Although the idea of the book--examining how the choices made in our lives influence what can happen in that life. Most people at some point have asked "what if?", this book tries to answer that question with different scenarios. The subject of having children is a delicate one, on both sides and this book does not have any answers. I am a lover of beginnings, middles. and ends., and this book lacks that, it is almost like short stories all relating to a theme; I guess I was expecting a novel.

I loved this book! It's like a feminist SLIDING DOORS. I tell everyone to read THE NINE LIVES OF ROSE NAPOLITANO. Donna Freitas takes a straightforward matter -- a women decides not to have children -- and examines it from ALL the angles. What if she changes her mind and has a child? What if she holds true to her decision? What will the repercussions be on her marriage, her career, her relationship with herself? Sooooo good!

Confusing "plot", unsympathetic character. I did not finish this book, so perhaps this is not a worthy opinion, but I just couldn't keep reading after about 30%. The chapters switch back and forth in time and reflect various possibilities/outcomes of several life choices -- all of them around Rose Napolitano, a college professor & PhD who doesn't want to have children, never has, but her husband has decided that he does. In some of the storylines, they are divorced, in some they have a daughter, in some they are still fighting about it. I just reached a point where I didn't care. The chapter titles reflect the dates (2007. 2012. 2008, etc) and which version of Rose we are reading about, but still I found it confusing. Clearly not the book for me since I did read several positive reviews that specifically mentioned the innovative writing style. I just didn't like it.

disappointing title tho a great premise. I'd heard good things and thought this would be a much better book.

This was good. It's a little confusing going back and forth when you have two stories, but nine was a lot more confusing. I liked it though, once I got into it more. We have already bought it at our library or I would recommend for purchase. I will be adding to a list I give out to some patrons who are regulars and always ask me for something different!

This book started out a bit confusing, partly because it was an ebook and it was hard to go back and check dates of which life of Rose I was reading. But once I got the pattern and what the “lives” were it was very intriguing.
I loved Rose. The author tells a story of a woman who does not ever want to have a baby and many people are critical of her choice. This part of the book was very enlightening to me. I’ve always known that not every woman is meant to be a mother. I learned that not every woman WANTS to be a mother. These women have the right to say so and not be judged.

When Rose got married, she thought her husband understood she didn't want to have children. The nine versions of Rose in this story start with the same scene - an argument over prenatal vitamins, and follow different paths. It really explores the pressure women face from all sides, what motherhood takes, what relationships take and how people change over time - or don't.

The author includes the version(s) of Rose before each section (since some overlap) but I didn't feel too caught up in keeping the distinctions between the versions straight. They all felt possible. And she could have written it as a choose your own adventure tale.

This landed on my doorstep (literally) at just the right time. As I get older (I’ll be 37 this year) my feelings around having kids have shifted in ways I didn’t expect. In my late 20s and early 30s I was pretty sure having kids wasn’t for me, for various reasons, but now I’ve been questioning that a little more. It’s a complicated subject for me, and difficult to explain – largely because having CF has made the decision feel less like my own and more like a product of my circumstances. I’m working on writing more about this and will share here if I feel comfortable, but this book explores what it means to not want kids (particularly as a woman), and what happens when your partner feels differently. We visit Rose in nine different iterations of her life that vary according to the decisions she makes. It’s fascinating, and at times hard to follow, but I couldn’t put it down.

Overall I found this story to be a bit depressing. It is all about deciding to remain childless. I did like the way the different lives were laid out in the story. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

Oh, I really enjoyed this book. If you liked Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life you’ll enjoy this book. Rose has never wanted children but in this book nine scenarios are presented in which a woman who doesn’t want children married a man who wants children. It is a book to make readers think about what it means to be a mother.

I have a feeling this book is going to be very popular because it will resonant with so many women. Reading this book I went from rage to sadness to many times, and even at the end I wasn't left with a satisfying conclusion, but I LOVED this book.

Freitas takes the multiple lives story plot to a whole new level in this book. I loved the way each chapter gave you a date and which lives of Rose were involved. I think when "Rose Live 4" came around is when this book crushed me deeply. I had so much rage I had to put this down and walk away or I would have thrown my device.

Rose Napolitano has never wanted kids, she has known this her whole life. She has told everyone and anyone that asks when she's going to have a baby (because she'll only be satisfied in life when she has a baby, and not the PhD or successful career she has...) and her answer has always been Never. No. Not going to happen. Then Luke comes along, and Luke says he understands, he doesn't want kids, he won't ever want kids, until they're a few years into marriage and "Whoops, I changed my mind." Luke receives pressure from his parents, and so instead of being a man and standing up for his wife, instead of telling his wife he understands her and won't ever force her to do something she has never wanted, each life starts with Luke holding a bottle of prenatal vitamins criticizing Rose for not taking them. Every life then divides from this point, does she take the pills, does she have a baby, does he leave, does she leave, etc... The discussions they have in this book, the feelings that Rose has, are feelings and conversations I have heard and had with many women who don't want to have babies, and what do they do with their marriage when they get to this point. This was so realistic and so accurate and the fact that there are no conversations between Rose and Luke where he understands feels so correct, because "what are women/wives for except to have babies".

This was so good, and so realistic and I don't know if I can ever read it again because of the anger I felt, but because so often women are only allowed to be a breeding center and not an actual person.

Author Donna Freitas had a great idea for a novel: how to fully explore the wide range of options available to one woman as she faces varied relationships and possible childbirth. THE NINE LIVES OF ROSE NAPOLITANO gives us Rose, a newly minted sociology PhD, and possible future mother, with her complexity and ambivalence. Perhaps the novel might rightly be framed as an exploration of ambivalence and attachment. While the idea is great, the execution is stiff and disjointed. There’s no easy slide between her lives and it’s not always clear what is going on in each of them. It was easier to read than jot down a schematic, but that drawing probably would have helped me enjoy the book. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

2.5, rounded up. The conceit of having nine different timelines for Rose Napolitano intrigued me enough to request the book; however, in practice, it didn't work as well as I thought it would. Although the writing is solid, it's difficult to keep track of the different Roses, Addies, Lukes, and Thomases throughout the chapters.

I had a hard time getting into this story. I liked the format that explored all the what if's and various possibilities of how a decision can change the future. Rose and her husband both contributed to each of the outcomes in the various possible futures. I'm not sure I liked Rose all that much. As the book blurb says, "love, loss, betrayal, divorce, death, a woman's career and her identity " pretty well sums it up. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Out of the box, if you’re a woman, mother or not, you’re very likely to find yourself angry at the basic premise. Even though this is not a spoiler, I’ll leave this to readers to discover and experience, or not experience, on their own the situation Rose finds herself facing. After all, Rose Napolitano seems to get a lot of decisions to revisit. It’s an interesting situation. Have you ever wondered what might have happened to your big moments in your life if you made a different decision, did something different instead of what you did, zigged instead of zagged? Would things have turned out different? Better? Worse? Poor Rose is faced with a life altering decision when all her life she’s had herself on a path. She made sure, or so it seemed, that she only married someone who could honor that decision, her autonomy on that path. Yet, somehow, her like-minded husband does a 180 on her and her life goes into a tailspin from the very first time he voices the thought that he wants Rose to have a baby. From that point forward, Rose faces critical junctures in the road from that point forward, making different decisions along the way, making seemingly minor tweaks to the outcome. Each decision revisited, adds nuance to the path her life goes down yet happiness always seems to be a mirage. Ladies, buckle yourselves in for a wild ride on Rose’s paths. Regardless of how you find your feelings about the issue at hand, and her husband, you’re going to find some emotions of your own as each path lays out before you. I’d put this in Women’s Literary Fiction TBR stack.

I was drawn into this book about a marriage and motherhood right away. Rose Napolitano made it clear to her boyfriend, Luke, that she did not want children. He told her he felt the same way. Years later they are married, and Luke changes his mind. Luke’s parents continually pressure the couple. They insist that Rose will regret not having children. Luke and Rose are at an impasse. The book offers nine scenarios based on the way Rose reacts to the initial confrontation in the book. In some, she stands firm in her decision. In others, she agrees to try. In some of the scenarios I felt frustrated on Rose’s behalf, and in others I was frustrated with her decisions. The last chapter is quite interesting. I especially enjoyed the relationship between Rose and her parents, particularly her mother. My main critique is that it was sometimes difficult to keep track of the stories and timelines, as there were so many of them (and I often read books that jump between time periods).

Rose Napolitano is a sociology professor. She is grappling with the question of whether or not she wants to have a child. She’s feeling pressure from her husband, in-laws and parents to have a baby. She is also feeling pressure from those on the other side of the issue. How does she resolve this? Presented in a format that gives us several possible outcomes, we realize just how difficult it can be to be true to yourself.

An excellent look at the pressures and guilt put on women who don't want to become mothers, the expectation that all women want to become mothers, and the different choices one can make and how it can affect their own story.