REVIEW: Everything’s Coming Up Rosie by Courtney Walsh

Everything’s Coming Up Rosie by Courtney Walsh: Rosie Waterman is an actress down on her luck, out of opportunities, and desperate for direction. A trip home makes her realize that while she’s been struggling to chase her dream, her friends are building careers, getting married, and starting families. Then a last-chance job takes her far from New York to direct a community theatre production in a retirement village. What was meant to be a temporary stepping stone instead brings quirky residents, unexpected purpose, and a place where stories — and hearts — bloom in the most unlikely ways.

EVERYTHING’S COMING UP ROSIE is a sweet and heartwarming story, with a charming retirement-community setting, delightful side characters, and a slow friends-to-lovers romance that is tender, heartfelt, and full of that Courtney Walsh magic. Courtney writes with warmth and humor, laying bare the fierce messiness of late-twenties/early-thirties dreams that didn’t pan out — and somehow still sparkle.

Rosie’s journey is a mix of heartbreak, humor, rediscovering her own worth and the messy beauty of letting yourself slow down and start over. And Declan? He’s the quiet, wounded type who has absolutely no idea how to deal with a sunshine girl who keeps cracking open all the walls he’s built. The romance here builds softly — not insta-love, not fireworks—but something grounded, patient, and full of soul. It’s about connection, compassion, and finding gentleness and love when you thought life had sealed you off from it.

Tropes & Vibes I loved:

• Second Chance Romance
• Theatre world + second-chance dreams
• Found-family vibes
• Rebooting your life in your late-20s/early-30s
• Healing + self-discovery
• Heartfelt humor

EVERYTHING’S COMING UP ROSIE is funny, messy, comforting, and emotionally resonant — a reminder it’s never too late to rewrite your script, even if the stage is smaller than you once dreamed.

Audiobook Review: The narration is soft and warm — perfect for the vulnerable, hopeful, deeply human energy of the story. It makes the side characters shine and Rosie’s fears feel real.

Book Info:

Publication: June 10, 2025 | Thomas Nelson |

Sometimes what you think you want and what you actually want turn out to be different things . . . In New York Times bestselling author Courtney Walsh’s latest uplifting women’s fiction, one woman discovers what it means to create a life that fits.

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?