I think that part of my issues with this book is that I compared it to the story of Gypsy Rose and DeeDee Blanchard. I didn't think that the book was terrible, but it didn't hold my attention like I wanted it to. I would certainly read other titles by this author but this one just fell flat for me.

Psychological thriller. Rose Gold's mom, Patty, has raised a child who is ill all the time. Why? We find out Rose Gold has been poisoned by her mother for many years. As Rose Gold grows, the conditions grow more abusive, until, finally, there is a court trial and Patty is sent to prison for five years. About two years before Patty's time is up, Rose Gold starts visiting her in prison, setting to work on her plan to take down her mother.

Patty apparently suffers from Munchausen syndrome by proxy. On her release from prison, Rose Gold, with her baby son, picks Patty up from prison and brings her to the home Patty grew up in. Patty suffered terrible abuse from her father and she never hopes to see the place again.

Told in alternating chapters, Patty tells her story and Rose Gold her story. The reader is left with trying to deciding which woman might be more mentally damaged. Who will prove to be the more diabolical and who will win out?

I personally did not care for the book, but I know there are others who will stay up all night to finish it.

My copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review it.

If you are a fan of unreliable narrators and unlikable main characters, this is the book for you. Somehow the author makes you interested in these horrible women and you simply have to know how this is all going to end. Is this a book of redemption or revenge? To tell more would give it away.

It is enough to know that mom goes to prison for lifetime abuse of her 18 year old daughter and upon her release, goes to live with said daughter. The chapters alternate between the two main characters’ points of view; mom in the present and daughter dealing with the time after mom was imprisoned. Be prepared, this book deals with an extremely depressing and complex subject and pulls no punches. It is hard to read at times, but even harder to put down!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of this clever, twisted, ripped-from-the-old-headlines story!
Rose Gold's mother, Patty, is finally out of prison after eighteen years of abusing Rose Gold. The author takes this case of Munchausen syndrome by proxy and spices it up.
Rose Gold has been waiting for payback, and the story (told through their two viewpoints) is a glimpse into what makes both of them tick (neglect, abuse, etc.) and the game of chess they're playing with each other. They love each other. They don't trust each other. And, they're both more than a little demented which makes their choices all the more clever - and disturbing.
The author does a great job of adding humor (mostly from Patty's POV) to this dark story.
It's a very quick, easy read that I'd been looking forward to reading, and it didn't disappoint!

Thank you netgalley for the ARC of this book. It was an amazing with read. I loved the writing. It was an interesting look at a mother daughter relationship with munchausen by proxy and how it effects both people and also everyone’s else around them. It was was on my favorite read so far.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

Rose Gold's entire life was spent in Dr's offices and at home with only her mom. As she gets older she starts to question her life and discovers her mother Patty is the source of many of her issues.

Patty is scheduled for release from prison after Rose Gold's testimony put her behind bars. Over the last year, mother and daughter have reconciled and Patty looks forward to moving home with her daughter and grandson. As Patty tries to rebuild her life, Rose Gold has a few surprises in store for dear old mom.

Interesting concept for a storyline. I enjoyed the twist at the end.

Wow, this book took me by surprise. The development of the characters in the first 1/3 of the book didn’t prepare me for the outcome, although forgiveness for Mom seemed to come out of nowhere.

A teen who has been poisoned and starved her whole life by her mother turns the tables and testifies against her in court, sending her mother to prison. It is a surprise then to learn that the same daughter turns up to pick her mother up from prison the day she is released. Rose has recovered from her rough childhood and agrees to let her mother stay with her and even help care for Rose's baby. No relationship is perfect and soon old memories along with the town's hatred of Patty make it difficult to imagine a happy ending. Old habits run deep and revenge may be what's for dinner so you, dear reader, must figure out the truth and if justice is to be served for dessert. Chapters flip between Rose and her mother keeping you on your toes. This debut deals with the very real issue of Munchausen Syndrome and works it into one heck of a twisted psychological thriller. This author will be on my radar. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

For most of her young life, Rose Gold believed she was chronically ill, allergic to all kinds of food, and even wheelchair bound at times. Her mom took her to countless doctors, had numerous tests done, yet the doctors couldn't solve Rose Gold's problems. Until Rose Gold's testimony in court sent her mom to prison for the crime of poisoning her child to the point of making her seriously sick!

Don't go into this thinking it's just another Munchausen by Proxy book because there are so many layers to unravel! Five years after she was sentenced, Patty is finally free, and of course she has no where to go. When you poison your own child your community and all of your friends shun you, apparently... So, Rose Gold agrees to let her mom stay with her and her son. Has she forgiven her mom, ready to put the past behind them, or is she ready to show her she's not a weak, ill little girl anymore? It's all about who wants revenge the most and who's crazy enough to go to any length to get it!

Thank you to Berkley Pub and Netgalley for an ARC. Darling Rose Gold releases on March 17, 2020!

Rose believes that she has been seriously ill for the first eighteen years of her life. Uses a wheelchair, allergic to everything and in and out of the hospital. No one could figure out what was wrong with her. Her mother Patty spends 5 years in prison then wants to reconcile with Rose. Will she or does Patty want to pay her back? Interesting debut thriller.

A mother is serving jail time for abusing her daughter. While she is away Rose Gold is learning to be an adult on her own for the first time without her overbearing mother. When her mother is released will they start a new relationship like mother thinks or does daughter really hope to get her revenge? This story will keep you guessing the whole time. Is it the mother or the daughter? Who is really the villian in this story? Maybe it is both.

What a story! I raced through this suspenseful novel and couldn’t wait to find out what would happen to Rose Gold and Patty. The small town setting was the perfect background for this creepy read. The author kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat. Each chapter alternated between mother and daughter point of views. It was easy to feel sorry for Rose Gold and I kept questioning how she could possibly reconcile with her mother. It is explained that Patty was beaten by her father and her brother committed suicide but I’m not sure it was a good explanation of what caused her to abuse her daughter in this way. I was satisfied with the ending and the overall tension and quality of the authors writing, but closed the book with unanswered questions.

This book was so enjoyable! I was so intrigued by the concept after being enthralled with the Gypsy Rose and Dee Dee Blanchard Case. This book had some predictable aspects but still had some twists that I did not see coming. I think this book did a good job portraying both sides of people who are affected by this disease and I really enjoyed this book!

This will grab readers from the beginning. Such a dark, twisted story, with surprises throughout. Told in a dual storyline, both Patty and Rose Gold reveal their own chilling story according to their viewpoint. Readers will quickly become aware that something is terribly wrong with the whole situation. None of the characters, including "dad" are likeable. Readers who love psychological thrillers will want to read This one. Recommended!

Psychological family thrillers are not my cup of tea, but it's always good to read outside of one's comfort zone, and I will certainly be recommending this to fans of the genre.! Many thanks for the opportunity to read and review.

Darling Rose Gold is a dark thriller about a daughter's struggle to gain independence from her twisted mother. With alternating (and often unreliable) narrators, this book will be an instant best seller in the New Year. I devoured this book in a few short hours and am happy to log it as my first read of 2020.

I was absolutely addicted to this book. I had such a hard time putting it down, and finished it within 24 hours. Munchausen Syndrom By Proxy has been a topic that I have always been fascinated by, so having a fictionalized story really had me intrigued. I loved the plot twist. Superbly done.

A debut novel that was both entertaining and had hints to the true story of Dee Dee and Gypsy Blanchard, a case of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Patty, a single mother, convinced doctors that Rose Gold was an extremely sick child even though she wasn’t. She told everyone Rose Gold was too sick to attend school. She even shaved her daughter's head to make her appear sick. Rose Gold did feel faint, and constantly threw up. It wasn't until she was older, she realized her mom was poisoning her. After Patty spends 5 years in jail for child abuse, she reunites with Rose Gold. However this time Rose Gold has become older and wiser and refuses to be a victim any longer.

This book was definitely addicting and a really crazy, wicked story of a mother and daughter. I received an ebook from Netgalley.com.

Take some Munchausen by proxy, add some revenge, and you end up with a GREAT book!!!

I loved the dual timeline aspect with present time told by Patty, Rose Gold's mom, and Rose Gold giving the past side of the story up to the present. Sick and twisty!!! Just what I love in a thriller!!

So I found this book awhile ago Goodreads. The second it became available on NetGalley, I requested an arc.

These are some of the worst characters ever.....
and that's why I LOVED it.

I could not put this book down.

I initially wanted to read Darling Rose Gold because it sounded eerily similar to the Gypsy Rose Blanchard case. Turns out, I was right. While it doesn't follow Gypsy Rose's story to a t, it definitely had a lot in common. It's mostly based on Münchhausen Syndrome, which if you followed the Gypsy Rose case, you know what it is. For those who don't, Münchhausen Syndrome is when a caregiver creates or exaggerates symptoms of various illness for a while in their care. Keep that in mind while I talk about this book.

Darling Rose Gold is told in alternating perspectives through flashbacks following the daughter, Rose Gold and a present day story line for mother, Patty. In the flashback, Rose Gold leads us through her life after her abusive mother is put in prison. We get to see her grow into the young woman, fending for herself, getting a job, and moving on from her mother. We get to see her take the stand and testify. We see her building new relationships and becoming who she truly wants to be.

Then there's Patty.

Fresh out of prison and ready to start controlling her daughter again. She hasn't had control in 5 years, but she's ready. She was born to be a mother. We see her hometown turning against her, and standing up for her daughter. We see her struggling to survive. We get to see her take on her newest task, being a grandmother to little Adam. But little does she know the woman her daughter has become. She believes she needs to get Adam out of her daughter's grasp and raise him on her own. Her fantasies closely resemble the life she built for Rose Gold.

What intrigued me about this book was how unreliable both characters were and how they were playing each other. They each had a grand scheme, scheme's that wouldn't include the other. They were both portrayed as victim and villain, that alone is an incredible feat for any author. It's definitely going in my list of most anticipated reads of 2020!

Huge thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Random House, and of course, author Stephanie Wrobel!
Darling Rose Gold hits shelves March 17, 2020!