I wanted to love this novel. Having two grandparents that died from dementia, the synopsis appealed to me. However, Rose is an elderly woman climbing on a roof, doing crazy karate moves. It felt very ridiculous and far fetched to me.

This book was hard to categorize - neither a serious mystery nor a cozy....but somewhere in between. I enjoyed reading it to find out how the eccentric 68 year old wound up in a dementia care unit and how she was going to get out of the aftermath of her escape. There were a lot of yoga references and a lot of inside references to popular and/or current events, which was intriguing. A fun romp, but the antics of this frail, but fit senior were just a little too much to take seriously.

A departure for Nevada Barr, this book is not part of her national park mystery series. At the beginning we are in the mind of 68-year-old Rose, who is apparently suffering from dementia and has escaped from the nursing home where she has been placed in a "memory care unit." The description of her confused mental state was certainly troublesome and continued for so long that I almost gave up on the book. Then the possibility that Rose was being drugged into her stupor for nefarious reasons was introduced, and the pace picked up. Was that in fact the case, and if so how could she convince her family and caregivers that she was indeed sane and a victim? And who has been drugging her senseless? Her granddaughter Mel believed her, fortunately, as did her sister available only by phone and email. The mood of the book changed from depressing and slow to humorous and suspenseful as the zany caper progressed. Although this is a mostly plot-driven mystery, we care about Rose, and the issues surrounding aging and dependent care are highlighted well.

As promised, this was a standalone thriller mystery with an unexpected addition of whimsical humor.

I would like to thank Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an egalley of What Rose Forgot.

I’ve read a lot of this author’s other books so I was really excited about this stand alone. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting but it was a heck of a ride! It took off from the first page and didn’t stop til the last. I enjoyed it! Thanks to Netgalley for the early copy

I loved this book, Rose is very set on doing whatever she needs to do. I love her character and her drive to save herself and her friend from danger. Everyone else thinks she is right where she needs to be. She has to rely on herself and one other person.
There is also humor and determination.
This book is not like Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon series, but just as good.
I would like to thank NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read an early copy of this book. I am writing this honest reveiw and it is my opinion.

This really IS your mother's book. Give it to her! A real break from the standard mystery or thriller.

First time reading this author so I have no point of reference with her other books. I have to agree with other reviewers that parts of this book are a bit confusing. The two main characters were well described, but then others in and around the family were not clear and relationships were confusing. The beginning descriptions of the nursing home and patients was very good & it has you captivated. Up until Rose started climbing on rooftops I thought it might be a serious book. Then things start getting really far fetched and confusing. It just doesn't cut it as a mystery or suspense.
It was a fun book but seemed like it might be written for younger teenagers along the line of Nancy Drew mysteries.
I received this book as a complimentary copy for an unbiased review. The opinions expressed are my own.

A fun little book. The protagonist makes me consider a geriatric, more physically able and intellectual Stephanie Plum. Several nice side characters and a reasonable pace. Pretty good stuff.

I have long been. A Barr fan.
I liked this book and eccentric Rose .but I think I like her mystery series better.?
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book

Rose wakes up in a hospital gown in the bushes and doesn't know how she got there. Thus begins a mystery of suspense, is Rose crazy, demented or being drugged? It does at times become outlandish, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book and read to find out what happens next in the nonstop action. One has to remember not a lot of time goes by, Rose has the authorities after her and will be put back into the memory care unit if she can't get through this. I'll admit the one I thought behind this wasn't the one. Thanks to NetGalley and Nevada Barr for chance to read this with an opinion wholly my own, it was an enjoyable read.

Not sure where to start with reviewing this book. At times it is funny; other times very sad. When I first started reading it I didn't think I would finish the book but about 1/4 of the way in it became better. All the mediation and Buddha mentions at the beginning were confusing to me but as the story took off I wanted to see where this was all going to end up.
The story is an enjoyable read although it is a little far fetched. The author portrays the main woman, Rose, as an OLD 68 year old. Her actions and her behaviors don't go along with the description of an OLD woman. The entire time I was reading it that really bothered me; maybe 78 would have fit her description better!
The book stretches out the story and then quickly comes to a conclusion; almost too quickly.
Outside of Rose and her granddaughter most of the characters are not developed very well. I had trouble remembering who they were and their relationship to Rose and Mel. So when they showed up at the end of the story I had to go back and figure out who they were.
I've read other books by this author which I found to be a better read. This one is disappointing.

If you can say that a novel featuring a woman held in a memory care unit of a fancy Assisted Living facility who escapes one night and is recaptured and who’s being so over medicated that she appears incapacitated a fun and funny read, it is the perfect way to describe this novel. Rose, following her escape, realizes she is being over medicated and hides her meds. Shortly thereafter she realizes what has been happening to her and devises another successful escape plan. Following this, she gets together with her thirteen year old granddaughter and her friend who help her hide and “investigate” what had been happening to her and others in the same facility. I won’t go any further into the plot because of spoilers, but found it to be engrossing, entertaining and a thoroughly fun read. Thanks to Net Galley and Minotaur for an ARC for an honest review.

When Nevada Barr promises to deliver something a little different...she keeps her promise! A twisty, enthralling tale of memory and of the bonds between young and old, beautifully crafted and always suspenseful. Rose--a woman battling Alzheimers (or is she?) is a triumph.

The synopsis for this book immediately grabbed my attention! Rose Dennis is committed to an Alzheimer’s Unit of a nursing home and has no memory of how she ended up there. When Rose overhears one of the admins say that she won’t make it through the week, she knows something isn’t right and soon plans her escape. But the danger doesn’t end there. When she makes it back home, a man attempts to kill her, and she is left wondering who is so determined to get rid of her.

Rose’s granddaughter Mel, Mel’s friend Royal, and Rose’s sister Marion, help keep her whereabouts a secret while also helping her uncover who is after her. I thought Mel was a fantastic character and I loved her interactions with Rose. It added a nice bit of humor to the story and kept things lighthearted.

I found the end of the story to be a bit anticlimactic though. The person behind everything, while somewhat surprising, didn’t come across as the villain type. I felt like it came out of left field and didn’t wow me as I read it. After everything Rose went through, I was expecting a much bigger conflict with a more dramatic effect.

Overall I enjoyed the story, I just wish the end had been a bit more jaw-dropping.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2918090207

Amazing book... I loved it . It keeps you reading and you won’t put it down . It is very easy to read . Can’t wait to read more book by the Nevada Barr. I highly recommend this book!!!

I have to say that first of all when I started the book I wasn’t impressed at all. I was frustrated and wanted to stop reading. Poor Rose was so disoriented that it made me the reader also disoriented.

But I pushed through because Net Galley claimed the book was awesome.

I got hooked about 60% of the way through. That changed my mind to go from a two star to a five star. Because of that I ended up at 4 stars.

Rose Dennis is in a Memory Care Unit with early onset Dementia. She is also in an aggressive progression of dementia, or is she? She is confused, she is disoriented and she is mad. She gets the flu and because of that she has flushed most of the drugs out of her system. That means she is starting to remember. That turns out to be bad for the Memory Care Unit, but not for her.

As Rose starts to wake up things start to change. She starts to get aggressive and starts to plan her escape. But you are left wondering if she is nuts, demented, or just plan scary. She causes hurt and pain to others. But she also has pain caused to her.

I don’t want to say much else because it would be a spoiler. But let me say this. Rose ends up capturing my attention and my admiration for her determination to find out what the truth is. I think she will grab yours as well.

Enjoy!

The premise was good, and the opening is pretty harrowing, but for me the book lost steam after that. Trying to get away when one has been set up and repeatedly drugged is pretty awful, but the resolution was a bit unrealistic.
I think this book has some kind of identity crisis, not sure of what it wants to be.

Overall, a pretty good mystery. Intriguing premise, good plot pace, interesting twists and turns. I like that it's written in first person, so you don't even know what the outcome will be. Maybe she's experiencing this right now but will turn out to be crazy after all! Maybe she's experiencing this right now and comes out triumphant in the end! Usually when I read mysteries like this, the heroine is a 20- or 30-something woman, so it was an interesting change of pace to have a 68-year-old woman be the star of the adventure!

One of my main drawbacks was that the comment Rose overhears that sets of the whole plot is rather benign. It was quite a stretch to go from what she overheard to, "Oh my gosh, these people are trying to kill me!" It was somewhat unbelievable, which took away from the story a bit for me. The other thing that was just a bit too incredible was how readily and easily her granddaughter believed everything and agreed to help her. Not even the slightest hesitation that her grandmother who has recently been hospitalized for dementia is now paranoid about people trying to kill her. Again, hard to believe that. However, once the story got going, everything else worked out well enough that I was able to forgive the initial skepticism.

The other thing that might be difficult for some readers is a lot of references to meditation and Buddhism. I actually took a course about meditation and compassion recently, so a lot of the terminology and concepts she mentioned were familiar to me. However, to someone without my background, they might be a bit confused when she goes into some of these thought processes without any introduction or preamble. Even a simple "Rose sits down to meditate" or "She settles her mind with some meditation exercises" would be helpful.

This was probably a 3 1/2 star book, but it got bumped down to a 3 for the language. It was pretty moderate until the end when there were a lot of f-words in the climax, which I did not appreciate.

This is the first book that I have read of this author's. And it will be the last. The book was promoted as mystery and suspense. There was very little of either. I believe there was an attempt at humor which I found stupid rather than humorous. For me, not a good book at all.