Book Review: The Rosie Effect; Graeme Simsion.

As is usually the pattern with me, it took a long time for me to get round to reading Book Two of the 'Don Tillman' series. I read 'The Rosie Project' last year, around May time so I thought I would have difficulty remembering the events of book one. Surprisingly though, I didn't and I have a lot of very good thoughts on the second book of the duology. I'm entering this into the Monthly Motif challenge too.

SOURCE: Netgalley
TYPE: E-Read

TITLE: The Rosie Effect
AUTHOR: Graeme Simsion
SERIES: Don Tillman (#2)
PUBLISHER: Penguin
PAGES: 420
GENRE: Romance, Adult, Contemporary, Humour

RATING: 4/5 Stars

Blurb:
Forty-one-year-old geneticist Don Tillman had never had a second date before he met Rosie.

Now, living in New York City, they have survived ten months and ten days of marriage, even if Don has had to sacrifice standardised meals and embrace unscheduled sex.

But then Rosie drops the mother of all bombshells. And Don must prepare for the biggest challenge of his previously ordered life - at the same time as dodging deportation, prosecution and professional disgrace.

Is Don Tillman ready to become the man he always dreamed of being? Or will he revert to his old ways and risk losing Rosie for ever?

What I Liked:

• Simsion's writing was just as I remembered it. It flowed easily and despite the long time gap between books, I instantly recalled who everyone was and why I loved them all in Book One. Especially Don. His constant crazy antics kept me entertained throughout, and I remembered that familiar feeling of helplessness as I watched his continual social blunders unfold. Simsion did a really great job at pacing the plot, I never once got bored of the on-page action and it always felt like something was happening.
• Simsion opted for a slightly more serious tone in Book Two and actually included quite a lot of social commentary on very serious issues. This included conversations on nature vs. nurture, same sex parenting effectiveness and the suitability of a mentally ill parental figure. While this change in seriousness might not suit everyone, I did enjoy understanding some of the complexity that was found in this book compared to it's much more light-hearted prequel.

What I Disliked:

• In favour of a more serious tone, it did mean that Simsion abandoned some of the humour that originally made me fall in love with this series. While I pointed out that it wasn't a bad thing, I was a little disappointed that 'The Rosie Effect' didn't make me laugh as much as I would have liked it to. I missed the light-heartedness of Don's unique personality, and as I spent quite a lot of the time getting frustrated with Rosie and her ridiculous intake of alcohol during her pregnancy, I couldn't really enjoy them as a couple either until the end of the book.

Overall Conclusion:

This was a very enjoyable story with wonderful pacing and writing from Simsion, who should be congratulated on his skills in writing humour. Books don't often make me laugh as much as his do. I loved so much about this book, including the way it handles some very complex, ambiguous topics regarding mental health and childcare. I do think that it wasn't nearly as funny or light-hearted as book one and may have lost a little of it's charm, but all in all this was not a bad ending for the duology at all.