Where Rainbows End

by Cecelia Ahern

[Nessa Luna]

Actual rating: 3,5. Before I start this review, I have a confession to make. I only wanted to pick up this book because - in the movie - the role of Alex was played by Sam Claflin (our beloved Finnick Odair in the Hunger Games). I really wanted to see that movie, because I just think Sam is gorgeous and u g h. But, I also kind of wanted to read the book first, to get to know the story a bit better. So when I saw it for only 7,95 at my local bookstore, I decided to buy it.

Where Rainbows End tells the story of Rosie Dunne, and Alex Stewart. They have been best friends since they were five, and they are inseparable. But then, Alex's parents move to Boston and - naturally - they take him with them. He finished high school there and goes onto Harvard to become a heart surgeon. Rosie promises to come there to study Hotel Management as soon as she's graduated. That is until she gets pregnant.

I was a bit confused at the size of this book, because I honestly thought the story happened over a period of a couple of years or so, maybe from their teens until their late twenties. But before picking up the book, I read a review on Goodreads that told me this book started at around Rosie's seventh birthday and ended around their fifties or something. A much longer period than I had expected, but still, I was interested in the story. It mainly consists of letters, emails, chat sessions, text messages and post cards send between not only Rosie and Alex, but their families and eventually their children as well.

I personally really liked the idea of this book, the different types of exchanges between Alex and Rosie. And later on their families, Rosie and Ruby, Katie (Rosie's daughter) and her best friend Toby and so on. It reminded me a bit of - I am going to say it - Illuminae, except without all the action/suspence and the spacey-wacey stuff of course. The way the book was composed made it so much easier to read in my opinion, and I really finished the 500+ page book within three days.

There was one thing I didn't really like, and that was how - at age forty/fifty - Rosie still sounded a bit like a teenager to me. I don't know, maybe she did really change her writingstyle over the years, or maybe people just don't do that at all, but I felt like I was still reading about nineteen year old Rosie. Because I don't have that experience yet, I don't know if people really change their way of writing as they get older, but I do know that I write differently than I used to write when I was sixteen, so yeah.

In the end, I really liked Where Rainbows End but I have to admit I didn't love it. My main problem was that it was too long. Had it been told over a shorter period of time, I may have enjoyed it much much more!

If you're a lover or stories like Just One Day, Anna and the French Kiss, and Lobsters, but you want a more grown-up book, you should definitely check out this book!

My opinion on this book in one gif: