Based on a true story, and very well written, only difficult to read because of the behavior of the times. But that is not anything against the author or the book itself. Would definitely check out more of her work. Recommend, but with content warnings.

Oof. Very disturbing book, with unsympathetic and flawed characters. I could not get into this book.

Thank you to the publisher. All of my options are my own.


Deeply disturbing and heartbreaking. Those are two ways for me to describe this book.

I have a problem with male characters being completely jerks/assholes and all I want for them is to have karma kick their self-inflated butts.

It’s difficult to rate this story, since it is such a heavy subject matter. How much of it could actually be true, we will never know. However, I can imagine that things were far more ugly than is described in the book.

Regardless, the story is well written. It was a quick read, yet the characters were difficult for me to connect with. Again, not surprising considering the subject matter.

I would possibly suggest it.

This historical fiction was just ok to me. The subject matter was interesting, but the actual book drug quite a bit.

I wanted to love this book. It had great characters and the subject matter interested me, but as I began to read, it became a bit.congested. Parts of the book dragged and began to wane. This is so sad because the book is based on real life events that we’re considered salacious in their respective time. This wasn’t one of the best books I’ve read, but I think some of my disappointment comes from the fact I think the author could have done more to really bring this book to life, since it was literally real life events.

I wasn’t quite sure what to think about this one. The subject matter interested me, but as I began to read, it became convoluted a bit. Parts of the book dragged and my (metered to waned. This wasn’t one of the best books I’ve read.

This was well written historical fiction about John Watson and Rosalie Raynor, who performed psychological experiments on babies to prove John’s theories on parenting. I am so glad we do not follow his parenting guides today. The story looks more into Rosalies life and perspective. It is well written and enjoyable.
Many thanks to Soho Press and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately, I was unable to really get into this one. I know that others will probably enjoy it, so I will not share my opinion on Goodreads. Thanks again!

Rating: 4 Caffeinated Stars
Trigger Warning: Childhood Abuse, Cheating

As someone with a degree in Psychology, I thoroughly enjoyed Behave by Andromeda Romano-Lax. Behave is one of those books that I want to force all of my psych friends to read so that I can talk to them about it. I liked that this is a fictionalization of John B. Watson's life told through the perspective of Rosalie Rayner Watson. Not a lot of information is available on Rosalie, so it was fun to see how Andromeda Lax-Romano was able to bring the character to light.

Though the author was able to flesh out the characters, I found myself hating them both. Both John & Rosalie come off as cold & calculating. I never really felt a connection to them. Though I didn't connect with the characters, I still found the fictionalization enthralling.

All in all, I enjoyed the book. This story brought the father of Behaviorism to life. It is a book that I could see psychology students enjoying this.

Interesting topic from a time in history. Hard to imagine these things happening. Complex characters.

Unfortunately, I have been sitting on this one way too long. Because I'm not usually a fan of historical fiction, I kept letting this one pass by. After finally reading it, I regret having waited. Huge mistake on my part.

<I>Behave</I> is the ultimate book on work/life balance. Rosalie Rayner became the behaviorist's wife after being his assistant in the lab performing experiments on babies. Once they finally married and had their own kids, they lived their life as if it was a lifelong experiment. The real debate she has was did she follow her husband's requests to let the newborns/children live independently from nurture, or should she let her natural motherly instincts take over.

In a world where we celebrate young, strong women's accomplishments, it is important to remember what it must have been like for Rosalie as a young scientist in the 1920s. Not only was she part of a male dominant culture, but also a brand new, ground breaking field of psychology. It's amazing what she was part of. And although the book contains author's discretion, I can't help but think that Andromeda Romano-Lax painted as accurate of a picture as possible.

The epilogue may have been the most interesting part of the whole book. As short as it was, it definitely is what will stick to me the most. Even the smartest of us, don't always know what's best or get it right. I'm looking at you Dr. Watson.

While the description interested me, the subject matter after a chapter in I realized was not for me at all. This was simply a case of wrong audience.

This first 4/5 of the book was not good. It was very dry and just dragged on and on. I can't comment much on the actual content, because I don't know for sure what was fictionalized or not. The only interesting part was the last couple CDs.

I could not get into this story. This book wasn't for me at this time

I tried to get into this book and just never got hooked. I picked it up a few times and read a bit more but never made it through the story. I gave up about 40% in.

So I actually didn’t finish this book and I’ll write a full review as to why after the holidays, but I got so annoyed with the characters and couldn’t get interested and I honestly hated what the first half of this story was talking about...

POSSIBLE SPOILERS!!
cheating with your supervisor and experimenting on babies is not something that I want to know about. I’m not sure maybe at a later date I’ll relook at it but for now, no!

2.5 stars
Thank you to NetGalley and SoHo Press for this free readers edition. In exchange I am providing an honest review.

“The mother begins to destroy the child the moment it’s born,” wrote the founder of behaviorist psychology, John B. Watson, whose 1928 parenting guide was revered as the child-rearing bible. For their dangerous and “mawkish” impulses to kiss and hug their child, “most mothers should be indicted for psychological murder.” Freud would say Watson had "mommy issues", Watson disagreed. And yet, Watson clearly had "mommy issues." This is not the story of Watson, however, so much as it about his second wife, Rosalie Rayner. It's a fiction story based on as much fact the author could dig up. There wasn't a lot as John Watson burned most of his papers which probably held information about Rosalie.
Right before the 1920's John Watson was gaining a reputation for his studies in behavior. He was performing controversial experiments with infants in order to prove, he hoped, his theories about attachment. A graduate of Vassar, Rosalie Rayner landed a plumb post-graduate job helping Watson perform his experiments. But as most well-known scientists, it seems, Watson couldn't keep himself in his pants and soon enough Rosalie became his newest conquest. Their affair led to a public divorce from John's first wife, Mary, and the end of their careers at Johns Hopkins. But just as happened with Einstein and his first wife happened with Watson and Rosalie. Partners in the lab until babies came along and then the women were pushed into a role that they didn't really want or understand. There are a lot of similarities, it seems, between Mileva Einstein and Rosalie Watson. But unlike Einstein, Watson used his children - two from his first marriage and two from his second - as experiments to bolster his theories. Rosalie found out what we all do at some point - there is a whole lot of grey in between the black and the white. She eventually had to draw a line with her husband and refuse to allow the children to simply be his experiments any longer. Again, this is a fiction story based on fact. But it's not hard to imagine that the fiction of this story probably is very close to the truth - based on individual publications from Rosalie later in her life.
I read this book at the same time I was watching Nat Geo's Genius - about the life of Albert Einstein. And it was interesting to read/watch about these supposedly brilliant men who treated people like crap. Let me rephrase - Einstein was brilliant - no two ways about it. I have major doubts about Watson as years later it turns out that the one baby he and Rosalie used to base all of his theories on, Albert, wasn't the best subject due to some health issues. So Albert's responses, or lack thereof, tainted what Watson was trying to prove. It seems to me he was so desperate to prove his "mommy issues" were what made him so narcissistic that he forced findings to emerge. Anyway. This was an interesting, but also deeply frustrating, read. I'm finding myself feeling the same way watching Mileva Einstein. These women are so smart and yet they let these men walk all over them. It's annoying. I don't know if it was my annoyance with Rosalie's passivity or an overabundance of detail or perhaps a little of both but this book felt more like a chore to read than a pleasure.

Behave provided an interesting look at the life of Rosalie Rayner, a little known scientist associated with the famous behaviorist John Watson. She started as his assistant after graduation from Vassar, but was drawn to him through his somewhat Svengali-like ways and ended up having an affair with him, which ended with him divorcing his wife and marrying her, causing them no end of grief, with both losing their positions at Johns Hopkins and finding themselves somewhat shunned by the world for their socially unacceptable choices.

I've never been much of a fan of John Watson, but this was an intriguing look at Ms. Rayner's life and what it was like living with the notoriously severe Watson. Ms. Romano-Lax did an excellent job of fleshing out what was undoubtedly a difficult research subject since there isn't much known about Rayner. The descriptions of life with Watson during the 1920's and '30's were well done and felt realistic. Her writing is strong and I would definitely look into other books by her.

I was provided an ARC of Behave by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Very well written, but a disturbing account of experiments on infants.
I still don't fully understand what the goal of the experiments were and how poking, prodding and scaring babies proves anything besides the scientist's own inhumanity.
This is one book where I couldn't stand the main character, a sociopathic psychologist, more so because he was an actual person. What a sadistic, immature, narcissistic​, womanizing bully John Watson was! He never did anything throughout the book to redeem himself to me.
I never warmed up to the protagonist -Rosale Raynor, his wife either. She was a scientist also and assisted him in his experiments and helped him write his child rearing books, which apparently became best sellers.
I understand I am viewing this from a modern point of view and ideas were different in the 1920's, but still, I just didn't have much respect for her staying with a jerk like that, and worst of all, subjecting her children to his whims.

I would still recommend this book - it is an interesting story of her life with him and well worth reading, from a historical perspective.

A fascinating, thought provoking, disturbing, and educational novel. I learned about Watson in class but not about his wife. I very much enjoyed learning about Rosalie, however, I felt at times sad about her life and angry about the choices she made.