Fairytale of New York

by Miranda Dickinson

[Leah]

Rosie Duncan left England six-and-a-half years ago to live in Boston. A short while later something truly awful happened to Rosie which forced her to leave Boston and she ended up in New York. New York quickly captured Rosie’s heart and she found a job at Kowalski’s, a florists, before eventally taking over from Mr K. Along with Ed and Marnie, her assistants at work, and best friend Celia, can Rosie move on from the past or is it about to come crashing down on her?

When I first heard of Fairytale of New York I thought it sounded fab and when I saw the cover I fell even more in love. It truly is a beautiful cover and I’m actually going to buy the book because my ARC doesn’t have the cover on it, it’s that good. I thought Fairytale of New York sounded incredibly intriguing and I love any story set in New York. It’s a place I want to visit myself eventually.

Fairytale of New York is told entirely in the first person which is my preferred choice when our main character eclipses all of the other characters so it works incredibly well in this instance with Rosie being our main focus. The book starts as Rosie is on her way to see best friend Celia, a regular fixtures of theirs and Rosie is immediately likeable. As soon as I heard a whisper of there being something amiss in Rosie’s life I wanted to know what it was. Rosie’s secret is perhaps not as bad as I first thought, but it was quite heartbreaking for her to have to go through, so I could see why it affected her so much. Above all else, Rosie seemed incredibly real to me. I loved her cheery optimism even after everything that happened to her. More people could benefit from being a bit more optimistic like Rosie. I liked Celia, too, even if she is a journalist! She always seemed to have Rosie’s interests at heart and I loved her for that.

During the first chapter we learn more about Rosie’s florist business, Kowalski’s, and how she came to own it. We find out that when Rosie first came to New York, Mr Kowalski took her in and made her feel welcome; so much so that Rosie looked at him as a father figure and eventually, when Mr K. retired, Rosie took over the business with Ed & Marnie. Mr K. isn’t a present character in the book but I felt like he was there throughout. Rosie was always recalling things Mr K. said and I could see he’d made such an impact on Rosie’s life. Never has a deceased character been so present in a book and I felt like I knew Mr K. Ed and Marnie are Rosie’s work colleagues and I loved them both immediately. Marnie was hilarious and sounded like a friend everyone should have, she just seemed so full of life. As for Ed I loved him from the minute he appeared in the book. As Rosie said, Ed was so difficult to not like. Right from the off I saw something between him and Rosie and I hoped it would come to fruition in the end. My quest for those two to be together was impaired by the arrival of Nate Amies, who Rosie meets at an authors lunch. Nate was nice, don’t get me wrong, and I loved his and Rosie’s weekly chats with Old F. (the cofffee machine – a character in his own right!) providing the coffee, but I wanted Ed and Rosie to be together and Nate was someone in the way of that, an obstacle to be overcome I suppose. Don’t get me wrong he was immensely likeable but too laidback for my liking.

It’s actually Nate who brings Rosie’s past speeding back to the present, although not purposely, when he asks Rosie to do the flowers for his friends’ wedding. His friend turns out to be David, the mysterious man from Rosie’s past who somehow or another made sure Rosie would swear off men. As I said above Rosie’s secret didn’t shock me but I understood perfectly what David had done to her and how it had had such a big effect on her. I liked that Rosie could, eventually, come through the other side of that. The ending was fantastic and although I guessed who it was sending the mystery flowers I still loved it.

There’s also a small plotline involving Rosie’s brother, James, which I didn’t fully understand I have to admit. I’m not all that hot on anything even remotely political and it all seems to just wash over me. However I got the main jist and that little storyline didn’t take a long time to end.

The thing that made the book for me, though, was the descriptions of New York and the descriptions of floristry in general. New York sounds like a fantastic city and Miranda must have really done her research, she brings New York to life. The descriptions of Kowalski’s were also fantastic as well as the flower arrangements made by Rosie, Ed and Marnie and again, it must have taken a huge amount of research unless of course Miranda was a florist in a previous life. I hear a lot of how authors’ descriptions of places are poetic and here I can see what makes people say that, Miranda’s writing flows so well and the descriptions are so descriptive. I could also imagine Kowalski’s as a real place and I could practically smell the flowers. Never has anybody made floristry sound so enticing.

Fairytale of New York is a truly great read. It flows well and all of the characters are fantastic. Miranda’s writing is outstanding and I’m so pleased HarperCollins’ imprint Avon picked this up from Authonomy. I felt involved throughout the book and there was nothing I didn’t like about it. The whole book just flows so well and I found it a pleasure to read. This is without a doubt one of the best debut novels I have ever read. A fairytale read… if you will.