“The real challenge of life was not fulfilling one’s dreams, but being willing to give them up for the sake of a greater call.”
On Christmas Day in 1929, four best friends meet in an attic to share their life dreams vowing to support each other in reaching those dreams. They stuff their dreams into a blue bottle and hide it in the attic rafters. Sixty-five years later, the house is scheduled to be demolished and a reporter covering the story is given the blue bottle, discovered by one of the men working on the demolition. Brendan reads the girls’ dreams and can’t put away the feeling that she is supposed to track them down and find out if they made their dreams come true – especially since she is at a point in life where she doesn’t know what her dreams are for herself.
I chose The Blue Bottle Club as the July book for the Online Book Club. I had it sitting on my to-read shelf and the storyline looked very interesting. I haven’t read anything else by Stokes, but will probably look for more books written by her to read in the future.
The first woman Brendan finds is Letitia, who is still living in the same town. Her dream was to marry Phillip and have lots of children. However, shortly after that Blue Bottle day when they shared their dreams, the stock market crash affects her father so deeply that he commits suicide and their family is left with nothing. Phillip’s true colors show and the engagement ends. However, Letitia is left with the ring and it may be a way to make other dreams come true. One Brendan finds the end of Letitia’s story, she travels far and wide to find the other three women and brings them together. All their dreams came true, but not in the specific ways they expected. Their stories affect Brendan and how she starts viewing what she wants in life.
I don’t want to give any more details away. Learning the women’s stories is an interesting read and I found the book very encouraging. All the women have faith and Brendan rediscovers her own beliefs as she talks with them. The book is definitely for high school readers and older as it deals with suicide and serious life choices. It would probably be found in the Christian fiction section of the library or bookstore, although it reads as a natural part of this book.