Dear Rosie Hughes

I loved this story of friendship. It was emotional and memorable. The book is unique in that the story is written as emails between people. When I first started I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy that, but it worked. I highly recommend it!

I loved this book. What a great story about two friends who found their way back to each other and created a support system that allowed them to persevere despite hardship. I cried at the end as it took me by surprise. A must read.

My Review of Dear Rosie Hughes by Melanie Hudson

Oh how I loved this book...and was a bit apprehensive as it is told through emails and letters and I was worried it would be hard to get into...but I needed of worried, after the first few letters, you get swept away with the story unfolding.

This story follows two childhood friends Aggie and Rosie who’s friendship abruptly ended. When Aggie hears that Rosie has gone off to war, she realises that her friend needs are more than ever and begins to write to her

Aggie is hilarious, she is so honest and real about her flaws, and mistakes. She hides a lot of her real pain from the outside world, but through letters, she begins to open up to Rosie about her worries, and you get to watch her grow and evolve.

Rosie letters were hard to read sometimes as you could sense her despair of fighting in a war that might have been started under false pretences, coming to terms with the collapse of her marriage, but there was also joy, mainly due to her friendship with Gethan, who I fell in love with

At the core of this book is friendship, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, but most of all it will make you treasure the friends you have as who knows what each day may bring

5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book will stay with me for a long time.

I honestly don’t know where to start, I’m still reeling a little, even though I guess what was coming (there are no spoilers here).

It has taken me just shy of three weeks over Christmas and New Year to read this book, its format helped me to read on my commutes with easy stopping points. To have diary entries for each of the characters in Rosie’s life made for a well-rounded reading experience.

I loved the humour of the characters and their personalities shone through the words, I could be seen laughing and sobbing, depending on the point at the book on the 07:02 train to work each morning.

I know the author used some experience she had from her time in the forces and that Rosie and co are fictional but reading this story brings home some of the more personal, unreported issues which come with combat. My respect for service personnel only grows.

Yes, there were bits of the story I would have liked expanding on, I’m a very nosey reader after all but once readers finish the book, they will understand why getting all the answers isn’t always possible.

I thank #Netgalley and #HarperCollins for trusting me to give an honest review about a book which has certainly wedged its way into the top three I’ve read in the last twelve months. I will by gifting a copy of this book to several friends.

This review is so hard to do basically because the very best bit I can’t mention because it would give too much away – sigh. Apart from that I’ve really enjoyed the whole story.

Aggie and Rosie have been best friends since school. Then something happened which the reader doesn’t find out about until later into the book, which led them to lose contact for 15 years. When Aggie hears that Rosie has gone off to Afghanistan just prior to the Iraq war starting back in 2003 she decideds to let bygones be bygones and starts writing to Rosie. Rosie is working as a meteorologist there on behalf of the army to give them daily weather forecasts and is out in the desert on an army base.

The whole story is told via messages, emails and letters, not just between Rosie and Aggie but other characters in the book too. I’ve read quite a few books written either via emails, or in diary format so didn’t have any problems with the story being told in this way. If anything they suit me more so because they’re chatty, less description and more dialogue. Having said that, it must be very difficult to get a story across in this way by the author I would have thought, so very well written. It is certainly never devoid of emotion for being written in this way.

I really liked the relationship between Aggie and Rosie, most of the way through they were funny, I liked Aggie’s sense of humour. Though I think her outward jolly demeanour hid a lot of sadness Aggie felt, especially about the relationship she had with her own Mother.

It’s a story of the value of friendship, of making the most of every day and as Rosie’s Dad had said to her at one time keep smiling. There were other characters in the book too, Gethyn a colleague who was working as a Docotor along side Rosie, they shared a great comradeship and helped each other to stay positive whilst out in the Desert. Rosie’s mum and dad who were lovely. Then there were Aggie’s friends who she met when she moved to a tiny Island in Scotland to run a cafe for a friend.

This was a lovely warm hearted but fun read. It was never over sentimental, just full of kindness with people trying their very best to be happy, in often difficult circumstances. It teaches us that life really is what you make it and always make the best of what you have.

This was another excellent choice to cleanse my palate between servings of my usual crime-fiction books.
Rosie and Aggie were best friends until something happened to drive them apart. We do eventually find out what, but at the beginning they are more concerned with the present rather than addressing the past. In this present, Aggie is suffering both from an overpowering mother as well as mega writers block. With a deadline looming, she decides that a change could be what she needs and flees to the wilds of Scotland to run a cafe in its owner's absence. But before she goes, she hears that old friend Rosie is in a war zone, not as a soldier but as a weather forecaster, having recently split from her husband and wanting a change herself. When she hears this, she gets hold of her address and the two of them start to correspond. Told entirely in letters and emails between Rosie, Aggie, Rosie's mum and dad and then a few other characters, what follows is a wonderfully charming and emotional story which ran me through the whole gamut of emotions along the way to its conclusion.
The format of the book was what really made it for me. Most of the correspondence was short and punchy but contained a wealth of information in what was a relatively short book overall but which when all was said and done, was definitely more than the sum of its parts. I've always found letters to be a very effective way of information dumping in fiction, and here it worked really well. It also made the whole book very readable as it was written in a very informal, chatty kind of a way.
Characterisation was second to none. I really took to both Rosie and Aggie right from the start and our relationships blossomed as the book progressed. Their outlooks on life as well as their wonderful humour spilled off every page for me and made me feel all the more closer to them as I learned more of their history. This was pretty much the pattern as each new character was introduced and, by the end of the book, it felt like I had found a good bunch of new friends.
The way that the characters' histories and backstories were introduced were perfectly placed in the present day timeline, especially some of the more emotional ones which had me reaching for the tissue box a few times along the way. But it's OK, I also did a fair amount of laughing and giggling along the way too!
It's hard to talk about the ending as if I even hint at anything it could spoil it for others but I will say that it was the right end. I might not have liked some of the things that happened but it fitted and rounded the book off right.
All in all, a wonderful read that ticked every box for me for what I needed at the time. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Dear Rosie Hughes is for me a surprise 5 stars for me, surprise because this isn’t my normal genre of read but this kept me hooked right till the end.
Rosie has been deployed to Afghanistan before the start of the Iraq war, she is there to give weather advice as this is what she does for the RAF. Aggie was her best friend until fifteen years ago and it is only as you get into this book that we find out the reason why. I’m not going to spoil this read in anyway so I’m not going to go into the storyline too much, all I will say is the book is just emails from Rosie to various other people and vis versus which at first thought I didn’t think was going to work but boy I was wrong. I totally loved Rosie and kind of knew how this was going to plan out and in my head reading the last half I was shouting “don’t you dare” but Melanie you did and because of this I feel Dear Rosie Hughes will stay with me for quite some time.

Fabulous - I was not sure about this novel because of reading it through e-mail and letter, but it works!.The characters are slowly allowed to develop and build up their personalities; in fact they become your personal friends.
Rosie is in the war zone of Iraq and Kuwait and her friend Aggie has fled to Scotland in an attempt to free her writers block.
The story of their friendship, and their falling out, is told through their correspondence from both perspectives and the reader is allowed access to their true hopes, dreams and disappointments.
This is a refreshing read full of humour and pathos and one which remain with me for a long time.

I really enjoyed this book! Taking place during the Iraq invasion, two childhood friends reconnect by sending letters. Other letters followed from parents, villagers, and a fellow soldier.

It was an emotional, funny, enjoyable read. It was great insight to female friendships.

I am going to be honest, this was a solid 5-stars for me UNTIL the 98% mark. Hudson made a decision, that I sort of understood, but just could not accept. Sorry. I know there will be people, who will be ok with it, but it crushed me.

That said, I actually really enjoyed this book. It was a beautiful story about the power of friendship and connection. It was about beginnings and endings, starting anew and saying goodbye.

Aggie and Rosie had been childhood friends, but stopped talking after a falling out before they went to university. Fast forward 15 or so years, and they reconnect via letters after Rosie was deployed to the Middle East. It was in these letters, that we see the embers of this friendship start to glow brighter and brighter, as these women become reacquainted with one another. I have to say, this was a fine piece of women's lit in that they explored their hopes, dreams, and regrets, but they also cheered each other up and cheered each other on. Seriously, cue "The Wind Beneath My Wings".

Aggie was absolutely hilarious. She was colorful and had no filter. I absolutely adored her. Rosie was just trying to "keep her head down", and get through her time in the Middle East with the Army, and when I learned of the losses she had suffered over the years, I obviously cried. Aside from two fantastic MCs, Hudson filled out the story with some wonderful side characters. I loved getting to know Rosie's mum and dad and Gethyn and all the fine folks at the Cafe. They added a lot of fun to the story, and also, additional points of view, which helped me see the bigger picture.

The tears I am shedding as I write this review are a testament to my affection for these characters. Do I wish a few things would have played out a little differently? Yes, but I have no regrets about taking this journey with Aggie and Rosie.

Often I find myself writing about how much I “love” a book and how terrific it is – and it is – because it is rare that I don’t thoroughly enjoy a book with its power to transport me to a different place or another time, to escape for just a little while. So when a book comes along that genuinely surprises me, catches me off-guard and completely rocks me to my core, often I am left speechless. Such was the case with Dear Rosie Hughes, a beautiful book written by Melanie Hudson. I finished this book very early on Christmas morning before anyone else was awake. The family woke to find me sitting in front of the fire bawling my eyes out wondering what, on earth, was the matter with their poor old mom! It has taken me several weeks to compose myself and my thoughts well enough to write this review and even now I know I will not do it justice.

When I received Dear Rosie Hughes I assumed it was a sweet, cozy read. The cover is cute, the premise is precious. Two adult women who have been lifelong friends since childhood fell out of touch over something that happened in their early adulthood. When Rosie signs up to go to the Persian Gulf as a meteorologist, she and Aggie begin writing to one another again – just to pass the time while Rosie is away. The book itself is a series of letters between Aggie and Rosie, Rosie and her parents, Rosie’s fellow soldier and Aggie, and various other peripheral characters that come in and out of their lives throughout the story. As the book unfolds we learn more about each of the women, their relationships with one another, with their parents, their town, with Rosie’s husband whom she may or may not be divorcing, the child Rosie lost and Aggie’s myriad of interesting dates. We watch as Rosie first adapts to life in the desert, then becomes dejected as the truth is revealed about why they actually are there, her horror as the war begins, her struggle as one of the few women in the camps. We read about Aggie who uses humor, hysterical, laugh-out-loud humor, to cover her pain of rejection that she has suffered throughout her life and we see her growth as she takes on the responsibility of writing her own book as well as running a café in Scotland. The growth in friendship and maturity for everyone involved is a beauty to read and behold as it unfolds.

As I began reading, I was somewhat dismayed that the entire book was nothing except correspondence between various people but as I continued reading I realized that this truly was one of the most intimate methods of communicating thoughts and feelings that I’ve ever come across in fiction. By the time I concluded the book, I was so completely and utterly invested in these characters’ lives that I felt as though they were my friends, my daughters, my son, my town. Perhaps it is because my husband was in the military and we were involved in the Persian Gulf, the first one not the second, and we had friends who fought and who died there. Perhaps the relevancy was so close to me that I identified with the hope, the joy and the pain. Or, perhaps, Hudson captured it all so perfectly that we all can identify with these women and their friendship, their family, and their loss. Regardless of why this book affected me so deeply, I only know that it did and it is, by far, one of the very best books I have read in a long time. If you don’t read another book that I recommend in 2019, please read this one. Rosie and Aggie’s story are waiting for you.

My eternal gratitude to @Netgalley, @HarperImpulse and @Melanie_Hudson for allowing me the honor of reading #DearRosieHughes

Told solely through letters and emails, Dear Rosie Hughes is an uplifting and heartwarming story about the power of friendship. Discard any preconceptions about the style of storytelling as I can assure you it still packs the same amount of emotion that a traditional novel would. When it comes to this book, there is more to it than what meets the eye and I think it will take a lot of people by surprise – in a good way! Even though the story primarily focuses on the letters between Rosie and Aggie, we also read letters from Rosie’s parents, brother and even her medic colleague Gethyn… and many more. *mysterious music* I also want to say that I loved that the story was set in a small Yorkshire village. More books set in God’s Own Country, please and thank you!

One of the (many) things that I enjoyed very much about Dear Rosie Hughes was how easy it was to get into, and how it flowed so well. Don’t you just it hate when you need to read 50 pages of a book before it gets going? I raced through this book, grumbling at any time I had to set the book aside for adulting and other life commitments. When will I find a job that pays me to read all day? #seriousquestion

From the first chapter, Aggie’s unique voice leapt off the page and into my heart. I immediately fell in love with her as a character, and after I finished the book I desperately wanted more Aggie adventures. A spin-off, please? I also have to give a special mention to our heroine Rosie, who was such a deliciously complex character. Her story, and what she had been through, made my heart physically ache and added nuance to the overall story. I wasn’t aware that Melanie Hudson had actually personally served in the British Armed Forces, so her experience ensured Rosie’s story was told in a genuine and authentic way without unncessary military jargon.

This book is set out in "eblueys" and emails sent between Rosie and her friend Aggie, as well as her colleague Gethyn and her family and neighbours. They introduce the fact that Aggie and Rosie haven't spoken for some time as they catch up on the missing years as well as discuss their current adventures and woes, including divorce, family, and being deployed in the lead up to the Iraq War.

The lack of proper chapters was a bit of a trap, as it was just a little bit addictive to keep reading and reading long after I should have put it down to do important stuff! I was really gripped by the funny, sentimental and nostalgic way the correspondence between the characters unfolded and it was a clever concept done well.

I loved getting lost in the memories of the friends; the sense of loss, family dynamics, and how their lives evolved to their present situations. I particularly felt real emotion reading Rosie's Dad's emails to her, they were so full of love and worry partially hidden behind gossip and village drama.

Aggie's adventures off to Scotland provided stunningly peaceful and tranquil scenery in comparison to Rosie's existence in the unsettled desert. However, both characters had found a peace in the basics of living with very little luxuries, and though both had fled in many ways to escape their realities, they both are on a path of self discovery, assisted by new friends, and each other, across the miles.

With a strong sense of sisterhood and a poignant finish, this book is definitely one to easily get lost in and enjoy.

Truly beautiful. There are not enough words for how I feel about this book. Funny and poignant in equal measure, I think a certain part of this book actually broke my heart a little.

I must buy a paperback copy of this book to keep on my bookcase to read again.

Rosie Hughes and Aggie Brathwaite are childhood friends who for reasons only known to them fell out fifteen years previous to the novel. However, when Rosie volunteers to go to the front line in Iraq as a Meteorologist, Aggie feels the need to get back in touch, mainly to ask what the Hell Rosie is actually playing at! And so it begins.

Melanie Hudson is extremely clever in the way she has approached this book. Rather than the normal prose that we expect, the whole manuscript is set out as letters and emails between the two female leads but also between Rosie and her parents, a fellow solider, a schoolchild and a soon to be ex-husband.

I wasn't sure how I would feel about this at first but soon I was loathe to put this down. My morning and evening commute from the day job has seen me so absorbed in this book I almost missed my stop!

The words flow as do the giggles, the emotions and everything else that goes with it.

The only reason I gave this book four stars was THAT ending! My poor fragile heart!

Thank you so much to Harper Collins and NetGally for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Aggie and Rosie used to be friends but haven't spoken in 15 years (due to a man and a misunderstanding!). When Aggie learns Rosie has been deployed to Kuwait as the Army Met Officer, she knows her best friends needs her now more than ever, so writes her a letter. Soon the pair begin exchanging their hopes, dreams and everything they have missed through the years.

I adored the format of this novel entirely written through letters. Hudson's characters are so well-drawn you can't help falling in love them and rooting for them to get their happy endings. The ending is predictable but you become so invested you are hoping and keeping everything-crossed that you are wrong, and Hudson couldn't possibly end it like that, could she?! - I was reading the last few pages with an uneasy feeling of dread in my stomach. This novel is a little gem, heart-warming and heart shattering in equal measure - laughing and crying along with this cast of wonderful characters is not to be missed!

Thanks to NetGalley, Harper Impulse & Killer Reads for sending me this in exchange for an open and honest review.

I love books written in letter form, I find them so easy to read and get into the character's heads.
I thought that their friendship was lovely, friends from school are precious.
Such a lovely book and incredibly easy to read.

Aggie’s friendship with Rosie Hughes was shattered fifteen years ago. However, after hearing that Rosie is stationed in Kuwait as a weather forecaster on the the eve of the Iraq War, Aggie buries the past and writes to her. What follows is their series of correspondences and the comforting words they provide as they navigate their different, unpredictable worlds.

There’s something magical about this second-chance friendship. In the opening letter from Aggie, it’s understood that her relationship with Rosie ended badly, but there isn’t an immediate explanation as to what happened. Aggie appears to have just had a moment of spontaneity, but Author Melanie Hudson expertly drops hints in each subsequent letter, peeling back the layers of the connection between these two women.

Hudson deserves praise for how she handles this format. Letters and emails can be intensely personal forms of communication, but they also require a bit of familiarity of the subjects in order to achieve full appreciation. However, as Aggie writes about missed deadlines and writer’s block and Rosie responds with the tensions of war, Hudson uses this rekindled friendship to her advantage— she drops backstory and new complications with ease. It reads as chatty, rather than as the stilted ramblings they could. Even more remarkably, Aggie’s complaints of working as a ghost writer hold up against Rosie’s apprehensions of fitting in in a war zone. These sections are of two friends needing to depend on one another for support, whether that’s venting when a rucksack is too heavy or if a cake isn’t spongy enough.

All of this is aided by the addition of correspondences with other characters. Aggie writes to her mother, Rosie writes to her parents, and a charming doctor who works with Rosie, Gethyn, takes up chatting with Aggie. It’s interesting reading as the same information is disseminated to different individuals— not everyone is offered the same perspective, sometimes complicating their interactions. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s heartbreaking, but it’s always insightful as to what these characters actually believe.

At its core, this is a story of a friendship that feels so real, so true. There’s hope and intense joy, but also devastating pain— everything that comes with loving another person. We should all have what Hudson describes within these pages— a friend that we can turn to, even after fifteen years, and keep on as though time never passed.