Rose Gold Watts was eighteen years old when her mother, Patty, was convicted for abusing Rose Gold and sent to prison. And for the first time in her eighteen years, Rose Gold was not throwing up, she no longer needed a feeding tube, and was finally putting on weight. With the help of a nosy neighbor, Rose Gold finds an apartment, learns how to drive, and gets a job. Some years have passed and Rose Gold is lonely. She doesn't really have any friends or anybody. So she visits her mother in prison. And is even there to pick her up when she is released. The people in their small midwest community cannot believe that Rose Gold has welcomed Patty back into their life. They cannot believe that Rose Gold has forgiven Patty. Or has she?

Munchausen syndrome by proxy is a very real illness that has been getting a lot of attention recently from Hollywood recently. It was a subplot in the recent Netflix series, The Politician. The book is told from two different perspectives, Patty's in the present. And Rose Gold's in the past, starting when Patty goes to prison. I was appalled that Rose Gold even was willing to try and give her mother a second chance. And I was worried about her safety when she let her mother move in with her after she was released from prison. Reading Patty's perspective only increased my worries, because it was clear that the woman was still mentally ill. I will tell you, that I was even more worried in the last few chapters. I could not figure out why Rose Gold was willing to leave her baby alone with Patty. Rose Gold had her reasons and they definitely were not what I had expected. CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS. In the end, everybody got what they deserved.

Bottom Line - The mother/daughter relationship is often a complicated one, but even more so when your mother spent years making you critically ill. Darling Rose Gold is a fast read that will leave your head spinning.

Details:
Darling Rose by Stephanie Wrobel
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Pages: 320
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: 3/17/2020
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Thank you to NetGalley for the book in exchange for a review.

One great read! Highly recommend! Rollercoaster ride of dark and disturbing entertainment. I could not put this one down!

Darling Rose is loosely and I do mean loosely based on the real life events of Dee Dee Blanchard and Gypsy Rose.

Rose Gold and her mother, Patty have a dark, twisted relationship and it's just about to get darker. Patty has just been released from her five year prison sentence for aggravated child abuse. She has Munchausen by Proxy and robbed Rose Gold of a her childhood. Rose Gold suffered emotionally,physically and mentally under the hands of her mother. In the past 5 years she has healed to a degree but her life with Patty taught her go to be conniving and sneaky and when Patty comes to live with her a game of cat and mouse begins. It's just a a question of who is the hunter and who is the hunted.

This book is split between Rose Gold and Patty's point of views. Each voice is distinct. The characters are unlikable and unreliable as narrators but they tell an intriguing story that is devious and engrossing. Sit back and enjoy this dark psychological thriller.

* I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a slow start for me. It took a bit to get into, but after the initial 15-20% I was hooked. I enjoyed reading the dynamic between Rose Gold and Patty. Their relationship is tumultuous to say the least. The flashbacks helped and gave tidbits of information that made you want to find out more. A thrilling read for sure.

A fictionalized take on the shocking story of Gypsy Rose and Dee Dee Blanchard, you already know going in to this that you are in for a twisted tale. And Wrobel does not disappoint.

Patty, the mother who is infamous for making her daughter, Rose Gold, intensely sick, has just been released from prison. Rose Gold is there to pick her up and take her home, a choice that shocks the members of their small town. But neither mother nor daughter are being honest about their intentions, and how their story ends completely shocked me.

I ended up dnfing this book three chapters in.. I had a hard time getting into it and I couldn't mesh with the writing style. I tried reading it a couple of time.

Such a disturbing story but well written. A good book club selection as there are so many ideas to talk about. Should the daughter get her revenge and should she have been mentally evaluated after her ordeal? So many questions to discuss, definitely a book to recommend.

I kept waiting for it to pick up a bit more but I found it pretty slow and I really disliked all the characters. Dislikable characters doesn't always stop me from enjoying a book but that coupled with it being slow, I didn't love it like I had hoped. Overall, I would read another book by this author, though!

What a fun take on a true story! I loved reading this. I was obsessed with the true story of Gypsy Rose and her mother when it broke in the news a few years back. This was a creative take on what a different outcome would have been. I devoured this in 24 hours—the author is a great storyteller and did a fantastic job!

My thoughts

Would I recommended it? Yes

Would I read anything else by this author? Yes

First off I want to say going in to this story I knew a little bit about the case that its based on since I tend to read a lot of true crime novels, listen to true crime podcast as well as watch the true crime tv shows. But until I saw this one NetGalley I had no idea that someone wrote a story based on that case and I would say that I time I was kind of hesitant to request it because I found out in the past that when a book is fiction and its based on a true crime and while the author has done their homework and put their time and effort in it that it just doesn't come off the way the author wants it to. But with this one I would have to say the author not only did her homework but she pulled it together really well.I don't know how but she did , and she did it in away that the story itself is dark and twisted as well as been creepy. And how she wrote the mother, wow she's not mother of the year that's for sure in fact she's down right disturbing and insane. While Rose Gold heself is just as twist maybe more so then her mother , lets me put it this way I would never want to be in a room with with either one of them. With that said I want to thank NetGalley for letting me read and review it .

I love that it told the story from both prospective. You get to get inside their heads and see how damaged each character is in the story. I would recommend this book.

Wow — this book was not what I expected, but in the very best way. Similar to the now-famous real-life story of DeeDee and Gypsy Rose Blanchard, this is the story of a daughter who was abused by her mother, who (it's not stated in the novel, but it's clear this is the case) has a form of Munchausen by proxy. Knowing the Blanchards' story well, I thought I knew what was coming in this book, but I definitely didn't! I wasn't expecting a thriller that kept me turning the pages until well past my bedtime. A great read.

A novel about an abusive mother and her daughter Rose Gold. The book tells the story of both women from each of their points of view. This relationship is one of control, manipulation and betrayal, which lays the foundation for a very fast paced read with lots of twists and turns.

I read this in one day. It's an easy read and I was interested the entire time, but I felt like the story never really started or started on such a weird foot that I never recovered. I was waiting for the ball the drop, the excitement to start, the suspense to start building, but I only got a hint of that through the last maybe ten percent.

I was expecting a more similar story to Sharp Objects, but this story started off with the sentencing of her mother for abuse and getting sentenced to five years in jail for Munchausen syndrome by proxy. I kept thinking, Now What, for more than the first half of the book. It felt like the took the fun out of it having the most unique part being wrapped up in the first chapter.

I have never read about Gypsy Blancharde, the person who inspired this story and maybe if I had I would have appreciated it more, but I never really was invested in this story. What the daughter was doing didn't surprise me, but simply made sense in my mind, so the twist that did happen at the end wasn't necessarily a climax for me. Of course a girl that had all that happened to her, and not much therapy, would strike back the way she did and use how she was raised to her advantage.

Thank you so much to the publisher for the chance to read this book. Psychological disturbances fascinate me, and this was no different. It explored such an interesting topic, but with a twist that I didn't see coming.

The characters in this book weren't likeable but were fascinating and scary. I loved how we saw Party over the course of the book, and how deeply her disturbance goes. She really thought that what she was doing was being a great mother. That personal need to be praised and be needed - it was really deep in her soul.

And then we see Rose. She seems like such a lost lamb. Poor kid, that has been abused and used for so many years. But then we see her develop. And how her psych has actually been damaged over the course of he life as well, not just her physical health. She really developed through the book in a scary way. It wasn't enjoyable to see, but so fascinating and disturbing.

The story wasn't a thrill ride, just a psychological exploration, very much a character study. The pace of it wasn't for me, but the end was good enough to help this book along overall. Would definitely want to read more on this topic and would definitely pick up another book by this author - she has great taste in topics.

This novel reminds me of the Netflix series "The Politician" but with a little less imagination; I struggled to stay engaged and stick with the story through the end.

Not a fan of this one. Too predictable and just fell flat with me! I had great expectations for this one. Loved the cover, hated the title!

Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel, 320 pages. Berkley, 2020. $26.
Language: R (50 swears, 10 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
Five years have passed since Patty Watts was put behind bars on charges for aggravated child abuse of her daughter, Rose Gold. Patty still claims innocence, wanting nothing more than to reconcile with Rose Gold. Rose Gold has only ever been able to rely on her mother; should she give Patty another chance?
Reading Rose Gold’s story was painful and sad, like watching a train wreck, and I was ready to put it down and avoid the wreckage a quarter of the way into the book. While the story was hard for me to read, Wrobel wrote it well. Wrobel flips her readers back and forth through time and points of view to invite readers to reach their own conclusions without taking away from the big reveal at the end. As all the questions I had were answered, I couldn’t decide if I was more satisfied or flabbergasted by the conclusion. The mature content rating is for drug and alcohol abuse and illegal activity; the violence rating is for child abuse, self harm, and suicide.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

I absolutely loved this book!!! I know a lot of people couldn't handle this one because of how messed up it was but I think that is was drew me in so much! I find stories like this so interesting! The fact that some people do this to their kids in real life is horrible. In fact, there are no real words for it. Throughout this book, I was rooting for Rose Gold. She kind of reminded me of Cinderella. In part because she was described as the ugly duckling of the family, everyone picked on her. I did not see the final twist at the end coming but I was so proud of Rose Gold. I was late at reading this book by it's Pub Date, but I am so glad that I read this one. Darling Rose Gold is definitely a page turner and it will have you wanting more. Thank you @netgalley and @berkleypub for this free arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Rose Gold spent her entire childhood in some kind of medical agony, either in the hospital or at home, with a feeding tube and a wheelchair always present. She was allergic to so many things it was nearly impossible to keep an accurate count, and even with the feeding tube, she was malnourished, and her hair fell out in huge clumps. After she turned eighteen, Rose Gold decided to take charge of her life, and her mother Patty was arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse. Patty’s conviction meant Rose Gold was free to follow her own path, and she got a job, met her birth father, and then was crushed when he decided he and his family didn’t want a relationship with her.

Patty had always tried to be the perfect mother, sacrificing everything for Rose Gold. She cared for her during her many illnesses, mopped up the vomit, bathed and fed and cradled her daughter, doing whatever she could do to relieve Rose Gold’s pain and discomfort. The fact that she used ipecac to sicken Rose Gold, just a few times, shouldn’t count against her, should it?

There’s a lot of vindictive behaviors in this book, from Patty to be sure, but also from Rose Gold. Her deeply set need to have others pay for her early life of trauma was a continued theme throughout the storyline. I expected a master set-up, but not quite the way it all played out. The story read well, I’m familiar with the case it was loosely based on, and I appreciated a different take on the Munchhausen’s by Proxy diagnosis.