REVIEW: love, rosie, by cecelia ahern

I received this book for free from Hachette Books, Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern
Published by Hachette Books on January 6th 2015
Pages: 448
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What happens when two people who are meant to be together can't seem to get it right?

Rosie and Alex are destined for each other, and everyone seems to know it but them. Best friends since childhood, they are separated as teenagers when Alex and his family relocate from Dublin to Boston.

Like two ships always passing in the night, Rosie and Alex stay friends, and though years pass, the two remain firmly attached via emails and letters. Heartbroken, they learn to live without each other. But destiny is a funny thing, and in this novel of several missed opportunities, Rosie and Alex learn that fate isn't quite done with them yet.

this book made me feel nostalgic about the future.

i generally don’t read books that follow the characters into their adult life, but this novel really changed my perspective on that. for the majority of the book, rosie is in her twenties and thirties and raising a child. because the pacing is fast, it made me realize how quickly time moves. before you know it, years have gone by and everything has changed, but at the same time, nothing’s changed. the way it was executed made me feel a bit sad, hopeful, and strange. it made me feel thoughtful about life.

even though the entire book is told solely through IMs, emails, and letters, i could truly see rosie grow and change as a character. i know a lot of people found her annoying, but i think she’s a very human character, which is to say there’s nothing particularly extraordinary about her and that simple fact made me like her even more. everything about this novel is very mundane and regular, but i was still invested in all the relationships and characters. towards the end, i wasn’t even all that into the relationship of the novel, but more on rosie’s character and life.

as i mentioned before, the entire book is told through letters. it’s interesting and different, and in some ways made me like the book more, but in others, it made me feel like it was holding back. i cared for the characters but didn’t FEEEEEEL them; i was frustrated at the situation, but it wasn’t as ALL CAPS UGH UGH UGH as i’d thought it would be. also because it’s written in this way, there were some parts that felt a bit unnecessary and dragged (just a little bit). aaaaaand the pacing was a bit strange, albeit reasonable. we’d jump from two years of radio silence to fifty pages of non-stop IMs and letters for a year. it was realistic in that sense, but also unnerving. (side note: it also made me want to start writing letters.)

overall, i truly enjoyed this novel! i’m surprised at how invested i was into the story – finishing it in three days even though i was quite busy in my ~real~ life. i do think it could’ve been a bit MORE at some parts, but i still find it enjoyable and nice. there were times when the writing felt dragged, but it wasn’t so much that i’d actually want to stop reading the book. there wasn’t anything i particularly disliked, but it simply wasn’t one of those book that i LOVE LOVE LOVE.

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