Rose Gold Watts has spent the majority of her young life believing that she is seriously ill. Her mother Patty kept her almost completely isolated, homeschooling her and monitoring her television and internet use, using her fragile health as a reason to keep her away from the rest of the world. When Rose Gold makes the shocking discovery that her mother suffers from Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy - a mental illness in which a caregiver makes up or causes illness or injury to someone in their care - she testifies against her, sending her mother to prison for five years. The story is told in alternating chapters - Rose Gold, starting in the past, right after her mother's conviction, and Patty Watts, on the day of her release.

Honestly, this one didn't really do it for me. I found it interesting that it was based on a true story, but I didn't find that out until after I had finished it. I didn't really care for either Patty or Rose Gold's characters, while at times you feel sorry for them, most of the time they were just really unlikeable! I also felt like there were some major plot holes, and I didn't love the ending or the main point of the book. I'm giving it three stars because the writing was compelling enough to keep me turning pages, but if I'm honest I'd likely be closer to two.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the arc.

What a great and different novel! I admit, it took me a few episodes to get used to the way the author is telling the story but then I spent every free time I had to read and tried to understand how Rose Gold got from the point of view in her story to the one her mom, Patty, is telling us.

Rose Gold used to be a sick child until the day she discovered she's actually could've lived as a healthy child but her Mom was poisoning her for years, making her sick and very much dependent on her. This realization is affecting Rose Gold with all of her current and future relationships with the other characters in this book and making her one of the most fascinating characters I had the pleasure of reading in the last few years.

Her mom, Patty have her own inner world and reasons of behaving the way she is, but the meeting between the two of them, 5 years after, when rose is picking up her mom, with her newborn son, from jail makes this book to be a great thriller that left me puzzled and surprised (but in a good way).

This is a story about second chances, families, friends and the complicated lives we all have, but Stephanie Wrobel took this to extreme dark places and I'm so glad she did.

4.5/5

Wow! Great book!
I have always been drawn to the twisty web of stories featuring munchausen by proxy. A definite page turner. I finished in one sitting!
Highly recommended.

I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

If you like crazy then this is the book for you !!

Darling Rose Gold features a mother and daughter duo.

Mom , Patty just got out of prison for for aggravated child abuse against her daughter Rose Gold who testified against her . Patty has nowhere to go so Rose Gold takes her in.

I could not decide who was crazier, who was lying, who would do what next !!

Couldn't turn the pages fast enough.

I had to find out !!

Not giving anything away ; you simply have to read this one !

Thanks to Net Galley and Simon and Schuster Canada, Simon and Schuster Mystery Thrillers for an unbelievable quirky read !! Loved it !!

This book is definitely unlike any other one I've read: very suspenseful and dark. While it wasn't necessarily my kind of genre, I do think that it was a nice book and it was fun stepping out of my reading comfort zone.

Thanks to Netgalley for my copy.

This book has it all.

Unreliable characters that I loved to hate.

Manipulation.

Emotional blackmail.

Complex relationships.

This book was so engaging that I read it in one day and then wished I hadn't so I could savour it. It is full of twists and turns and shocking behaviour. This will definitely be one of my top reads of the year and it's only January.

A mother and daughter relationship. Love and manipulation, at it's best. Who is the better at manipulation, and is just plain evil? Mother or daughter?

This book, wow! I was hooked from the moment I started reading. Thank you, to @netgalley for an ARC. As a mother, you would go far and do things for your child, but exactly how far would you go? Would you go so far to the extent where it would be considered evil?

Patty is released from prison after being sent for 5 years for child abuse. Rose Gold picks up her mom from prison along with her young son, Adam and brings her to her home to live so, she can get back on her feet. But has Rose Gold really forgiven her for everything that happened in her childhood or is she just getting even?
I loved the story, and did not expect some of the events to happen. Loved all the twists and turns. I could not put it down and wanted to know what was coming next. Definetly add it to your tbr list!

Intense is a perfect adjective for this book.
No one can understand how deep the connection are between mother and child. Love or hate? Forgiveness or revenge? How far will one go?
This is kept me on the edge of my seat, I was unable to put it down. A must read for everyone that enjoys a great thriller!

I could not put this one down!!! I had to know who was crazier Patty or Rose, who would win the power struggle. I devoured this in less that a day and will be telling everyone to pick it up!

Sometimes your kids learn more from you than you realize.

When Patty Watts is released from prison into the forgiving and welcoming home of the daughter, she really doesn't think life can get much better. I mean, this is the very daughter who sent her to prison in the first place after all. Rose Gold,has grown into quite the independent young woman and even has a beautiful baby boy now. Patty is feeling blessed to be forgiven by her and welcomed into her home to live. Oh sure, the town may not be so welcoming, but none of that matters as long as Rose Gold is letting her be in her life again.

But maybe not everything is as perfect as it seems and perhaps Rose Gold isn't as forgiving as you might think. And perhaps your past catches up to before you even knew you were running from it.

Great read that will keep those pages turning deep into the night! Big thanks to Net Galley for the pre-read of this book.

#bookreview #goodreads #netgalley #thriller #suspense #darlingrosegold

4 stars
Wow! This is going to be the first wild ride of the spring book season.

For lovers of a fast-paced shocker, Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel gives us Mom, Patty, and daughter, Rose Gold, who have a disturbing relationship thanks to 'mommy dearest' being convinced her young daughter had many illnesses as a child.

For years, Patty seemingly doted on and cared for Rose Gold through a number of ailments that led to her being wheel-chair bound, sickly with rotted teeth.. Turns out, most believed that Patty ended up poisoning her daughter with constant applications of ipecac syrup, which causes vomiting.

When the community came to the rescue of Rose Gold, Patty was sentenced to jail.

Incredibly, years later when Patty was released, Rose Gold and her newborn baby were there to meet her and give them another chance at a mother-daughter relationship.

Now a working mother, a home owner and mother, Rose Gold seemingly has overcome the tragic care by her mother. But when Mom moves in, is there more to her daughter's kindness?

I tore through this book which was offered to me for an honest review by NETGALLEY. Thank you Netgalley. The book is out in March 2020 and is a wild, fictional tale of two very strange minds.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3149660529

First off I want to thank @netgalley, @simon&schusterca & @stephaniewrobel for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was creepy, mischievous, dark and twisty. I really enjoyed the whole plot of the book even if I did have a good idea of the ending, it still kept me hooked and intrigued.
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I was so mad and enraged throughout this book, as to how can a mother do that to her child. It's a very hard story to digest. It's a very sick read but in the good sens. I really enjoyed how the story was written from both POV from Patty and Rose Gold, it also went back in forth in time but was easy to follow. The writing style keeps you gripped and hooked with non stop chills that connect each part of this intense read.
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The ending was satisfying, but I still wonder if all the truth came out ? I think there's a lot left to us to wonder. If you enjoy dark, twisted, sick relationships definitely pick this one up you won't be disappointed.

I couldn't decide whether to love or hate the characters in this story, but I couldn't stop reading until I found out where they went next!
Rose Gold takes you on an emotional ride as her life unfolds in terrible and tragic ways.
This is an excellent first novel and I look forward to reading future works from Wrobel!

It is the dead of winter where I live, -35C with snow and a killer wind chill. There is nothing else to do but go straight home after work, crawl under a quilt and read. Thankfully Simon and Schuster Canada through Netgalley sent me an advanced reading copy of Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel. I was the perfect read for a frigid winter evening. The story captured my interest immediately, maybe because the story is familiar. Based VERY loosely on the true story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and the abuse she endured throughout her childhood by her mother Dee Dee….which ended in murder.
a few spoilers ahead.....
Instead, this account puts our victim in the "driver's" seat, so to speak, where Rose gold testifies against her mother, thereby retaliating against her abuser by putting her in jail. She then spends the next five years plotting how to get her revenge against her mother.
The story is written from various points of view from multiple timelines. One timeline takes place during the five years Rose Gold's mother "Patty" is serving time in jail. Here we learn how Rose makes her way in the world independent of her mother manipulation with only the help of the neighbour. Rose learns to drive gets a job and buys a house (which happens to be her mother's childhood home), and continues her online relationship with her boyfriend, Phil. It is during this time of her mother's incarceration that Rose Gold's father makes an appearance apologizing for not being "there" for her. Rose is happy to have a father in her life because Patty made her believe her father left them and died of a drug overdose. Rose Gold is overjoyed to have her father in her life...but how much will he expect from him? How does she feel about the new family he had made for himself.
The second timeline is when the mother Patty is released from jail and attempts to return to the life she had left. The same town in the same neighbourhood, the daughter whose testimony landed her in prison in the first place.
Oh my goodness, I did not know who to trust in this novel. Obviously not Patty who is an egotistical manipulator who feels the world owes her for all the "good" she claims to have done in the world including being the perfect mother. Has Patty learned her lesson after five years in prison? Will she own up to the physical, mental and emotional harm she caused her daughter and make amends?
Can we, as readers, trust Rose Gold? While I was reading, I couldn't help but feel there was something "off" with this girl. I kept telling myself it was because of the abuse she suffered under the hands of her mother that made her so clingy and bitter. Horrifyingly enough, there are glimmers, flashes actually of her mother in her...like when she lies to manipulate a person or situation to get what she thinks she deserves. And Rose seems to do so without remorse-just like her mother. Is it her fractured upbringing that makes manipulation the only way she knows how to survive independent of her mother? Or maybe it is because "there is always a special bond between mothers and daughter- but sometimes it goes horribly wrong".
I loved this book. I finished it in an evening. I found both Patty and Rose such tragic characters I couldn't wait to reach the end of the novel to see how and if they survived the lives they created for themselves.

Two unreliable narrators with zero redeeming qualities. I’m honestly shocked by all of the good reviews. It was a struggle to even finish this book... but I’m not a quitter!

I peeked at the reviews before reading this one and i was really excited. I feel that i kept waiting for something to happen.. like the story was on a plateau for 90 % of the time. The back and forth concept gave us some character development. I just think there could have been so much more creepiness and oumf to it.

I hope that makes sense :)

Thank you Netgally and Simon & Schuster for this ARC.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3144302350

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Holy... this is the closest I have personally felt a book come close to "Gone Girl" since "Gone Girl".

This book was really good. My issue with it is the flipping time lines... I understand they are necessary for the story, and the chapters are short, but I would've liked to see more of current day Rose Gold to learn more about her in a more current sense.

I loved the reveal towards the end of the novel and I personally did not see it coming.

I cannot wait for everyone to read this one. Strongly recommend!

If this book is any indication, 2020 is going to be a fantastic year of reading!
Wow. Just wow. This book was an incredible ride, a completely unique take on a dark, twisty thriller. It is the portrait of a damaged daughter and mother - Rose Gold and Patty - some of the most unique characters I've come across in a long time. So fully fleshed out that you cringe right along with reading of manipulations and game-playing, their thoughts and even wry humour. All this tells the story (though unnamed) of Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy, a concept in itself which is endlessly fascinating. Outstanding concept and a most entertaining and readable voice, I will absolutely be looking forward to future offerings from author Stephanie Wrobel.

A very strange subject matter, Munchhausen Syndrome, made this a psychological tale of mentally twisted individuals.

When an abused child becomes a parent their child can become an abused child which can lead to another generation of abused children.

Patty & Rose Gold Watts' relationship is complicated by Rose Gold's health issues.

Told in alternating first person accounts of their lives over many years makes you question just who it the mentally sick, delusional person?

The ending was an 'ah ha' moment.

A gripping page turner that had me wondering what’s next? Right up till the very end! Couldn’t put it down!

It’s about a daughter who was a pawn in her mothers sick game only to be hurt in the end. Seeking to be part of a family and accepted by her one friend, she finally has enough and takes matters into her own hands.

Loved the book! Can’t wait to see what else this author puts out next!