The Rosie Project

This is a book that’s beloved on the internet. Seriously, I haven’t read a single bad review of it. That’s why, even though the book blurb didn’t interest me too much, I picked it up.

I mean, if it’s so popular, there must be something to it, right?

Right?

About the Book

Don Tillman, professor of genetics, has never been on a second date. He is a man who can count all his friends on the fingers of one hand, whose lifelong difficulty with social rituals has convinced him that he is simply not wired for romance.

In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which he approaches all things, Don sets out to find the perfect partner. She will be punctual and logical—most definitely not a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker, or a late-arriver.

Yet Rosie Jarman is all these things. She is also beguiling, fiery, intelligent—and on a quest of her own. She is looking for her biological father, a search that a certain DNA expert might be able to help her with.

Will Don and Rosie be able to find love together?

My Review

The Rosie Project is actually quite a sweet book, but it didn’t work too great for me. The author Graeme Simsion originally started off planning to write a screenplay – which gradually evolved into this book. I think it shows, this book would work much better as a rom-com movie.

Still, it’s not a bad book.

Don makes for an adorable male lead, and the first half of the book, which introduces us to Don, his friends, and Rosie were all quite cute. Where it started to pall was when the romance started. In a romantic novel, it’s important that both people are equally matched, and come across as compatible.

I didn’t find that to be the case. Rosie comes across flaky, trite, and quirky. It was hard to see this pair as anything other than a short-term fling. And I felt this book might have worked better for me if they fell in love and broke up, and may be stayed broken up.

The second half of the book where Don tries to win over Rosie after their break-up felt unbelievable, and untrue to his personality. Don is supposed to have Asperger’s and knowing some people with this syndrome, I found the way he changed a little hard to believe. It just felt like he would later switch back to his original personality, which was what drove Rosie away in the first place.

So yeah! I think I am a bit too unromantic and practical to fully buy into this romance (most romances, if I am honest). But still, this was a sweet book. And if you are into romance, I think you will like this one.