan Kelly from a struggling middle class family.   The two meet while studying music at Belmont.  She lives in a house her parents bought and remodeled, fully equipped with a housekeeper and groundsman; he lives in a small house with an older couple that are friends of his family because he couldn’t afford dorm living.  Two separate worlds brought together by unique circumstances, and shared through their bonding at The Bridge, a small hometown bookstore where customers are known as family.

Life changes and Molly and Ryan find themselves at different points in their lives, but can the failing and hardship of The Bridge bring them back together?

Karen Kingsbury is the author of many New York Times bestselling novels and is well-known in the Christian Fiction industry.  As much as I love reading her books, I also love reading the inscriptions to her family members that can be found at the beginning of each book.  It’s obvious she loves her family…those that have been chosen by adoption, born in through birth, or recently added by marriage.  Hers is a family blessed by love, and it shines through all her writings of the fictional families we have grown to know and to love.

The Bridge is a short novel, and a very fast read.  Set around a love story, there are many characters lives you are quickly drawn in to.  I loved the different stages Molly and Ryan went through, both in the beginning and the end.  Then there is Charlie and his wife, Donna, and their story, the challenges they face.  But the true love story in this book, is that of The Bridge, and those that were connected to it.

Have you ever had the chance to spend some time in a locally owned, hometown bookstore?  There is something to be said of browsing the shelves, where you can find anything from Eyre to Kingsbury, all mixed in together.  The type of bookstore where you never know what you will stumble across, a longtime classic, or a new release.  The type of bookstore that has “that smell”…the place you enter and can’t help but sigh…you fell as if you are home.

These places are becoming extinct, being replaced by large chains where you can get your coffee and your book all in one stop.  Places where the feel it’s almost like a large one room warehouse, not that of an inviting house, with many rooms to browse.  Also replacing the quaintness of these stores, is that of e-readers/e-books.  The ease and quickness of purchasing and downloading your book in minutes, never having to leave the comfort of your home.  But the “feel” of a physical book is still what draws many to the search for their own special haven, that place where they can pick up a book on the shelves, sit down and glance through it, and then chat about it with the owner.

Karen Kingsbury captures the essence of hometown bookstores in The Bridge.  An excellent book I will share with friends, but ask back for in return, because there is just something about holding a book in your hands!