This book was not what I expected it to be. It is almost a study in mental health. Neither of the MCs is very likable. You feel bad for them on some level for different reasons. But at the same time you don't agree with or support their decisions.

I went into this book expecting a story about Munchausen by Proxy (MSBP). MSBP is a mental health syndrome where a person fakes or causes an illness in another person and receives attention and praise as the person's caregiver. The ill person is typically a child or elderly person that is vulnerable to the caregiver. It is typical for people with MSBP to go to prison for their abuse instead of receiving mental health counseling that is needed. That is what happens in this story.

From the blurb, I knew this was about a child whose mother went to prison for this and was being released. I thought it was about how Rose Gold grew strong while her mother was away and would not be susceptible to her mother's mental health issues after she was released. This was not that story. It is not about growth or overcoming abuse. This is a story about mental health issues passed down through generations of abuse and revenge.

Rose Gold is not a mentally healthy person. The abuse her mother put her through left her without a basis for creating healthy relationships and feeling spurned by everyone. People were not always kind to her and she had no healthy way to deal with this. It was sad to read.

This story may have been inspired by Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her mother Dee Dee, but it is not their story. I struggled for a while trying to make the stories coincide and so it took me a while to be ok with this book. In order to enjoy this story, you need to put the real people out of your mind. You really need to read it as a fictional account of completely made-up characters. Once I was able to do that, I was able to enjoy it more.

Overall, there was very little thriller aspect to the story, though there was some feeling of "what will happen?" I felt the emotional, mental health part of the story more deeply.

Rating: 8.5/10

Thanks to Penguin Random House Audio, the author, and the narrators for a listening copy of Darling Rose Gold for review consideration. This did not influence my thoughts or opinions.

Darling Rose Gold is an unsettling, completely engrossing thriller debut. This is 2020’s The Silent Patient; a psychological trip sure to keep you guessing until the very end. Wrobel has definitely made her mark on the genre.

As soon as I saw The Washington Post state “If you enjoyed The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, read Darling Rose Gold.”, I just knew I had to pick this one up. TSP was one of my favorite thrillers of 2019 and led the charge in regards to thrillers becoming a topper on my book genre sundae. While there are a ton out there, more and more being published every day, there are special ones like DRG that just stand out from the rest of the pack.

I’m not going to assume you know what munchausen syndrome is, but here is a brief definition: Munchausen syndrome is a factitious disorder, a mental disorder in which a person repeatedly and deliberately acts as if he or she has a physical or mental illness when he or she is not really sick. Munchausen syndrome is considered a mental illness because it is associated with severe emotional difficulties [WebMD May 20, 2018.]

The majority of DRG is devoted to Patty and Rose Gold’s relationship, which is one of the most toxic mother-daughter relationships I have seen since reading John Marr’s What Lies Between Us (which I guess wasn’t that long ago LOL). It is sort of like the relationship between Eddie Kaspbrak and his mother in Stephen King’s IT, but at least he was able to find ways out of the house and socialize. I couldn’t imagine having such an overbearing mother, even if she had my best interests in mind. Love her to death, but leave me some breathing room.

The story itself is told in an interesting fashion as we see Rose Gold prior to Patty’s prison stay, during the five (5) year sentence, and in the present once Patty is back in the picture. We are also given perspective into the mind of Patty during her reunion and stay with her daughter. While the picture of Patty is being painted as this terrible mother who starved her daughter, there are glimpses where you actually feel bad for her. She only wants what is best for her daughter, but too bad that leads to worse than poor health and a multitude of hospital visits. It was also very interesting that Rose Gold took in her mother after the horrible childhood she was given, but it all clicks as the story progresses.

That may have been one of the best climaxes I have ever seen. Props to Wrobel for writing such a surprising ending; one that I never saw coming, even though I thought I had it figured out. I also want to give a shoutout to the narrators: Megan Dodds & Jill Winternitz. They truly brought these characters to life, especially the inner crazy they both carry on the daily.

All in all, check it out. Simple as that.

Darling Rose Gold is a domestic suspense novel about a twisted mother-daughter relationship. I enjoyed this one. I liked the two timelines. One timeline was told through Rose Gold's point of view and the other timeline was Patty's, the mother. I loved the suspense of waiting for the two timelines to intersect & to find out everything that had gone on. My issue with the book is why choose such a close main character's name to a similar well known true crime? I don't think this novel was based on Gypsy Rose's life although I can see similarities. I found one article in which an interviewer asked - Was it intentional that the real-life Gypsy Rose and the fictional Rose Gold have similar names? Stephanie Wrobel answered “No. I don’t know whether it was in my subconscious, but that character name came to me quite early.” I think using a two worded name with Rose being one of them was a poor choice. It's confusing. It was hard to not envision Gypsy Rose as Rose Gold. The writing and storyline was strong, I feel like the author was using Gypsy Rose to lean on when she didn't need to.

I don't know if I fully know how I feel about this book, but I do know that it had me fully captivated from the first chapter. The author did an amazing job of keeping you on the edge and not knowing who you fully trust, especially as the book went on.

This book goes back and forth in time telling the story of Rose Gold and her mother Patty through her childhood as Patty had everyone convinced of Rose Gold's illnesses and problems, and their life now as Patty is out of prison and in the home of her daughter.

This is a book about revenge and it is certainly creepy, which is why I don't know how I completely feel about it. But in terms of writing and interest it fully kept me interested from the first page to the last.

Bah! I hate being the odd one out ... there was SO much hype surrounding Darling Rose Gold, I really wanted to love this one but it just fell flat for me. Don't get me wrong, the writing itself was great but the majority of the story was so far fetched and unbelievable I had a hard time getting past that. The characters are not likeable, though I suppose they aren't meant to be. I felt as though I had whiplash by the time I finished reading this with so much back and forth ...

Thanks so much Simon & Schuster Canada for my review copy!

tension from the moment the book starts. add in some perfectly timed flashbacks and this book will have you on the edge of your seat, but don't except a happy ending.

Omg, what a pageturner! Most exciting book I've read in a long time! Highly recommended for those who like psychological thillers. Fast paced, and we'll developed characters.

Patty Watts is being released from jail, having served 5 years for aggravated child abuse. Based primarily on her daughter's testimony, she was convicted of having poisoned her daughter with Ipecac syrup, causing her to vomit repeatedly. The resulting malnutrition caused her to exhibit a host of other symptoms, which required lots of attention from the medical community, and lots of support from their neighbors. And who is there to pick Patty up as she takes her first steps back into freedom? None other than her daughter, darling Rose Gold (and Rose Gold's 2 month old son). Why on earth, you ask yourself, would Rose Gold be willing to allow her mother back into her life?

Told in alternating chapters, starting with Patty's release, going back to get Rose Gold's story of her life after her mother's imprisonment, and coming together as we near the dramatic conclusion, this book is in no way straightforward. It becomes increasingly clear that Rose Gold is playing a deep-fake game with her mother, but it's not until the end, that we find out exactly how deep her game goes.

This book is indeed thrilling, and suspenseful, but I couldn't help but wonder how a girl like Rose Gold, who has been sick and beyond sheltered her entire life, would have the physical strength (she's described as being very small and thin) and mental fortitude to pull off her scheme. But it's that very question that will keep you reading all the way through!

DARLING ROSE GOLD • Stephanie Wrobel • ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was strange. It was different though, and for that I am glad that I had the opportunity to get an eARC of this one. With that being said, a digital ARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher (Simon & Schuster) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: Until she was eighteen years old, Rose Gold Watts believed she was seriously ill. It turns out that her mom, Patty Watts, was just a good liar. After serving five years in prison thanks to Rose Gold’s testimony against her, Patty gets out and asks her daughter to take her in. The entire community is shocked when Rose Gold says yes. The question left in everyone’s mind — WHY?

To answer the first question I had about this book: No, this is not a retelling of the Gypsy Rose Blanchard case. Yes, this book is about a victim of Munchausen's by proxy, and yes, the author discusses using Blanchard’s case as inspiration in her acknowledgements, but this is not the same story nor is it a true story. Definitely check this book out though if you found Blanchard’s story interesting!

I was surprised to find out that the focus of the book is not on past abuse, but on Rose Gold’s life once her mom is in prison, mixed with Patty’s life after being released. This resulted in a fresh take on a currently trendy subject. Half of this book was also told from Patty’s perspective. Getting to see inside her head was fascinating, in a dark way.

Going into this story, I was unaware that it was being advertised as both a thriller and a revenge story. This is where I felt the book fell short. Until the last two chapters, this is not a story I would describe as thrilling. The revenge aspect was interesting, but also problematic for spoiler-y reasons I will not get into here!



Overall, this was a unique story of a case of Munchausen's by proxy, focusing on the aftermath of the abuse. I did not love the characters (they were supposed to be unlikeable, but I would have appreciated more depth), but this book did keep my interest.

Oh, this one might be a case of me being overexcited about a much-hyped book, but I wasn't as enthralled with Darling Rose Gold as I had hoped to be. It draws its inspiration from the story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her mother, but this might be a time where truth was more interesting than fiction. The blinder you can go into this book, the better experience you will have.

While DARLING ROSE GOLD clearly takes influence from the story of Gypsy Rose and Dee Dee Blanchard, Wrobel has made a compelling and original story that kept me guessing for most of the narrative. We get the perspectives of Patty and Rose Gold, one the abusive mother who has just left prison, the other her victimized daughter, and as their chapters alternate you start to question who is telling the truth. Or if either of them are. It's pretty clear that Patty is a monster for what she did to Rose Gold, but Wrobel is careful to show that sometimes monsters are made, though she doesn't dwell on an origin story. I appreciated that we got some context, but that the context didn't excuse anything. Rose Gold, on the other hand, is far more compelling of a character because she's so mysterious in her motivations. She was certainly a victim of her mother, but you also wonder what the psychological abuse may have done to her mental state and her emotional well being... I liked that there is a sinking sensation as you read the story that something isn't quite right with Rose Gold, and that you just need to know what it is. And the mystery as to what both Patty and Rose Gold are trying to achieve within this story kept me on edge, and I was flipping through quicker and quicker just to find out. And it mostly caught me by surprise, even if I saw a couple of the building blocks before they were revealed fully.

Overall, DARLING ROSE GOLD is a soapy and anxiety inducing thriller that was a fun ride. And it gives a little bit of a cathartic exploration of how those who hurt their children could reap what they sow.

3.5 stars for me. Rose Gold's mother made her sick. Very sick. Rose Gold had surgeries, procedures and countless other tragedies during her short life due to her mother making her sick. Her mother was caught and imprisoned, but now that she is out of jail Rose Gold is ready to start over with her mother... Some twists and turns that were somewhat predictable. It's evident that the story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard was the inspiration behind this book. Anyone who followed Gypsy's story, or watched The Act on Hulu will find many similarities to the events Rose Gold experienced. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Mom has Munchausen by proxy, pretty much wrecks her daughter's childhood. Child, Rose Gold, lets mom live with her post-prison sentence to enact revenge. That about sums it up. I just could not connect with either character (which I guess is good?!), but I also found little engaging about either of them; both seemed quite one-dimensional and static to me. The writing style was more young-adult, which is fine if it is marketed that way. I am sure some people will love this family drama, but it just was not my style. Thanks to Goodreads for the free advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I started reading this book after a long exhausting day with the hope that I’d read a little to de-stress before I sleep. Well that did not turn out as expected. I kept turning page after page and go so absorbed in the book that I forgot all about sleep. The book is brilliantly written. I find it impossible to believe that it’s a debut novel. I’m definitely going to watch out for more books by Ms Wrobel. She spins a devastating tale with ease. The book is written in 2 voices with both narrators seeming unreliable. I didn’t like the choices that Patty or Rose Gold were making but I could understand where they were coming from. Rose Gold’s transition from Victim to victimizer (?) was very enthralling. Though I’m not sure she should be labeled victimizer. The bitterness she has in her is justified, or is it? I have always believed that when a person is victimized/abused, you have 2 choices, one is to become the complete opposite of your victimizer and never do any of those things ever, second is to not see how wrong it is and repeat the cycle- what you choose shows where your moral compass lies. In this case I’m not sure where Rose Gold’s compass points. Parts of her make you pity her and parts of her make you dislike her. No matter what you feel about both of them, one this is certain you will feel strongly. That’s just how well the characters are created. The ending wasn’t much of a surprise but some details of it were. The plot gets 3.5 stars but the writing gets 5! You are so engrossed in what you are reading that you don’t even think to question the obvious, in hindsight I realized that I had a question right at the start about Adam but I was so lost on the writing that I put side all thoughts and was consumed in this book. It’s an engaging read that you will want to devour quickly. I look forward to reading a lot more from Stephanie Wrobel.

I would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I will admit, when I first read the premise of this book, I immediately thought of Gypsy Rose and her mother and their tragic life story, so I immediately requested it wanting to see what this book would be like. It has some similarities but there are also many differences, this time the mother survives and comes back into her daughter’s life, but at what cost? An interesting read that I couldn’t put down.

Unfortunately, this one did not work for me. However, it didn’t work for me in the same way that The Last Mrs. Parrish and The Wife Between Us didn’t work for me, and other readers LOVED those books. (Darling Rose Gold had a much different plot than those two books, FYI, but there were other resemblances.) So bottom line is though I didn't love it, I bet it will be very popular with thriller readers this year.

Review: 5 Stars


When I requested an ARC of this book it was because I had heard that it was about a really dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship. I had no idea it was actually about Munchausen by proxy until I started researching books about mental illness for a recent Top 5 Saturday post. I have been going through a bit of a book slump lately and I think that I need to get away from fantasy books for a while and read books that focus more on characters than world building. When looking through my review copies I thought Darling Rose Gold looked like the perfect book to get me interested in stories again and it was such a great choice. I could not have been more invested in this story and these characters.


I immediately found myself absolutely engrossed in Darling Rose Gold. This book really touched my heart and was an emotional ride for me. The story switched each chapter from Rose Gold's point of view right after her mother was arrested for child abuse and to Patty's point of view in the present day where she is now out of prison and has moved in with Rose Gold. The story was both so fascinating and horrifying at the same time. I wanted to know how all of this could have possibly happened and how Rose Gold could have changed so much in the 5 years her mother was in prison. I had a hard time walking away from this book, even just to sleep. I couldn't understand why Patty would have poisoned her daughter when I could see how much she clearly loved her. I tore through this book in less than two days and I was absolutely shocked to find out that this is Stephanie Wrobel's debut novel.


The characters were done so well. My heart was so invested in Patty and Rose Gold's lives. I could relate to both characters and found myself sympathizing with each of them. It didn't feel black and white to me as a reader. While Patty had poisoned Rose Gold, I actually felt bad for her. But it was Rose Gold who really burrowed her way into my heart. She was just so lonely and all I wanted was for her to have the tiniest bit of happiness. It wasn't the medical issues that I sympathized with, but rather the emotional ones. I could empathize with her desire and her need to be loved and wanted. When people mistreated her I was SO angry with them as well. Stephanie Wrobel did a great job writing these characters because even though they were extraordinarily dysfunctional I could truly relate with them and even understand some of their really twisted actions.


Darling Rose Gold was an incredible debut. While it was about a very dysfunctional relationship between a mother and daughter it is also about the human need for connection and love. It's about the long term effects of abuse and the twisted desire for revenge. Darling Rose Gold is a book I won't be forgetting any time soon and would recommend to everyone.

This book is bonkers. And I mean that in the best possible way. This is a dark, twisted story of Rose Gold Watts who grew up as a sickly child in and out of hospitals and doctor's offices. Turns out she wasn't sick at all, but was being repeatedly poisoned by her mother, Patty. Patty is convicted and spends 5 years in prison, still proclaiming her innocence. When she gets out, everyone is shocked that Rose Gold -- now 23 years old-- takes her in. Patty thinks they have reconciled, but Rose Gold has waited a long time for her revenge. Both characters are unreliable narrators, leaving the reader wondering who's lying (both of them?) and who's telling the truth? I could not put it down.

For eighteen years Rose Gold was told by her mother that she was ill with some disease that no one could figure out.

Her mother, Patty, took her to many doctors and actually told the doctors what tests to try.

When a doctor got suspicious, she took Rose Gold to a different doctor.

Little did Rose Gold and the doctors know that her mother was actually poisoning her to make herself look like super mom who saved her daughter.

It all caught up with Patty one day, though, when Rose Gold figured it out, and Patty was put on trial and sent to prison.

Five years later, Patty is out of prison. Surprisingly Rose Gold picked her up and has her stay with her.

We follow the story line as we hear about Rose Gold’s childhood, the background of her mother, and present day.

What does Rose Gold have in mind by having her mother stay there with her and especially since she now has a child of her own?

Can she trust her mother?

Will she so easily forget what her mother did to her?

Can Patty forget so easily that her daughter sent her to prison?

Will the town forget what she did to her daughter?

The big question, though, is who is the better/biggest liar, the most dangerous, the most cunning, or the most evil?

DARLING ROSE GOLD is a tense, chilling book, but is very well written. You won’t want to put the book down.

If you like psychological thrillers, you will enjoy DARLING ROSE GOLD. This book was every bit a thriller as well as a read that will keep you wondering what these two characters will do next. 5/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book sounded fascinating from the moment I read its synopsis, and exactly the kind of quick thriller I like to read where everyone and everything is unreliable. I was instantly sucked into the story of Rose Gold and her mother, Patty, and finished it in a little over a day. I didn't even want to go to sleep because I wanted to stay up and read the ending! Though a lot of shows and movies are using Munchausen by proxy syndrome in their plots recently, this was a new take on it all - when the victim becomes the victimizer. I had a feeling about halfway through how it was going to all end, but even so, some of the details still surprised me. All of the interactions in this book felt very real, and both sides of thought, whether it was Rose Gold's or Patty's, was so believable and made this an incredibly easy read. Now, it isn't easy in the fact that Patty was abused as a child and then inflicted that same, if maybe worse, trauma on her own daughter, but trying to figure out the ins and outs of both her and Rose Gold's psyches was very compelling for me. I do feel as if the ending was a bit rushed, but I won't say too much on that for fear of giving anything away.