Dandelion is dead caught my eye with the cover, piqued my interest with the title, and grabbed my full attention with the synopsis.

Jake matches with Dandelion on a dating app. His message 'I can feel your heat' goes unanswered and that is that. Until a year later when Poppy, Dandelion's sister, breaks her phone and decides to use her late sister's device. Poppy is devastated by her sister's death, and the message from Jake speaks to her, reminding her of Dandelion. Before she knows it, she has replied to Jake and set up a date, all under her sister's profile. What could possibly go wrong?

I wasn't sure where this story was going to go. It was interesting enough although neither Jake nor Poppy are particularly likeable characters. Despite this I still found myself invested in their story. The writing tackled topics of grief, owning mistakes, and personal growth well. I struggled with how to rate it as I deeply disliked many of the characters but ultimately the writing did pull me in and the characters had depth, I just didn't like them

This book definitely changes a lot throughout the narrative. At around 50%, I thought this would be a 2 star read, even a DNF. The story becomes a very dark, dramatic and deep one as the plot progresses. So if the first half is 2 stars, the second half is 4 stars. I also changed my category on this from a romance to a litfic, as this is truly litfic with some triggering content and some deeply unlikable characters.

Jake and Dandelion match on hinge, Dandelion never responds. She then passes away, unbeknownst to Jake. He is recently divorced single dad. Dandelion's sister Poppy inherits her flat and all of her information, and one day, she breaks her phone and picks up Dandelion's old phone. Out of grief she goes through the phone and finds Jake's message to her, "I can feel your heat." I find that incredibly icky, but Poppy did not, and she started messaging him as Dandelion. Soon starts dating him as Dandelion, although she has a terrible boyfriend Sam.

That is about as much as I can tell you spoiler free.

Again, the ending is disturbing in a very dark/litfic way. The challenge here is that there is no one in this book you like, that you are rooting for. In a romance, you would be rooting for the couple to get together, and you aren't. Jake is really immature for his age and doesn't have a ton of redeeming qualities. Poppy is pretty conflict averse and her dishonesty comes from this. Once she gets honest with herself she uncovers a bit of growth. Even what we learn about Dandelion is really....complicated. By the ending, these characters are really very complex. If you like thorny family dramas, you may really love this one.

Thanks to Netgalley and Berkeley for the ARC. Book to be published January 13, 2026.

💛 ARC REVIEW 💛

PUB DATE: Jan 12th 2026

My Rating : ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️ 3 Debut Stars

If you’re looking for a gripping visceral read filled with tenderness, then skip this book because you won’t find it here .

Dandelion is Dead is a debut novel by Rosie Story that is rich with satire and juvenile behaviour that questions your every moral …infidelity ! 👀

Told between two POV , we find Poppy a morally grey 30 year old in a stagnant relationship with Sam who has recently lost her sister to an illness and is grieving her loss …and Sam wants to pin point a wedding date .

Jake is our 40 year old single dad who is just as equally morally grey and is head over heels over Dandelion, but everything is not quite as it would seem …because Dandelion is dead !!😵

I think I was bamboozled by this Cover , I was expecting a breathtaking and sweeping tender read, but instead it was filled with sloppy writing, very childish behaviour for grown adults and I had ZERO connections with either character.

I really think this book had so much potential if she had focused on more raw and real complex characters versus the narrative the author chose .

In the end it was just ok for me , but thankful for the opportunity to read it 🙏

Thank you NetGalley , Berkeley Publishing Group and Rosie Story for this ARC!

Respectfully Another Read by Angie 🖤

I'm ambivalent about this book. I had high hopes with the Lorrie Moore quote as the preface. But the characters just seemed to lack authenticity and this made the story more difficult to care about. (Especially since they kept doing stupid things that basic communication would have prevented.)

I loved this book so much. It truly made me feel. I felt for these characters and the grief they endured. I laughed at the funny parts and cried at the sad parts. I cringed with second hand embarrassment, as if they are real people that I was watching in real time. I think that tells you how good of a writer Rosie Storey is. These characters really jumped off the page and felt so real.

The character growth is really good. These characters really learn from their past, their mistakes, etc and you can really see how they change and become better. I really loved these characters and getting to see this. Their grief really transformed them, but so did falling in love.

I loved the way this book talks about grief and managing it. These characters are broken and hurt and as the story goes on you can see what made them this way. I felt like I could really feel their grief and empathize with them.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Dandelion, the beloved sister of Poppy, dies. Poppy, grief stricken, assumes her sister's identity through a dating profile that Dandelion had created. Much happens.

The novel is about grief, moving on, giving up a dream, and claiming new dreams.

Poppy inherits not just grief, but unanswered messages on her late sister’s dating app—and on Dandelion’s 40th birthday, she decides to reply. What starts as one impulsive date blooms into something unexpected. She’s not Dandelion—she’s Poppy—and yet Jake can’t quite let go of the illusion. 💬❤️

I could not get into this book. I found I did not like the characters at all. I guess it is a personal preference and I am sure others will love it, I just don't like when relationships start as a lie and the lies are just one after the other. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you Berkley Publishing Group for inviting me to read and review Dandelion is Dead. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Poppy is grieving the loss of her sister Dandelion on the anniversary of her death. When Poppy goes through Dandelion's things and finds her phone, Poppy connects with Jake, Dandelion's matched-pair on a dating app. Poppy messages him out of the blue and pretends to embody Dandelion. Jake is head over heels with Dandelion, but he doesn't know that she had passed away and is actually falling for Poppy. Both Poppy and Jake are trying to find something real in their lives while dealing with their own set of issues and grief. Poppy never meant to lean into this double life, as their relationship deepens into something more, and Jake feels a genuine connection to who he thinks is Dandelion. As the lies and truth begin to blend, will their friendship and relationship survive when Jake eventually finds out the real truth?

Poppy and Jake are very realistic characters with feelings anyone could relate to their every day lives. Grief is such a complex emotion and everyone deals with it differently than the person next to them. Jake is still grieving the loss of his mother, who took her own life when he was younger. Poppy's sister Dandelion passed due to an unexpected illness a year before. For both of them, their loss is still real to them and finding each other has helped them face their grief and insecurities. Dandelion was never a perfect character. She was a 'you only live once' kind of person and didn't care who she hurt to be herself. She was different from Poppy's personality, which is more reserved and awkward. Jake is also an awkward character trying to navigate dating as a single father. He and his ex have a good co-parent relationship when it comes to their son, Billy.

Dandelion is Dead is written in the dual point of view during early spring to late summer of the same year. I liked the back and forth chapters as they help develop both sides of their story. I think it helped the character development, and you never feel like you are going to choose sides between Poppy and Jake. Both are wrong in how they handle their situations. It feels so relatable, like you're watching your friends figure out their own stuff while also trying to be together. There's an instant attraction for Jake and Poppy, especially Jake since he's meeting Poppy as Dandelion on a dating app. They start to fall for the other and you want to root for their success and love, but you also want to tell them to figure their shit out first before things go downhill. Both characters are imperfect and flawed, which makes me like them more.

Dandelion is Dead is a solid contemporary debut.

3.5 stars rounded up.

This was not at all what I expected it to be and am pleasantly surprised by the depth here.

I anticipated a sarcastic book much in the vein of Julie Chan is Dead, with unlikable characters that we cannot wait to see their upcoming demise. While Dandelion is Dead started in this way, the character growth and love I developed for these characters was wholly unexpected.

This is not just a silly take on complicated characters but a book that delves into grief, mistakes, and the choice to rise above them. Taking contemporary fiction to a literary form, the character arcs and total decimation of pride was something that kept me glued to this book. The writing was fluid and easy to read and had me continuously guessing what my new favourite people were going to do next.

“Dandelion Is Dead” by Rosie Story is one of those books that quietly guts you. It’s devastating, but in the best possible way. You start reading, thinking you're prepared for some angst and awkwardness, but nothing really prepares you for this particular brand of heartbreak.

Both main characters are painfully awkward-so much so that it physically hurts at times. You cringe, you wince, and you’re instantly transported back to your most mortifying memories. And somehow, that makes it all feel real and relatable. Rosie Story doesn’t just write awkward people, she writes broken people. People who don't know how to ask for help, who fumble through grief and trauma and pretend they’re fine when they’re not.
Dandelion’s “big secret”? Honestly was not hard to guess. But the betrayal? That level of betrayal?? Still hard to swallow. Still left me staring at the page like 😮‍💨

There’s so much blue in this book. So many quiet, aching moments. So much grief and not just the loud, sobbing kind, but the kind that festers, lingers, and changes who you are when you're not looking. They’re all such broken beings, stumbling toward healing with varying levels of denial and disaster. And as a reader, you feel every second of it. You feel lost with them. You get why they push people away. You get why they can’t explain what they feel. You get it.

And yet there were definitely moments I wanted to violently shake some sense into Poppy. Like girl. Please. I am begging you.

This book is for anyone who's ever looked around at the people in their life and thought, “Why don’t they get it?” But also for those moments where you admit to yourself… “Honestly, I don’t really get it either.”

🧀💕 So messy. So human. So blue.

I will be posting a more polished review closer to the pub date. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to read this beautiful book and would be more than happy to share my thoughts across my small, humble platforms.

This book made my heart ache in the gentlest way. The writing is warm and quietly funny, with this undercurrent of sorrow that never drags but lingers like a shadow. Poppy’s grief is messy and tender, and I loved how the story never tries to rush her through it. Instead, it lets her carry it, make mistakes with it, and slowly find something beautiful through all the guilt and confusion. The romance caught me completely off guard. There’s something so raw and real about falling in love when you’re still stitched together by loss. Jake and Poppy have this unexpected, disarming chemistry, the kind that feels honest in every beat. It’s not polished or perfect, but it’s filled with longing, warmth, and that sharp kind of hope that only shows up when you’re learning to live again. I felt every bit of it. I adored it.

The story follows Poppy, who discovers unanswered messages from Jake on her deceased sister Dandelion's dating app and makes the fateful decision to meet him, pretending to be her sister on what would have been Dandelion's 40th birthday.

What strikes me most profoundly about this work is how Storey masterfully weaves together themes of grief, identity, and the desperate human need for connection. The narrative creates an almost unbearable tension - every moment of genuine intimacy between Poppy and Jake is simultaneously beautiful and heartbreaking because it's built on deception born from love and loss.

As I read, I found myself caught in a whirlwind of conflicting emotions. There's an exhilarating rush in watching their authentic connection unfold, yet it's tempered by an underlying anxiety knowing the inevitable reckoning must come. Storey doesn't simply craft a romance; she explores the complex psychology of grief and how we sometimes inhabit the spaces left by those we've lost.

The author's ability to balance "sparkling wit and aching tenderness" creates a reading experience that feels both emotionally devastating and oddly hopeful. This isn't just about romantic love - it's about the courage required to step out of the shadow of loss and claim your own life. The moral complexity keeps readers questioning: Is Poppy's deception unforgivable, or is it a necessary step in her healing journey?

What makes this debut particularly powerful is how it refuses easy answers, instead presenting the messy, contradictory nature of human emotion with remarkable authenticity

I love how unpolished and deeply human every moment felt in this book. The emotional messiness was never glamorized, just laid bare in a way that made me ache. Jake and Poppy don’t fall in love the way we’re used to seeing. They fumble. They hurt. They want something real and stumble toward it with all their jagged edges showing. And that’s what made it feel true. The writing feels personal and close to the bone. I loved how Storey didn’t try to make the story neat. She just let it be honest. The pacing lets the feelings settle and grow, never rushed, never trying too hard to be clever. It’s sincere and quiet and sometimes that’s exactly what you need.