Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel is a compelling page turner, surprising since the two main characters are highly unlikeable women. Patty, Rose Gold's controlling mother is a disturbed, damaged woman whose denial of her crimes makes her all the more threatening and dangerous, Rose Gold, the daughter, is a sad, pathetic young woman whose childhood was destroyed by her mother and whose adult years continue to be affected by the trauma.
The story begins with Patty being released from jail after serving five years for poisoning, starving and reducing her healthy daughter to invalid status until concerned friends help Rose to break free and report her mother's crimes. Strangely, however, Rose meets her mother from prison and invites her to stay. Keen to re-establish her dominance, Patty is surprised and accepts, hoping to slot right back into Rose Gold's life. But is the daughter offering an olive branch and putting the past behind her, or is something more sinister at hand as these two damaged women jockey for the upper hand using an arsenal of weapons—lies, secrets and devious cunning.
Told from alternating points of view, Wrobel ratchets up the tension with some surprising twists and turns until you simply have to find out who wins in the surprising ending. A terrific read.
Thanks to Net Galley for providing a preview copy in return for an honest review.

This book was very well written but I found it hard to read as it was quite disturbing. Rose Gold was mentally and medically abused by a mother who was manipulative, overbearing and possessive. At 18, Rose Gold realizes she is being poisoned by her mother and sends her mother to jail for five years. Even after Rose Gold has been in therapy she is still mentally unstable from the years of abuse. She is manipulative, deceitful and revengeful to everyone who she feels is not giving her the attention she deserves. In the end, I don't know if she got justice or not, all I know is I disliked both characters by the end of the book.

If you like your psychological thrillers to be cutting, dark and twisted, with unreliable protagonists for narrators, than this may be the perfect story for you. Told in alternating POV format, both mother Patty and daughter Rose Gold come across as unlikable characters. Both are dysfunctional, self-focused, manipulating, controlling and revenge-seeking, albeit in different ways, given that one is able to present a better "public face" than the other one is, or is that just because the townfolk are unforgiving when they discover that they have been duped?

Overall, this made for a rather captivating read. Yes, dysfunctional characters can have a way with catching and holding my attention as I try to anticipate their next move. You just never know when Patty or Rose Gold are lying or actually telling the truth. Added to the mix are some unexpected (and cringe-worthy) plot twists – as well as one jaw-dropping reveal near the end – that kept me page-turning late into the night.

If you don't like being "messed around" with as a reader, or if you need to have a likeable character before you can enjoy a story, than this probably isn't for you.

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster Canada and Stephanie Wrobel for the digital ARC I received in exchange for this early review.

I could not put this book down! This is one of the most messed up (in a good way) books I’ve read all year.

All her life, Rose Gold Watts believed she was sick. Endless doctors visits, hospital stays, medications, feeding tubes, Rose Gold has been through it all. Her mother, Patty, has been in prison for the past 5 years, found guilty of aggravated child abuse. Patty had been keeping Rose Gold sick all those years, secretly poisoning her in order to maintain control and garner sympathy. Now, Patty is being released from prison and we follow this incredibly dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship in the months that follow.

I really enjoyed the pacing of this book. I was never bored and always wanted to know what happened next. This book is loosely based on real life events and it is just incredible to think that things like this actually happen. This story was disturbing, crazy and very entertaining. Well done!

Wow. This book sounded so intriguing and it was way more than I could have expected. The story flips back and forth between characters and time, which makes it a challenge to be able to figure out the end!!! I enjoy the mind games the author plays with the story and there is some pretty crazy stuff that happens!
The writing flowed well and the format worked really well for s story such as this one. It is refreshing to read a book that isn’t cookie cutter and I can’t predict what the ending is going to be. There are so many ways this book could have ended!
The author does a great job at making you feel for the characters: happy, sad, pity, disgust. It is a rollercoaster of emotions!

A very odd way of telling a story. Very good storyline but a little cut and dried in places. Not enough build u a little matter of fact. Enjoyed the plot and very descriptive

Very entertaining novel that keeps you interested. It's an easy read with alternating chapters on flashbacks and present time. A great mind game between the characters. I wish there was more to the ending as it was left open ended. I recommend this book!

Is it possible to detest characters while still feeling sorry for them? Rose Gold and her mom Patty are tragic and flawed characters, yet I found myself having empathy for them when they were at their most vulnerable, hoping that all would turn out right. Well done Ms. Wrobel!

This is a good thriller that kept my brain full of questions and worries until the very end, questioning actions and motivations of both mother and daughter.

Right from the beginning we meet Patty, getting out of jail and spend the book going back and forth between mother and daughter, Rose Gold taking us back to the trial and years since and Patty showing us what is happening now. By the time the two timelines meet our allegiances and feelings have shifted and been shaken numerous times.

"They don't know the depths of this mother's love."

"Riddle me this: if I spent almost two decades abusing my daughter, why did she offer to pick me up today?"

"But some of us cannot forget and will never forgive. We keep our axes sharp, ready to grind. We hold pleas for mercy between our teeth like jawbreakers."

This book is worth the time and effort and earns it's 'thriller' title well.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for allowing me to read an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wicked! Wicked! Wicked!

Darling Rose Gold is a totally creepy, hypnotic, enjoyable thriller about a most twisted mother and daughter pair. After having poisoned and isolated her daughter, Rose Gold, since infancy, Patty Watts finally got caught and sent to prison for aggravated child abuse. But freedom and revelation are difficult challenges for a young woman who has been trained her entire life to depend on only one woman. The mother-daughter bond runs deep. And so, five years later, it is Rose Gold herself who picks up Patty from prison and agrees to live with her again, this time under her own terms.

Stephanie Wrobel has crafted a clever puzzle that reveals itself slowly as the voices of the two woman fill in the Before and After pieces of Patty’s fall from grace. The overall picture is confounded by the extremely biased narratives from the warped minds of mother and daughter. Rose Gold was incensed when she realized that her mother robbed her of a decent childhood. Patty was livid when Rose Gold turned on her and sent her to prison. Who will get their revenge first?

ARC received from the publisher through NetGalley.

This dark thriller draws its basic premise from a real incident of a mother who makes her teenage daughter an invalid throughout her life for free benefits and sympathy. In this story the mother and daughter try to exact revenge on each other and thus you have a taut suspense thriller. The plot is refreshing and the author has narrated in simple direct manner.

I finished this one after lunch. ⁣
⁣
It was heartbreaking, confusing and thought provoking. ⁣
My heart initially broke for Rose Gold but as the story progressed my questions overcame that. There were curve balls around many corners. The ones at the end completely threw me for a loop! ⁣
⁣
I highly recommend reading this book when it comes out March 17, 2020! ⁣
⁣
I Received this copy to review through NetGalley and Simon and Schuster. This review is what I thought of the book and my honest opinion.⁣
⁣

Stephanie Wrobel is definitely a talented writer and I look forward to reading her future books, but this story just wasn't enjoyable to read.

Darling Rose Gold focuses on the relationship between Patty and her daughter Rose Gold. Patty went to jail for poisoning her daughter for 18 years and Rose Gold helped her go behind bars. Five years later, Patty is free and surprisingly, her daughter allows her to move in with her. But all is not what it seems.

This story has many similarities to the real-life story of Dee Dee and Gypsy Rose Blanchard. The ripped from the headlines aspect didn't bother me. But what did bother me was just how unlikable the main characters were and how I felt very sad and gloomy after reading the book. The aspects I did like about the book was the twist at the end and the writing.


Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC.

Just finished this book and was surprised at how twisty and dark it was. It cames as a recommendation for a book that I would like and I was not sure what to expect. It did take me a little bit to get into but then I couldn't put it down. I needed to know where the storu was going. I love books where there is someone to love or hate and I hated Patty ...but by the end of the book...? I will definately recommend this book to anyone looking for plot twists and turns and a look at the way you are raised really affects who you become.

Rose Gold and her mother, Patty, have a complicated relationship. Patty has been in prison for the last five years, charged with lacing Rose Gold’s meals with ipecac syrup for most of her young life. Ipecac induces vomiting of such epic proportions that your dry heaves will have dry heaves.
But was Patty guilty of poisoning Rose Gold? Even now, she still protests her innocence, claiming she was a devoted and loving mother trying to take care of a chronically ill child, and not a Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy nutter. We really start to wonder when Rose Gold rekindles her relationship with her mom and brings her home to live with her and her infant son after Patty’s release.
Wrobel does a wonderful job of describing this very intimate, yet (forgive the pun) poisoned mother-daughter relationship. I was impressed by the author’s ability to delve into an atrocious crime without subscribing to stereotypical depiction of either victims or villains. The story is told from both Rose Gold and Patty’s perspective, both of which were fascinating unreliable narrators. A great read.
My full review will appear at https://www.shekillslit.com/ closer to the release date of this impressive debut novel.
*Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review*

2.5 "might have been...but very readable" stars !!

Darling Rose Gold is one of those books that is very readable and sort of hard to put down. It is at its core a cat and mouse game between mother and daughter who are both highly dysfunctional individuals that put their own needs before the other's. Who will dominate the other within a story of mutual abuse and manipulation ?

The issue I have with many of these psychological chick-lit thrillers is that the author puts cleverness and glibness above substance and increased understanding about very interesting and in this case hurtful conditions (Munchausen-by-proxy) The ending of this book is also very rushed and quite predictable.

This is far from the worst of psychological thrillers I have read but man oh man this could have and should have been so much better !

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Simon and Schuster Publishing for an advanced copy e-book in exchange for a review. This is to be released in March 2020.

This is a fabulous read. The story is told through two viewpoints keeping the reader on edge. What is truth? I couldn’t read it fast enough. I look forward to reading more books by this author. Highly recommend.

2.5 stars
This thriller starts off with a bang when we find out that Patty Watts is in jail for having mistreated her daughter, accused of having deliberately made her sick for all 18 years of her life.
The book is narrated back and forth between mother and daughter - the past for the daughter and the present day for the mother, a format that works well.
I unfortunately did not find the narrative very compelling. Also, if you read the synopsis, what happens is not much of a surprise, except for one twisty (improbable?) element.
It was a quick easy read, but just middle of the road for me.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Canada and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book. I can say this was a book full of sick and deranged women. The storyline begins when a mother is sent to prison for poisoning her daughter, slowly over the years in what seems to be Munchausen by Proxy. What follows is her daughters revenge. If you are looking for a book with shifty and scary characters then this is the book for you. The author does a great job of painting the picture of these two women so I could see them perfectly. Her story progressed nicely with just enough of a twist to give you that “whoa” feeling. You will be feeling a bit creeped out when you are done this book.

A very enjoyable read! This book plays with your psyche from start to finish. Keeps you guessing all the way through to the end. What is Patty up to? What is Rose Gold up to? I see-sawed back and forth all the way through this book. A good story, realistic characters and a twist at the end I did not see coming. In most books of this genre, I can usually figure out what the answers are before they are revealed, so when I can be surprised I know I've read a good author.

“Nobody wants to hear the truth from a liar”

“We mothers give up everything for our children, until they decide they don’t want our everything anymore”

What do you get when you have two untrustworthy narrators telling a twisted story? Answer; a book you can’t put down!

Patty’s story begins on her release date from prison. She has served five years, convicted of child neglect for poisoning and starving her daughter Rose Gold. From the start we are given clues that Patty’s very controlling persona stems from an abusive childhood. Her perception of herself is strongly skewed, buoyed by her belief in her innocence. She resents the days spent taking care of Rose Gold, scrubbing vomit and the countless doctor and hospital visits trying to pinpoint Rose Golds “illness”. She absolutely refuses to believe that her daughter could be well, even now when her daughter has lived in her own, held a job, bought a house, and now has her own baby to take care of for the past 5 years. She is awaiting Rose Golds apology for sending her to prison with her false testimony and has no doubt that it will come. She moves herself into Rose Golds home and begins to play the long game, trying to earn her trust so she can have right where she wants her.

Rose Gold - a pitiful teenager who has had constant care and attention since the day she was born (to the detriment of both her physical and mental health). Her story begins from her Mother’s trial and onward. She’s a very awkward and very ugly (rotten teeth due to the poisoning) young woman with no real friends an no family. She has an online boyfriend she’s never met and a nowhere job at gadget world as a cashier and has never kissed a boy. All her interactions are guided by peoples interest in her story or other townsfolk who look at her with nothing but pity. As Rose Gold’s story unfolds we watch her as she embarrassingly attempts to build social relationships and become part of her fathers like. There are many times when you can’t help but wince at her annoying persona and pleading personality. When she has finally exhausted all avenues of social contact we start to see her unravel. Everyone who was supposed to love her has abandoned her and there’s only one person to blame.


I read this novel at a whirlwind pace, staying up way too late just to find out what happens next. The truth is buried so deep underneath the two points of view that the reader is left hanging on the edge of their seat frantically flipping pages. Any questioned motives, whens, whys, and hows all come together at the very end. An excellently written psychological thriller!