Love, Rosie

Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern

Rating

4 stars+

Date Read

01/07/2015 - 15/07/2015

Age Group

14+

General Thoughts

I got goose bumbs reading the epilogue. My back ached from the two hour ride in the bus, back to London from Oxford, my throat was dry and my legs had fallen asleep. But I didn't feel that lump in my throat anymore, the feeling I got throughout the book about all those chances lost, all that time wasted, all those dreams broken to pecies. I believed my mother, as she had told me once that some times moments count more than years.

I read this in the fortnight I spent in England during my 16th summer. There was a palpable melancholy at times, darkening the pages, a reminder that reality is far from what you read in fairy tales, that life gets in the way. But there was also hope and love, the touching story of two childhood friends that managed to be there for each other while living on different continents.

Main Characters

Rosie

Rosie is funny, smart, creative, clumsy and lively. Then her best friend moves continents and she gets pregnant at 18. And yet, she is a very strong person and manages to get back on her feet after falling down, look at everyone in the eye and be a good mother to her daughter. Rosie's life hasn't been easy but she has beautiful people in it who love and take care of her, look out for her. And that has to be enough.

Alex

Rosie's best friend is intelligent, funny and loyal and very much a boy. He is there for her through every hardship in her life and supports her, distracts her, relaxes her; whatever she needs. Frankly, I wish I had a male best friend just like him. Their relationship as children and teenagers is easy and fun and they manage to adapt it to fit their lives as they become adults and their priorities and obligations shift. They are always there for each other, never losing contact, never stopping being best friends.

Writing & Narrative

I was honestly taken aback when I opened my paperback and found out that the whole book was in letters, emails and snapshots of chatrooms. I was worrying that I would never manage to get sweeped into a book that looks like that. I shouldn't have. From the anorthographic, simple childish letters the seven year old friends exchanged to the long expressive emails and the conversations they had online, there was not one thing missing from the book. The creative, innovative way that it is written allows many different POVs and relationships to be expressed and the result is a movie-like narrating of the life of an unlucky girl as her life unravels differnently than how she imagined it as a seventeen-year-old dreamy teenager but still manages to be happy.

All in All

I laughed and I cried and I recommend this book to anyone who wants, like me, a break from paranormal and a bit of reality.

XOXO

Aggie Pearson