Read with a box of tissues!! You'll be crying oceans!!

Years before the movie adaptation was made my sister had picked up this book and was raving about it to me... insisting I had to read it! She was telling me how emotional it was and how she was bawling reading this book. Yeah. That did not sell me on it! *laugh* but years later, still before the movie was made I found it cheap in a used book store and figured why not. I'm so glad I gave in a read it! Yes, its emotional. Yes, unless you are a rock you will be sobbing like a baby at this amazing debut novel by an author who was only 21 when this book was written!

High School sweethearts and soul mates; Holly and Gerry are each others lives. As a joke they start making a list of all the things Gerry would have to remind Holly of if he was no longer there. Of course at the time one always imagines ages in the future when old and gray. Unexpectedly tragedy strikes and the heartwarming list is brought to life in letters mailed to Holly resulting in sad, sometimes silly or surprising situations!

I was so moved by the characters depth of emotions and feelings... Love is such an overwhelming feeling magnified by the characters grief. As a fan of Gerard Butler, I eagerly waited for the movie to be released. My sister and I saw it together, of course we cried! It was not nearly as good as the book but that I believe is not to the fault of the director or actors but losing the powerful medium of using the book as the letters... it is a tangible thing for the audience to be physically reading along with Holly every time she gets a new letter!