The Rosie Effect

I find the character of Don so endearing and I read this in almost one sitting, like the first book. I was quite frustrated with Rosie who made no attempt to sit down and have an actual conversation with Don at any time during the story. They were more like flatmates. I also love the men's group and how they try to help each other and end up in worse trouble but eventually it all works out.

3.5 stars.

If you read The Rosie Project, odds are you fell in love with Don and Rosie. This mismatched and unlikely couple made me laugh and warmed the cockles of my heart. So I was extremely excited to get an ARC of Graeme Simsion's latest instalment – The Rosie Effect.

Don and Rosie are newlyweds living in the Big Apple (that's New York if for some bizzaro reason you think this has turned in to some science fiction alternative reality thing). They seem to be happy and settling into life in America, until Rosie drops a bombshell that turns Don's safe, predictable world upside down – she is pregnant!

As you would expect, hilarity and confusion ensues as Don tries to come to terms with impending fatherhood, and the changes to his and Rosie's relationship. Don is as he has always been. It is Rosie that suddenly has the personality change.

Maybe it is because I have been pregnant, or maybe it is because I am a control freak, but I found Pregnant Rosie very different from Project Rosie. She just seems so irresponsible. I know I am probably sensitive about this subject, but she has such a careless attitude towards her baby. She continues to drink alcohol, fails to schedule important doctor's appointments, and although she seems to want the baby, she is not prepared to make any sacrifices for it.

Her attitude towards Don was also disappointing. I expected her to be more in tune with his...oddities, rather than expect him to act like an average expectant father. He is not average, and that is why we love him.

However, I am happy to report that both Rosie and the book redeemed themselves in the end. I could see things from Rosie's point of view and could forgive her, a little.

I still laughed out loud in a few places, and overall enjoyed the Don Tillman Ride.

[rating stars=”three-half-stars”]

This quick take originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
—

“To the world's most perfect woman.” It was lucky my father was not present. Perfect is an absolute that cannot be modified, like unique or pregnant. My love for Rosie was so powerful that it had caused my brain to make a grammatical error.

The Rosie Project

It's harder to write a great sequel to a book than it is to write a great book. It's even harder to write a great sequel to a great book.

Graeme Simsion did that.

I read and loved The Rosie Project last year. I pushed it off on lots of my book friends.

I'm not much of a sequel girl, so it was with great trepidation that I approached The Rosie Effect this morning, the first day of the brand new year. Don't let me down, I murmured, Please don't let me down.

I'm so happy to say that The Rosie Effect did not let me down. I say this about very, very few sequels: The Rosie Effect might even be a little bit better than The Rosie Project.

You have to love Don and Rosie, with their off-putting personality quirks, and you have to love how they found each other in this crazy world.

Now, in Effect, they decide to bring a baby into the mix. Well, Rosie does, somehow thinking Don will follow. When he doesn't, it can cause all sorts of fascinating problems, knowing, as we do from the start, that this author is going to find some kind of wacky way to work everything out.

Okay, I've probably said too much, but I suggest, no, I urge you to get this fun novel and give it a read yourself. It's zany and improbable and hopeless, just like real life, and I think you just might love it as much as I do.

Don Tillman is socially awkward but that does have its benefits. One of them being that he cannot be anything but honest ... at least, until he tells a lie to keep Rosie from being under stress. This book was more about Don and his struggles and friendships than about his relationship with Rosie and I think it suffers because of that. His problems making connections with people include his problem with connecting with his own baby-to-be. I enjoyed it, just didn't feel it was as good as the first one in the series.

3 1/2 stars. I'd find myself annoyed at Don's internal dialogue that constantly interrupts plot and dialogue and almost put the book down...then discover an hour later that apparently I'd been sucked in!, so I guess I liked this book more in large chunks than little tastes! I really liked the first book, and am charmed by the non-conventional narrative voice in romantic fiction of Don Tillman, and glad that his friends and his exceptionalities save the day. Awww! I shall certainly read the third in the series. I'm increasingly a fan of “on the spectrum” fiction, esp. romantic fiction, and this seems a worthy addition. It's also cool to read a “married and in love and working it out” story.