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Flo's Review
I recently read Cecelia Ahern's book Rosie Dunne, which I found out after I started reading it was going to be a movie starring Lily Collins and Sam Claflin. I love both these actors so I was absolutely excited to see this movie.

It was a cute movie, but I think that I would have enjoyed it more had a not read the book, or had I not read the book so recently. The book spams almost the entire lives of Rosie and Alex, so I understand that we could not have a movie that long. So the movie ends up cutting and condensing in interesting ways. For example, one semi-big character was cut and his role in the story was transferred to another character. I remember being concerned when this same thing happened to Madge in The Hunger Games. The explanation I heard was that having multiple minor characters is okay in a book but does not work well for a movie. I can understand that. Also, events in both Rosie's and Alex's stories were cut and/or altered. This did not break the movie for me, but enough changes were made for me to think, "Wait, where's this character?" or "Wait, what happened to the part where?"

What I liked best about this movie: Sam Claflin. I love this man. See?

Me with Sam Claflin at the Mockingjay Part 1 U.S. premiere.

Because I came to know Sam as being Finnick in The Hunger Games, and I love Finnick so much, I thought that I would be watching this movie and think "Finnick!" every time Sam was on screen. But that did not happen at all. Sam did amazing job portraying Alex. His facial expressions captured a lot of the thoughts that we know Alex is having because he writes about them in the book, but that he cannot really just come out and say in the movie because it wouldn't make sense.

Book Summary
Rosie and Alex are destined for one another, and everyone seems to know it but them. Best friends since childhood, their relationship gets closer by the day, until Alex gets the news that his family is leaving Dublin and moving to Boston. At 17, Rosie and Alex have just started to see each other in a more romantic light. Devastated, the two make plans for Rosie to apply to colleges in the U.S. She gets into Boston University, Alex gets into Harvard, and everything is falling into place, when on the eve of her departure, Rosie gets news that will change their lives forever: She's pregnant by a boy she'd gone out with while on the rebound from Alex.

Flo's Review
Oh my gosh. Where do I even start with this book?! Okay. I spied the audiobook on sale for $2 (that's right -- TWO dollars!) over Thanksgiving at my favorite used bookstore so of course I grabbed it. After a good month plus of just listening to Christmas music in my car, I decided I was ready for an audiobook again. This is the one I chose. 

I was sucked into it right away. The main characters, Rosie and Alex, are from Dublin and the audiobook readers all had Irish accents! It was great. This is a book of written correspondence -- letters, emails, Instant Messages (you can tell it was written in the '90s/early '00s), invitations, cards, and so forth. I do want to pick up a copy of the book to see what they actually look like in print. Now that I think about it, it's kind of ironic that I was listening to an audiobook about written correspondence. But along with the spot-on accents, the audiobook had theme-fitting music interspersed (like 'Pomp & Circumstance' around a graduation, for example) so it worked. 

Rosie and Alex were both such lovable characters. Both of them -- but especially Rosie -- had some tough breaks, but they both charged ahead with life and pushed through. We saw these two through times they were tight as thieves and times when they fought. We saw them support each other's dreams and decisions, but also call each other out. And OH the many near misses! My little heart could hardly take it!

Ruby was a great secondary character as an older, supportive voice of reason for Rosie. She played that role with some tough love, and she and Rosie were almost tied for sense of humor. The second to last scene of the book is absolutely perfect.

I discovered shortly after I started reading it, that it was re-released with the title Love, Rosie and it is being made into a movie! With two actors who I adore as Rosie and Alex -- Lily Collins and Sam Claflin:



See? Adorable! So in conclusion, go read this book! It's a cute read, it's absolutely lovely and you'll be looking for the "silence" of your own when you're done!