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The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh Book Review

Reasons For Reading This Book:

I first saw the cover of The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh on a book reviewers account on Instagram. Sadly I did not save the post so I can not remember who posted it but it was one of their top reads of 2023. I saw that the reviewer gave it 5 stars, so I figured it was a enjoyable read. I checked it out from the library after reading the description and thinking it was interesting because it was a mix of a romantic love story with secrets and a mystery element to it. I have never read a Rosie Walsh book before and have never taken a recommendation from this book review either.

Content of This Book:

Emma is a young mom, cancer survivor, loving wife, and well-known marine biologist. Shortly after getting the all clear on her cancer, the secrets that she has tried so hard to hide from her husband are starting to come out. For years Leo and Emma have had a loving and fulfilling marriage. He is an obituary writer and Emma is a marine biologist professor, researcher and TV personality. Together they have a young daughter Ruby who they struggled to conceive. Leo begins to unravel Emma's lies, like her name is fictions, and is struggling to comprehend why she has kept this from him for so many years. With these secrets coming to light, Emma must prove to Leo that she really is the woman he always thought she was and loved, but she has to first tell him about the love of her other life. 

What I Liked About This Book:

As a female who has a degree in S.T.E.M. I was excited for the main character Emma to also be in S.T.E.M. Of course I am not the most knowledge about marine biology, but I did find this portion of the book to be interesting even though I did not comprehend a majority of the specifics. Until recently I have not really read books where the main characters have young children that are a central part of the plot. I found this to be refreshing and it was also a grounding point for both Leo and Emma throughout the entire book. I am a fan of Rosie Walsh's choice to have both Leo and Emma be narrators. There opposing narrations gave the reader an encompassing view of how their different reactions and choices effected not only themselves but also each other because they are a couple and care so much for one another. Read the next section to see what I disliked about the two narrations. Another praise I will give to Rosie Walsh is that I believe she gave a very real, raw and believable account of the mental and physical state that Emma was in postpartum. In those chapters I felt compassion and sadness for what she was experiencing because the descriptions were so raw that I felt like it was playing out in front of me and there was no way I could comfort or stop the way she was feeling. Lastly this book truly took the reader on an emotional rollercoaster of highs and lows that made you feel for all that the characters were experiencing. 


What I Disliked About This Book:

First of all, this is one of the most forgettable books I have ever read. In between picking it up to read I was not thinking about it at all and had to constantly remind myself what it was about each time I picked it up. In my opinion the plot was extremely slow and mostly uninteresting. The whole plot center around one main plot point and that was Emma was lying to her husband about her past. The plot point that Janice was missing was only scattered into the plot up until the very end when it became the main focus. This was honestly a plot point I was not interested in at all and really did not care how it was concluded. Until the midpoint of the book when Emma's grandmother became an active character I was confused on her life story. As someone who is from America not Britain, I did not fully understand her job and the importance of her role. Going along with this, there were times where I was confused or ignorant to the cultural references and most importantly streets and locations that related to Britain. I feel as though most times it did not hinder my understanding of the plot, but it is something I wanted to bring up. Even though I praised the choice to have opposing narrations, my biggest complaint is that there was not significant difference between the voices of Leo and Emma. I was constantly having to double check the chapter page and use context clues to figure out who's chapter it was. There should have been vast difference in their chapters not only because one is male and one is female, but also because they are two different people living this experience. I was very disappointed in the lack of distinction between the voices and literary devices not used in the two narrations. A plot point that was prevalent at the beginning of the book but never got a conclusion was Leo writing Emma's orbit. This started as a main plot at the beginning and then dropped off and was never mentioned at the end of the book or in the epilogue. I would have liked a conclusion on this. The last dislike that I will share is that I feel as though Emma's cancer was so prevalent at the beginning of the book that it set it up to be a main focus of the plot throughout the book when in reality it wasn't. I feel as though it should have been carried through as either a main plot point or not even a part of the plot at all because it just became an afterthought when I feel as thought cancer or severe illness like that should never be glossed over like it was. At times it also had me doubting whether she ever even had cancer or not because her being sick and in treatment was never really discussed. There is more I could say that I disliked about this book but I feel as though I have given a sufficient case to why I did not like this book. 


Would I Recommend This Book?

I would not recommend this book. There were parts that I liked and enjoyed, but overall it was very forgettable and not that interesting. If I were you I would read one of the books on the list below instead of reading The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh. 

Check out my book reviews for 2024!!


Check out my book reviews for 2023!!

Horse by Geraldine Brooks  
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger
Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
Hester by Laurie Pico Albanese
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
Environmental and Sustainability Book Reviews 2022
Self-Improvement Book Reviews 2022
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
Know My Name by Chanel Miller
The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
Not All Diamonds and Rosé by Dave Quinn
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Golden Girl by Elin Hilderbrand
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton
A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham 
Girls With Bright Futures by Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman
Run, Rose, Run by James Patterson and Dolly Parton
The Summer Series by Jenny Han
A Stolen Life: A Memoir by Jaycee Dugard
The Housewives: The Real Story Behind the Real Housewives by Brian Moylan
Verity by Colleen Hoover
All Rhodes Lead Here by Mariana Zapata
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart 
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Majesty: American Royals 2 by Kathrine McGree
Every Last Secret by A.R. Torre

Check out my book reviews for 2021!!

2021 Book Rankings

Beach Read By Emily Henry
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
Maybe In Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Educated by Tara Westover
The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig 
The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins 
We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
A Slow Fire Burning by Paula Hawkins 
We Are the Brennans by Tracey Lange
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Klara and the Sun 
The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner
American Duchess by Karen Harper 
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Girl With No Job by Claudia Oshry
Down the Habit Hole by Holly Madison Book Review
My Story by Elizabeth Smart
Layla by Colleen Hoover

Check out my book reviews for 2020!!

Check out my book reviews for 2019!!

Check out my book reviews from 2018!!


Don't forget to stay up to date on my blog by following my social media accounts!
Instagram: @whenishouldbestudying



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