There will be major spoilers from the book in this rant, so this is your warning.
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This month’s book club pick (for my offline book club, that is) is Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern. I haven’t read this book in ages, I re-read it a few years ago and loved it. But because I read so much, I needed to do another re-read before my book club meeting so that I could refresh my memory. This time around, I didn’t love it nearly as much as I used to. (This seems to be a thing for me because I had the same thing happen while I was re-reading The Duke & I by Julia Quinn for Book Binge’s book club discussion next month)
Anyway, if you haven’t read this book before, this book follows Rosie Dunne throughout her life. Well, really it follows the course her friendship with her best friend, Alex, takes throughout their entire lives.
Their letter writing started when they were both 7 years old. I loved those letters. The letters between the two kids are too funny for words. I kept laughing with each passing page as they talked about teachers with bad breath, getting caught writing letters, being grounded for doing stupid things and just all around funny kid things. Their letters were such great fun to read. But then they started growing up.
And the letter writing continued.
But on top of the letters, there are now instant messages shared between them and their siblings, newspaper articles announcing big announcements and in between all of that, feelings start creeping up on them and misunderstandings. As obvious as it is to the reader that Alex and Rosie love each other, it’s not obvious to the both of them.
Oh, they love the hell out of each other but the timing is never right and crap happens and they keep right on missing each other.
At first, it was heart breaking. My heart broke like twelve times while reading this book. The first couple of times that I read this book, I didn’t mind it. But this time around? I wanted to choke the both of them out. I’m talking grab their necks with my hands and squeeze….and squeeze some more.
Rosie has a spunky personality. She doesn’t mince words when she’s talking to Alex. She says what she means and that was one of the things that I liked most about her. But when it came to telling Alex how she feels? She just wouldn’t do it.
You guys, they had a silence.
Everyone (well everyone who reads romance novels) wants to experience that silence with someone but it doesn’t always happen. I’m sure it almost never happens. But Alex and Rosie had a silence…and they both felt it so as best friends, wouldn’t you talk about that damn silence? They were so open about every other thing in their lives so why not that?
I get that the timing was totally off because Alex was already in a relationship but Alex, you big dummy…when you have a silence like THAT with someone that is NOT your woman, that should be a huge sign that you’re probably marrying the wrong girl. I mean, seriously.
And then when Alex writes the letter and it never gets to her? You’re going to let a cheating bastard of a man punk you out of telling YOUR BEST FRIEND how you really feel? You really think that Rosie (YOUR BEST FREAKING FRIEND) is better off with that cheating scumbag? You’re really going to just leave her to her life without telling her the truth? SHE’S YOUR BEST FRIEND, DUMBASS!
I love a good romance story as much as the next person but holy goodness, not one that is 50 years in the making…and then that ending? WHAT THE FREAKING HELL KIND OF ENDING WAS THAT? After all of that shit that you put us through with this story, that’s how you’re going to end their damn story?
So I’m assuming it was Alex that was knocking on the door…but how do we know? I mean, we know what assuming gets you, right? He didn’t write a letter to Rosie telling her that he was on his way, that he’s sorry that he wasted so many years of bad relationships and more kids from different women. She doesn’t write him to tell him that she’s sorry for being such a dumb ass for most of their lives and that it should have been her the whole time. She just answers the door and says, “You.” and then it’s the end.
WTF?
But you know what? Reading Katie’s letters to Alex’s first wife Sally when she was just a wee lass herself almost made up for all of the crap that Alex and her Mom put me through with this book. I laughed a lot while reading those letters.
I used to love the hell out of this book but somewhere along the way, I got mad…at both of these characters and I needed to vent.
Anyone read this book? Thoughts? Did you like it or love it? Did Rosie drive you nuts? Did you want to bash Alex’s head in from time to time? Please tell me that I’m not alone.
