One of the things you tend to miss when you no longer watch shows on a physical TV is, you're really behind on ...news. In this case, I'm talking about movie trailers. So lately I was very bored so I decided to surf Youtube for trailers and binge watched a bunch. One that caught my eye was Love, Rosie. Yes I am a sucker for romantic comedies, what woman isn't. Deal with it! It's starring Lily Collins (dem eyebrows!) and Sam Claflin (sexy Finnick) as the two main characters named Rosie and Alex who are best friends and you guessed it, secretly in love with each other. Right up my alley.
First let me just go over the trailer. Lily Collins does a great English accent, I won't say I'm surprised since she is half English and was born in England but still, very rarely does an American actor not butcher the accent. The premise is pretty simple like I mentioned, a guy and a girl friend; is it possible to be just friends? It's a story that follows the two friends throughout their lives through all good and bad and how they're always there for each other even after Alex moves across the world to Boston. Oh did I mention, the story starts off in London (?). I question this because the book is actually set in Dublin but seeing has they have English accents, I'm guessing they moved the setting to London or somewhere in England. Another thing that drew me to the trailer was the music. Music is always a big part of getting me interested because if the music is good, I will keep listening to it and form an association with the movie which will make my brain like it more.
Go listen while you read the rest now.
Now, onto the book. Be warned, there will be spoilers. I will write spoilers in the sections but just warning you now. Ready?
Okay moving onto the actual book. I didn't actually know it was based on a book until I read some comments on Youtube saying it that was and that people should read it first. Now people normally say this anyway for any book to movie adaptation but I wasn't feeling lazy and was in a mood for some mushy gushy read so I decided to pick it up. I finished the book in 3 days, could have finished faster but work man. The format of the book is written through letters, emails and chats. I found this very interesting and very enjoyable. I thought it was easy to follow and made it more realistic in a way.
In the book, Rosie and Alex have known each other since they were 5. They get into all types of shenanigans at school; invite, un-invite then invite each other to their birthday parties; complain over their teacher and classmates, skip school (I won't go into what happened that day but there's a pretty big revelation in the end- was that considered a spoiler?) and lots more! Things get complicated when Alex's dad gets a job offer to move to Boston. But, luckily, Rosie gets accepted to Boston University to study hotel management while Alex will be in Harvard. YAY! Reunited already? NOT! Rosie's plans get thwarted when she has sex with one of her annoying classmates, Brian and gets pregnant. It wasn't as simple as I explained this but something happens with Alex that led to this event so I think this was one of the first "close calls/missed opportunities" in this story, which is something that this book has a lot of.
While Alex is off at medical school, dating his "college sweetheart"; Rosie is still in Dublin, raising a daughter as a teenage mother. There are a lot of downs in her life and nothing seems to go right for her but the one constant in her life is still Alex. They continue communicating through mail, email, messages but it's still hard when everyone is moving on with their lives and you're just stuck. This goes on for a longgggg time, at times, too long. They were so close to getting together like a hundred times but something always gets in the way. Everytime I thought, this was it, they are finally going to admit they love each, I realized there was still half a book left to read. When I was 2/3 of the way done, I gave up and realized that they were probably only going to get together in the last pages (which, SPOILERS, I was right).
The story was bittersweet, yes it ended with them finally getting together but it only took till they were 50!!! Not as much time left together if you were to think, they could have gotten together if Alex had done something when Rosie kissed him when she visited him in college, or if Greg hadn't gotten that letter before Rosie, or if Brian hadn't shown up or if Bethany hadn't gotten pregnant, OR if Alex had just told Rosie about their first kiss (this is what I was referring to earlier when I said something happened when they skipped school that day). Yes, I'm aware I just word vomited all the spoilers but you see what I mean? So many close calls/missed opportunities. But that is the nature of the story and as much as I felt gutted about that, I was delighted with their separate journeys of life.
I am so excited to see the movie now but looking back at the trailer, I see that they've changed quite some stuff around so not sure how that will turn out. But I will still be seeing it, although I don't see a US release date yet so I might just have to stream it which sucks.
So as a conclusion? Read the book. Read the book. Read the book. I hope I haven't ruined it for you now but you were warned beforehand. Toodles!
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