The last Courtney Walsh book I read was The Summer of Yes, which is one of the few books I read twice consecutively in recent years. It was always going to be a hard act to follow. Everything’s Coming Up Rosie, unfortunately, did not
Rosie is one of probably thousands of aspiring actors in New York who dreams of making it big but instead lives a subsistence existence, always seeking and never getting their big break. She’s a failure. Even worse, she can’t admit her failure to her family or friends, which makes her feel like a double failure when she visits her hometown, catches up with her school friends, and everyone wants to hear about her fabulous life in New York.
Eventually, we get to the actual start of the story: Rosie arrives at the Sunset Players theater, not realising she’s signed up to manage a production of Cinderella in a retirement community, not assist at the respected Sunset Playhouse.
That all takes the first ten chapters of the book, and I found I had to force myself to keep reading.
I actually stopped twice (completely the opposite of when I read The Summer of Yes), frustrated with Rosie’s attitude and her lack of self-awareness (made more frustrating by the fact the book is written in first person and Rosie is the sole narrator, so there was no break from her.) The only reason I kept reading is because I’ve enjoyed every other Courtney Walsh book I’ve ever read.
Courtney Walsh uses her own experience as the owner and director of a youth theatre in bringing Rosie’s directing to life. Once we get to the scenes in the theatre, the book comes alive. We meet Booker, the only male under the age of seventy which clearly establishes him as the love interest. We meet Daisy, Rosie’s peppy roommate, and Dylan, the withdrawn teenage girl spending the summer with her grandparents. And we meet the village residents, including Belinda, who thinks the director job should have been hers, and Arthur, the set man.
By the halfway point, I found it difficult to put the book down.
Rosie has finally looked outside herself and become a likeable character. The community residents are fabulous, and have plenty to teach Rosie … especially Arthur. Booker becomes the romantic hero we all want to see ( the old ladies agree – they spend far too much time ogling him).
In the end, Everything’s Coming Up Rosie becomes a delightful rom-com which addresses some serious questions about self-identity and emotion with a near-perfect ending. But it took a long time to get there, and it’s definitely contemporary romance rather than Christian romance.
Courtney Walsh fans will enjoy Everything’s Coming Up Rosie. If you haven’t read Courtney Walsh before, I suggest starting with The Summer of Yes.
Thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.
About the Author
Courtney Walsh is a novelist, theatre director, and playwright. She writes small town romance and women’s fiction while juggling the performing arts studio and youth theatre she owns with her husband. She is the author of thirteen novels. Her debut, A Sweethaven Summer, hit the New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller lists and was a Carol Award finalist. Her novel Just Let Go won the Carol in 2019, and three of her novels have also been Christy-award finalists. A creative at heart, Courtney has also written three craft books and several musicals. She lives in Illinois with her husband and three children.
Find Courtney Walsh online at …
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About Everything’s Coming Up Rosie
Sometimes what you think you want and what you actually want turn out to be different things . . .
Rosie Waterman has one dream: to become a working actor. But lately, that hasn’t been working out. When she loses her apartment and her job on the same day, she does what she always does–puts herself out there, ready to find the next big thing. But a trip home makes her realize that while she’s been struggling to make this dream come true, all her friends have become real adults with careers and weddings and babies on the way. Rosie’s been at this for years, and she has nothing to show for it. But how does she simply let go of her dream?
When she’s offered a job as the director of a regional theatre’s production of Cinderella, she jumps at the chance–even though she’s only directed in college and the job is in Door County, Wisconsin, and not in New York. She has no other offers, and at least she’ll be getting paid to do something theatrical. But when she arrives, she quickly realizes that the “regional theatre” is actually in a retirement community, and the “actors” are actually senior citizens with no acting experience whatsoever.
Working on the show presents new challenges, forcing Rosie to learn how to step up and be the leader this fledgling theatre troupe needs. The more time she spends with her new cast, the more she begins to rethink what it means to dream big, especially when that big dream hasn’t turned out to be at all what she thought it would be. It’s not at all what she expected, but could it be exactly what she needs?
Find Everything’s Coming Up Rosie online at:
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Liwen Y. Ho works as a chauffeur and referee by day (AKA being a stay at home mom) and an author by night. She writes sweet and inspirational contemporary romance infused with heart, humor, and a taste of home (her Asian roots).
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