This was a well written exploration into a love story that likely never should have worked, and when it becomes apparent that it isn't going to,, the aftereffects it has on the two young children. Willow and her brother Asher go back and forth between their two parents houses. Both parents have completely opposite styles, which only ends up confusing the children more. Their mom becomes the fun parent, the one that older child Willow wants to be with always, and their father the one with all the rules While this can perhaps work in a two parent family, it goes awry when sides become drawn. The book is told in alternating chapters, one from daughter Willow's viewpoint, and the other the story of the parents courtship up until present time. I had a hard time with pretty much all of the characters in this one, even though I credit the author with writing them well (I have read that this novel is semi-autobiographical). The mother, who was clearly struggling with mental illness and self medicating with drugs, needed to reign her wild behavior in and seek help, especially once there were children involved. The father needed to show more love and understand his children and where they were coming from. He appeared to do a better job at being present for his ex-wife than his children. The daughter not understanding that her mother was not always the best option, had me on edge the whole book. She seemed a bit old in her thoughts and actions for a fifth grader, but I'm going to let that slide since as I mentioned, it was the author's life. Luckily there was a redemption for one of the parents in the end, which tied the story up.

A good story, with a heartbreaking look at what mental illness can do to a family, particularly the children.

I tried several times, but could not get into this book and finally abandoned it about half way through. I just did not like any the characters.

This one just wasn't for me. Even though the text was written in a barebones style I still felt myself struggling to get through it. The characters were generally intriguing but the plot was just a sort of predictable and basic portrayal of postpartum depression and drug addiction and mental illness that I don't think added anything to the vast array of books on these topics. I skim read the last 100 pages or so, because I had already commited enough time to it to want to finish it and mark it as read, but I wouldn't have lost any enjoyment in it whatsoever if I DNF'ed.

Books was amazing. A tear jerker all the way through. A father-daughter and Mother-Daughter relationship of miss communications an assumptions that many can relate to.

{My Thoughts}
What Worked For Me
Love that Couldn’t Last – I really liked the relationship between Rosie and Rex. It would be difficult to find two people more different from one another. Rosie was romantic, dazzling, ditsy, quick to smile, but she also had trouble keeping a job and maintaining focus. Rex was steady, efficient, strong, but he was impatient and struggled with affection. Both Rosie and Rex knew they were too different for their love to last. Yet, they couldn’t stop themselves from moving forward with the love they shared. Wolfson did a really nice job juxtaposing their personalities and their feelings about the other.

“By Rosie’s definition of love, she loved Rex very much. And while she desperately hoped she could stay still enough to find a great, enduring love with this man, she knew in her bones that it could never be.”

“And while he desperately hoped he could remain engaged enough to find an all-encompassing, enduring love with this woman, he knew in his heart that it could never be. He knew in his heart that, one day, he would want to be still again. That this love was mortal.”

A Magical Mother – As a mother myself, Rosie drove me crazy, but for Willow and her little brother Asher, their mother was magical. The days they spent with her were easy and fun – pizza, dance parties, movies late into the night, painting on the walls. Nothing was off limits with Rosie. She engulfed them in her love, and they flourished in it. Willow especially craved the warmth radiating from Rosie, so when it began to fail, Willow was lost.

A Rigid Father – In the good years of his marriage to Rosie, Rex found himself a freer spirit, taking on some of Rosie’s lightheartedness, but when his marriage ended, so did that. He struggled finding a balance between responsibility and affection, and no one suffered more than Willow. Initially it was easy to dislike Rex, who rarely tucked his kids in or kissed them goodnight, but you had to forgive Rex because he really did want the best for his kids. Being the responsible parent in the shadow of Rosie’s glow proved to be a challenge that Rex was ill prepared for. Undaunted, he kept at it, never letting Willow’s anger deter him.

What Didn’t
A 10-Year Old’s Perspective – Rosie Colored Glasses, while fiction, is based on Brianna Wolfson’s own life. I’m sure her intent was to tell the story as she remembered it from the years of her childhood, but that also left a lot of questions. For example, Willow was terribly picked on at school, but no adults seemed aware of that. Why didn’t her parents try to help? Where was the school counselor/psychologist? A child might not know the answers to questions such as this, but the adult writer would. I found that there were quite a few places where I had to suspend disbelief in this book.

{The Final Assessment}
Overall, I liked Rosie Colored Glasses quite a lot. It was a fast read with writing that was almost effervescent, even when tackling tough subjects. While the characters were sometimes a bit clichéd, in this book that worked very well. I especially liked Rex and his evolution as a father. The fact that the story came from Wolfson’s own experiences made it even more interesting to me. I’d love to know where the line between fact and fiction actually fell. Wherever that line may be, her book is definitely a tribute to two parents whom she deeply loves. Grade: B

Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review.

A very moving and timely story of a family dealing with the fallout from mental health and addiction issues. The titular Rosie is an ebullient, force of nature with, as we see from the first pages, serious boundary issues. While her life with few rules and much love sees her as a relatively functional single adult, her marriage and parenting are harmed by her choices and behavior. Rex, an uptight, straight-laced and success-driven man falls in love with Rosie only to have her nature, so opposite and foreign to his own, cause chaos in his life. But it's not cute, romantic chaos. Imagine that you finally learn to love and your love unhinges everything, including the lives of your children? As the book opens, Rosie's daughter Willow, who loves her mother with the burning intensity of the sun, is barely on the cusp of understanding the drawbacks of her mother's lifestyle. Her mother represents everything good and freely given, whereas Willow is pained by the difficult relationship she has with a father who struggles to show his love for her. His awkward, laconic demeanor contrasts so strongly with that of his ex-wife's dynamic and effervescent nature. Rex is all structure, rules, and schedules and Rosie has no rules, no structure, and few boundaries. Willow becomes, over the course of the book, increasingly parentified, trying to care for her six-year-old brother Asher whenever they are in their mother's care and the reader senses the oncoming trainwreck that will impact the two children and their father, who so obviously still loves, but cannot live with, Rosie.

Easy to read and hard to put down, this is a heartbreaking book that nevertheless ends on a positive note.

I had a feeling I would love Rosie Colored Glasses. It's the story about a mentally ill mother with the story telling coming from the 5th grader, this sounded right up my alley. What I didn't expect was to have such fierce love for the father and brother, not to mention I never thought I'd find myself wiping so many tears from my face, I mean I was sobbing. The tears aren't because it's a heartbreaking story, I read plenty of those without tears but because the writing is so creative and so beautiful you are completely immersed in the story.

I can not recommend this book enough!!!!

The one sure thing about this novel is that it's sad. I usually like the going back and forth between present and past, but this time it didn't help very much. It made the novel more difficult to piece together that it already was.
Rosie Thorpe, mother to two children, Asher and Willow, and ex-wife to Rex, suffers of mental illness. I honestly didn't know what that illness was. She was depressed, this I understood. She was a very energetic and happy person, marching to the beat of her own drum. Obviously, this proved to bring trouble long term, especially because her husband, Rex was the very opposite. Willow, their oldest child, is the one who suffers the most after their impending divorce. The novel is mostly told from Willow's and Rosie's perspectives, the author bringing the reader to understand what went wrong 15 years before and what can't function in the present.

What surprised me was that there were literally only six relevant people mentioned. The family of four, and Roy, Rex's best friend, and Chloe, Rosie's former roommate. With a family facing so many issues: a depressive mother, a father unable to show his love in a palpable way to his kids, a traumatized child who wets herself regularly - well, there had to be someone to do something. It usually surprises me how in some novels there just don't seem to be any other adults. Didn't Rex and Rosie have parents, siblings, close friends? Both kids were in school - why didn't a teacher, a counselor, someone intervene?

I was drawn in by the novel, despite its shortcomings. I don't think there could have been a better ending to this story, because how can you make everything nice and clean and wrap it up in a bow with so many issues? However, I think Rosie's issues could have been explored deeper, Willow's trauma could have been handled better by the parents who seemed to accept it as something normal {A passage comes to mind: one day Willow comes to school with pencil shavings in her hair and Rosie, her mother!, remarks that she likes what Willow did to her hair. Really? The kid is being bullied.}, more involved adults could have been present in the novel. The premise was good, but the way it was carried out was not the best. I did like the idea of exploring mental illnesses and the way it affects families, although I wish it were more thoroughly presented. It repeats a bit too much when it is shown from Willow's perspective, but can you blame the poor kid?

A nice read, nonetheless, by a promising author.

An amazing, absolutely heartbreaking story. Willow Thorpe, the young daughter of divorced parents Rex and Rosie, struggles to navigate herself through the world. She has no friends at her school and her father doesn't seem to try to understand her. The only place where Willow feels happy and loved is with her mother. Rosie is a dynamic ball of energy and love, wrapping her children in seemingly endless days of fun and adventure. All Willow needs is her mom. But suddenly, Rosie isn't her mom anymore. The quirky woman is replaced with someone Willow can barely recognize. As the months pass, things get worse for Willow and her family. Their world spirals out of control as Rosie does, leaving Willow to try and pick up her pieces.

I picked it up because the publisher marketing related the book back to Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, a book I read a few years back that I really enjoyed. Rosie Colored Glasses does have a bit of a similar feel, but it is much more grounded in reality. Wolfson explores mental illness and addiction in a refreshing way, portraying how it effects everyone in Rosie's wake. Her manic episodes and depression are something we may see in ourselves or those closest to us. The book goes from the past to the present in alternating chapters. At first, I was iffy on how I liked this, but it really benefited the story telling as the past began to catch up to the present. This has probably been my favorite book thus far of 2018. Highly recommend. Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, Mira Books and Brianna Wolfson for the opportunity to read this amazing book! This one will hit the shelves on Tuesday - reserve it now because it's not to be missed!

This is the story of Rosie, a quirky character happily living in Manhattan, flitting from job to job, filling her life with color and eccentricity. Enter Rex, who walks into the flower shop where she's working and where she changed the card for flowers he ordered from the norm to a poem by ee Cummings. They are polar opposites - Rex likes rules, structure, boundaries and Rosie has none of those. But she opens up his heart with her smile.

When they move to the suburbs and their family expands to include children Willow and Asher, things start to change ending in a divorce. The book starts with Willow and Asher unhappily going from their mom's wild house with candy, no rules, no bedtime to Rex's house with printed checklists for his expectations. The past is told in alternate chapters, showing the reader how the relationship evolved.

The writing of this book is wonderful. You feel the angst of the characters. There are all kinds of triggers here - mental illness, bullying, loss, hope, love, parent-child relationships.

This is a spectacular debut novel - these characters will stay with me. Highly recommended! Here's hoping that the author is busy at work on her next novel!

What a terrific story. I loved the characters and the journey. Quirky and fun to read. Well done.

This one didn't really work for me. The subject matter wasn't what I'd expected based on the description, and I ended up not finishing the book.

Rosie Colored Glasses shows us the many facets of love. My heart broke for Willow.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. Where do I start, I just adored this book. Through the afflictions and not so happy times I was drawn in with the characters and came to love each of them. So many emotions were stirred within me while reading this book. I would highly recommend this book to my friends and family.

I have to tell you right off, I cried. Not a pretty cry, but a deep ugly cry. The words that make this story come together in spine tingling, raw emotion.
It's a world of love, addiction, hate, misunderstanding, sadness. Just remember it is a story of Love!
Excellent, emotional, memorable!!
5 Stars

Sorry, I did not request thie book. Please remove it from my dashboard.
Thanks

Brianna Wolfson has crafted a sad, yet heartwarming tale of family and love in "Rosie Colored Glass." To the author's credit, she presents a sensitive look at love, mental illness and growth without being overdramatic. The novel introduces us to Willow, an 11-year-old who is wise and sad beyond her years after the divorce of her parents. She and her little brother split their time between two very different lifestyles. She considers her dad Rex as over-strict, and her mom Rosie is a colorful, free-flying bird. As with most stories, life is not as it first appears. Rosie suffers from depression that she tries to hide by overcompensating, but as she falls deeper into the disease, everyone around her suffers. As Willow gets older, she finally begins to understand that love comes in many shapes and styles.

Thiis powerful book tells a story about love, addiction and how that impacts an entire family, grief, and recovering from all the stresses felt. I felt like I was on an emotional roller-coaster with the happy and sad times, all of which were woven together very well, and definitely recommend this title.

Willow Thorpe knew friction. The heat it created when one thing rubbed against another. When one world rubbed against another.”

From the prologue, we know that Willow’s world is filled with tension, with every “Late again, Rosie.” followed by a dismissive retort from her mother. With every time the walls of her world changed from the fanciful, art-filled walls to generic white ones that scream out that the rules are different here, the children feel the change.

But how did this come to be? And how did her abundantly affectionate mother who lives by what feels right and good to her in the moment end up married to her emotionally distant father who is a stickler for a neat, ordered life, and rules?

When Rosie was in her mid-twenties, she believed with her entire being in love. A magical kind of love where the gift of loving and being loved would change everything, and that love was endless. She wanted it for herself, but she wanted it for everyone, as well. Whenever she would come upon a couple in the park, on the subway, anywhere, she would dream a life for them, inventing conversations, loving touches, the small moments that confirm their love.

And so, when Rosie had the change to take a job at a flower shop, it seemed as if destiny was tapping her on the shoulder. This was her chance to immerse herself in all that love that was being sent as flowers, imagining herself privy to the stories behind the flowers.

And this is how she meets Rex, who calls in an order of flowers to be delivered, and Rosie asks him what he would like the card to say. Rex responds in frustration, as though he has never sent flowers before, a non-heartfelt message, and hangs up. So Rosie takes it upon herself to intercede and send a message that is very unlike anything Rex would have sent.

And so they meet, Rex ranting at her until he stops and stares at her, taking in her willingness to let him rant without letting it affect her.

”Rex was struck breathless by it all.”

And if your heart is melting, it won’t be for long, because this isn’t that love story. This will melt your heart, then chill it, and then smash it until it breaks into little pieces.

When two people who see the world in completely different ways are so determined that their view is the absolutely only one that is right, that it is the only one that their children need, it is heartbreaking. The confusion and division it creates inside of these children who desire only to be shown the same love they’ve always known, and for their world to not be in turmoil, confusion and disarray. To go from a manic world abundant in some frenzied form of love and joy with no rules to a controlled, overly structured world with little joy, no expressions of love and with rules for everything is, at the very least, confusing.

And then there are the drugs that Rosie has been taking, perhaps in the beginning for physical pain, but then to take the edge off life. Depression: the flip side of her manic, fun-loving self. Eventually she needs them more and more often. Endangering the children, Willow and Asher.

Time shifts throughout this story, from the past to the more recent past until time catches up to the present, and although this is a sad story overall, there is a lot of love sprinkled throughout these pages, and some moving, heartening moments, as well.

And all those broken pieces of your heart will be put back together again, not without their fault lines, their broken jagged edges, but by piecing their cracks together into a new vision made up of the old. Together, when the light eventually gets in, it creates an image that even more beautiful than before.


Pub Date: 20 Feb 2018


Many thanks for the ARC provided by Harlequin US & Canada

A moving account of a bipolar mother and her family relationships. The mother/daughter relationship was touching and all too real. The parents relationship explores just how difficult it is to be married to a polar opposite and the need for structure for one partner outweighed the needs of the other. It is not a book for someone looking for a self-help title or "real" relationship, however, it is a good read.