Where Rainbows End - Cecelia Ahern

AUTHOR - Cecelia Ahern is an Irish Novelist. In addition to publishing several novels, she has also contributed a number of short stories to various anthologies, for which all her royalties go to charity. In 2002, when Cecelia Ahern was twenty-one, she wrote her first novel, PS,I love you. Published in 2004, it was the number 1 bestseller in Ireland (for 19 weeks), the United Kingdom, U.S., Germany and Netherlands. Her books are published in forty-six countries and have collectively sold more than eleven million copies



BEST-SELLERS -

* PS, I Love You (2004)
* Where Rainbows End (2004) (titled Rosie Dunne or Love, Rosie in the U.S.A.)
* If You Could See Me Now (2005) (titled A Silver Lining in the U.S.A.)
* A Place Called Here (2006) (titled There's No Place Like Here in the U.S.A.)


SYNOPSIS - This story begins by introducing you to two young children who are the best of friends. Their names are Alex and Rosie. As they grow older it is obvious they are meant for each other and everyone seems to see this except for the most important ones, the ones who are meant for each other, Alex and Rosie. As the story goes on you find that many obstacles prevent them from the one destiny that they both long for. It seems as if they take turns wanting to tell the other they are in love and desperately want the other. In critical situations as well as heart breaking setbacks of life, they gradually continue to understand how much they love each other. In the second phase of the book, Rosie finds she is pregnant, after fate has caused Alex to be absent and in his place another man who she absolutely has no feelings for. She raises the child, facing day to day challenges of being a single mother. In the meanwhile Alex succeeds in becoming a great doctor, Alex finds himself in love at different points of his life and walks down the aisle twice, both times not with Rosie.But, years after, life brings them back together again, when they both lost hope. Will they be able to get over these past years and bring back the love they once felt?


QUOTES -

Our life is made up of time; our days are measured in hours, our pay measured by those hours, our knowledge is measured by years. We grab a quick few minutes in our busy day to have a coffee break. We rush back to our desks, we watch the clock, we live by appointments. And yet your time eventually runs out and you wonder in your heart of hearts if those seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, and decades were being spent the best way

There’s no limit to what you can dream. You expect the unexpected, you believe in magic, in fairy tales, and in possibilities. Then you grow older and that innocence is shattered and somewhere along the way the reality of life gets in the way and you’re hit by the realization that you can’t be all you wanted to be

Well that’s the problem with paradise—nothing attracts a serpent quite like it.

Ever since people are kids they use their parents as some sort of measurement for how bad a situation is.

People who say it’s a long story mean it’s a stupid short one that they’re too embarrassed and couldn’t be bothered to tell..


A bit of ink on her skin doesn’t tarnish the goodness or dim the brightness that shines from her.



PULKIT SPEAKS -


Book with a heart. Spell bounding story of True love,soul mates, responsibilities of relations and missed opportunities in life!


This book is written in an interesting manner as it uses letters, notes, e-mails and instant messages to narrate the story of Rosie Dunne and the world around her. This book is innocent and natural at every step of the plot, It reiterates that fact of how our lives are primarily governed by our choices and how we can never eliminate the role of fate no matter how much we plan. A love story between the protagonists as the center plot, it is actually a series of love stories between key characters of the book - The love between Alex and Phil as brothers, Steph and Rosie as sisters, Katie and Rosie as daughter and her hard working single mother, Ruby and Rosie as best of friends, Casey and Rosie as teacher and student, to name a few, This is a book about life, About the love that we feel for so many people in life for their respective value.


Author successfully tells you so many deep things of life by using so many light characters as first person narratives, there by making you smile and think, all at the same time. On one page I found myself smiling at the sheer witty way with which Rosie and Ruby chatted, while on the other I found my eyes wet sharing the arduous pain and challenges that Rosie faced in her life at phases like losing her parents, or setback from a cheating husband. While Alex is a phenomenal person who is noble in all his thoughts and lives his life in an organized manner, Rosie is cute, silly-at-times, impulsive, more-natural in her thought process, completely sketched out from the soul of every hard working female that you meet in day today life. She is someone you know. Rosie Dunne is a worthy protagonist, complex enough to be compelling and ordinary enough to be believable.


What the books lacks for me is that futile get-together attempts are summarized too quickly,a boy named Toby in life of katie too obviously reminiscent of Rosie's childhood correspondence with Alex which makes his role in the book predictable a 100 pages before it ends with his surprize entry, overly serious long-winded paragraphs unnaturally quoted in chatrooms etc and a few off the drift e-mails, which makes u wonder if people in this book ever talk in person or just text write everything. The book still charms you immensely by the depth of its story. Time and again it takes you in memory lanes of life,love and friendship moments, of how they and only they are important and nothing else, circumstances just come and go, but true feelings, bonds and relations stand the test of times. This book is deeply touching at parts and it wins your heart way too quickly, after the initial pages you just find yourself smiling and crying, drifting with Rosie in her naturally-written,poignant beautiful adorable journey of life.


RATING - 4/5. If you love your family, if you ever had a crush on your school or college friend, if you like sharing things with people, if u like revisiting the memories, if you are a dreamer, this one is for you!

PRICE - Rs 250.

Paperback edition - 2007

HarperCollins Publications

purchased from a book shop in GIP mall,Noida


PS - Thanks To My dear sister, Arpita for the recommendation. Loved it!