Book Description:
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?
Narelle’s Thoughts:
I enjoyed reading Everything’s Coming Up Rosie, a fun romcom set in Wisconsin. Rosie is an unemployed actor from NYC who feels like a failure. She’s desperate to find paid theatre work and accidentally lands a temporary job in a retirement community running their upcoming Cinderella production. Rosie moves into staff housing on site and feels like she has made another embarrassing career mistake.
The story is from Rosie’s perspective in first person point of view. We journey with Rosie as she discovers why she’s lost and failing to achieve her goals and dreams. Rosie’s friends-to-more romance with Booker, the physical therapist at the retirement community, is sweet and adorable. I loved meeting the creative and eccentric residents and staff who were invested in making the theatre production a success and helping Rosie to discover what’s important in life.
I recommend Everything’s Coming Up Rosie to contemporary romance readers who like clean and wholesome friends-to-more and opposites attract romcoms set in a retirement community with a theatre production, an ensemble cast of quirky characters, and found family themes.
Many thanks to Thomas Nelson and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy.
