This book just stressed me out. It is a dark comedy but it introduced some elements that were just too much for me to find funny. I also think it ended abruptly. As this is a re-issue, and the author is deceased, it seems like it would appeal to people who like the movie that will be released soon. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.

Y’all!! This is a wickedly funny, razor-sharp sequel that proves family drama can be dark, messy, and oh-so-entertaining. If you think your in-laws are a handful, wait until you meet Josh and Evie Rose’s world. 🥀💣

From the very first prank involving missing Milky Ways to the spiraling chaos at their son’s fancy private school, Adler serves up emotional firestorms with a side of biting humor. The depraved headmaster, hidden affairs, and a mother-in-law with a vendetta? Pure chaos gold. And the kids? Don’t even get me started—they’re plotting their own schemes like pint-sized masterminds. 🍫🕵️‍♀️

Josh and Evie are so vividly drawn you can practically hear Evie chopping vegetables while holding the family together, and feel Josh’s exasperation as his perfect façade crumbles. Adler’s writing style is sharp, witty, and perfectly paced—like a perfectly timed joke that stings just enough. ✍️🔥

Four stars because I loved every messy, deliciously dark second, though I wanted just a little more payoff in the final chaos. Still, it’s unforgettable, wickedly smart, and impossible to put down. 🖤🥀

Thank you Book Whisperer for providing the advance copy via #NetGalley for my honest, voluntary review#TheChildrenOfTheRoses

The Children of the Roses, by Warren Adler, continues the dysfunctional family saga begun in The War of the Roses. Once again, it tells the story of adults who succumb to their own needs with little regard for the realities of life and the perspectives of others. Although it has a more positive conclusion than the preceding book, it exposes some harsh realities of human nature. Although the story is often cringeworthy, the characters are well-developed and the plot compelling. It was a quick read that commanded my attention from the first page to the last. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the very much appreciated opportunity to read a digital ARC.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Book Whisperer for gifting me a digital ARC of the sequel to The War of the Roses by Warren Adler. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4 stars!

After The War of the Roses, this book introduces us to the lives of their children, Josh and Evie, but picks up decades later as Josh is married to Victoria, with two children of his own, and Evie is single and struggling, selling off what's left of her parents' valuables to make ends meet.

I recently reread the first book, followed by this sequel, before I watch the new movie based on the original book. For the most part, these books have stood the test of time, as marital difficulties are certainly still occurring. Some things may be a bit cringy for our current times - in this book, the focus for Evie is on her weight and food choices. Helicopter parenting is in full force here, as the lines are drawn on just how far we will go for our children. This was still another entertaining read, as generational trauma raises its ugly head and continues to haunt the Rose's.

Having enjoyed the first book, this was an extremely welcome follow up and it was great to revisit old characters again. There is plenty to laugh at here, even if sometimes the laughter seems a little inappropriate, and I loved the characters and how they interacted with one another and the rest of the world.

An enjoyable read with interesting characters & storyline. I will be looking for more from this author! Thanks to Netgalley for this ARC.

This was a decent enough book but lacked any oomph. I felt I didn't care for any of the characters and there didn't seem to be much depth to anything.

The Children of the Roses is an intriguing book, in that as a follow-up to the damaged children of the Roses, after their parents horrendous death, it presents us with a complex interaction of the new families those children have created, and an examination of how parental choices and behaviour emerge in their children. Adler's own children faced a challenge in publishing this text, as their father was no longer alive to give input into style or plot. There are some repetitions of exposition that served no purpose, and seemed to me like it may have been still in draft phase. If completed by him, the repetitions might have been removed, and the story line carried through more clearly. I found the novel to be a bit difficult to read, as it is quite negative in many ways, but by the end, much is resolved. As a satire it works, but it is almost a farce in extremes of plot and characterization. I think it will do quite well as a basis for a film, however, Adler is quite adept at describing absurd action, I would rate it 3.5 and was glad for the chance to read it.

Thanks to Book Whisperer and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Having loved the original Movie, The War of The Roses and just having seen the other movie The Roses, also excellent, I was looking forward to reading this. Well, it was okay, not great. Entertaining enough.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I was a fan of Adler’s many years before I read “The War of the Roses”, an immensely enjoyable and very dark comedy. This sequel has a very similar tone, although doesn’t sink to quite the same dark cynical depths.

This sequel was written in 1981, although I believe it was not published until 2004 (after Adler’s death). This review is of the reissue in September 2025. In light of that, one of the first things to say is that the novel has not dated. Sure, some slightly different tech might appear if it was written today, but that was barely noticeable. Not much else has changed.

“The War of the Roses” famously ended with the Roses’ mutual annihilation, which their children Josh and Evie witnessed (the movie was different, in case you’re puzzling over that). Here Josh and Evie are both grown, and it’s evident that both were deeply affected by the collapse of their parents’ marriage.

Evie has never committed to a permanent relationship, although she’s never short of a lover, and some have stayed for years. Josh, on the other hand, is married with two young children. He loves his family and has been a model husband.

But as with his parents, once something goes wrong, both he and his wife quickly descend into increasingly crazed behaviour. It seems that they will echo the mistakes his parents made, including the trauma they’re about to inflict on their young children.

Adler was a writer who frequently took dark turns, in an entirely believable and horribly hypnotic way. He does the same here – it’s not at all a happy book, but it’s very hard to look away from what’s happening to Josh and his family.

It feels wrong to say that I enjoyed something so dark, but I certainly appreciated it. It’s well written, and both the tone and thematic messages are consistent with the first novel. It both continues and advances the story of marital discord. At the same time, if you haven’t read the first novel, it stands entirely on its’ own. Anything you need to know is recapped in the narrative.

The characters are strong and realistic. I don’t remember much of Josh and Evie from the original novel – hardly surprising, as it was focused almost entirely on their parents. Plus it must be 30 years since I read it. And now they’re grown. Here both are presented vividly, with believable traces of trauma from the way their parents died.

This is a great read – it’s a little dark, thematically, but there are no explicit scenes of violence or abuse. I’m not sure I was entirely on board with the ending, but there is apparently a third novel yet to come, and that might address my feeling that the end wasn’t quite enough. It felt a little incomplete, as though perhaps it needed one more chapter.

Nevertheless, I recommend this.

3.5 stars for the book.
I thank the publisher Book Whisperer for the free review copy and also extend my thanks to NetGalley.
Upfront my clarification that I have been a big fan of the previous book and the movie.

I went into The Children of the Roses with a mix of excitement and wariness. Warren Adler’s The War of the Roses is one of those unforgettable stories, a darkly comic battlefield of marriage that still lingers in my memory. The movie adaptation was a riot, all sharp edges and chaos, so I wondered how a sequel could possibly measure up. What Warren gives us here is not another chandelier crashing spectacle, but a quieter, more unsettling tale about what happens to the children who survive such an epic implosion.

This time the focus is on Josh and Evie, the grown children of Jonathan and Barbara Rose. Warren asks the question that often gets lost in stories of bitter feuds: what is the fallout for the next generation. Josh is outwardly a man who has made it, successful, ambitious, and married to Victoria, a woman polished to perfection. But behind the curtain his life is crumbling. His marriage is brittle, his children are caught in the undertow, and his search for escape only tightens the noose. Reading his unraveling was uncomfortable, sometimes painfully so, because it rings true. That mix of professional confidence and private chaos is exactly the kind of tension Adler knows how to expose.

Evie, by contrast, is the heart of the book. She cooks, she soothes, she tries to glue people back together, but even her nurturing comes with its own costs. Her dynamic with Victoria, especially when it comes to the children, gives the story its sharpest edges. The moments I felt most invested were when the children themselves began to react, picking up on the unspoken fights, working around the grownups, and showing how resilient yet vulnerable they are. Those passages reminded me that this is not just a story of family drama but of inheritance, the emotional kind.

The tone of this novel is very different from the first. Where The War of the Roses was outrageously funny and over the top, this one simmers with quiet despair and rueful humor. The satire is there but it is more muted, more sad smiles than laugh out loud. At times, I found myself missing the wildness of the original but the basis of this sequel does not give opportunities because it depicts the emotional fallout of the previous book. Some chapters linger too long on the same notes and some subplots felt stretched. Still, Adler’s knack for sharp dialogue and for finding the absurd in everyday domestic life keeps things moving.

As a sequel, it earns its place. It does not try to recreate the explosive theatrics of the original which was probably an extreme challenge and that is a wise move. Instead, it is about the scars that remain after the fire has gone out. Reading it felt like checking in on old acquaintances, only to find their wounds never truly healed. It is not a comfortable read, treading a difficult path but it is a thought provoking one.

I read this as a free copy from NetGalley, and here is my honest opinion.
The Children of the Roses is not as outrageous or biting as its predecessor but it has a quiet power of its own. If you ever wondered what became of the children left behind in the wreckage of Jonathan and Barbara’s much public war, this book offers an answer that is both sobering and strangely tender.

I was given an advanced review copy of Warren Adler’s “The Children of the Roses,” sequel to his now infamous “The War of the Roses” written nearly 45 years ago. My copy begins with an introduction by Mr. Adler himself noting that he’s written this sequel nearly thirty years later. At its conclusion, Adler’s children thanks the reader for continuing to read their father’s works. Thus, I’m confused as to why I have just read an advanced reader’s copy instead of an already published book. Nevertheless, I’m grateful for being given the opportunity to read this by NetGalley, and I am leaving my review of it voluntarily.

Not having read the original but vaguely remembering the movie adaptation of “The War of the Roses” starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito and highly anticipating its remake “The Roses” starring Olivia Coleman and Benedict Cumberbatch, I was excited to read this sequel. Also, having not been the child of divorced parents but having produced two, I was anxious to see how the fictionalized trauma to the Rose children manifested.

Not surprisingly, daughter Evie turned to food and cooking and other sensory pleasures for comfort, and although morbidly obese and not ever desirous of earning money but content to get by by selling off her parents’ prized antiques, seems to be extremely happy with her life. Her younger brother, however, never felt he would fall in love or marry, seeing the ruinous consequences that could occur when relationships turn sour — until he fell instantly in love with a woman with her own childhood trauma with the same expectations. Given their shared feelings, truth and honesty became the pillars of their marriage.

As the saying goes, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry! Such as happens here, as their lives spiral out of control in ever more surprising and complicated ways, towards the inevitable conclusion to which all of their ill-conceived decisions lead. It is a most satisfying, if predictable, ending!

2 grown children of divorce experience and participate in the manipulation and lies possible when one is trying to triumph over poor decisions. We witness this being passed down again to their own children as each member of a family brings a unique perspective to the family unit.

we are very certainly seeing how children are shaped by their parents here. and when it comes to dysfunctional families we know it can very much impact and then effect how going through the generations this than has a ripple. for such an iconic pair in the first book we just know that their offspring are going to have a tale to tell. and so this sequel years later comes and tell us just what that is. and it aint all too pretty.
so the subjects here are the two children. id very much say its the boy we focus on which had me a little either miffed or confused as to why.
its an entertaining and great take on family,lies and the inner working of what secrets will do when they keep boiling and boiling up untold or unchecked. we have many facets of family relations and how this one works within each others orbit. you are kept reading as you come to know the characters and how they work, with the tension growing and heat rising we just cant wait to know more, know how they will fair, and just how this might all implode.this book is full of drama that you just know is going to happen and cant wait to find out how.
Evie poor Evie. she seems to have taken to food. and you at once think this might be "her way" of dealing with things. but also shes a brilliant cook. often made to feel like she has no skill? and yet this woman is knowing out the greatest of dishes. she doesn't get on with her brothers wife, and food is very much the topic here with food choices of Evie not going down well at all. Evie has seemed to keep failing at her relationships. her brother is very loyal to her which also doesn't lend well to his and his wife's relations.
i felt like i could practically hear the damage done to these children via their parents own "wars".
you can see the mirrors of our two in their own current lives. you can see the ripple that lives on in them. its sad, but so true and relevant.
we've also got that almost dark humour involved which a book like this needs and almost makes the themes and characters lives hit harder.
Adler's knows how to write this family and he does so with such skill. the books so smooth, so knowing and it flows off the pages with no trouble at all.
its not a pretty book. its not easy. but its somehow so readable. and you DO want to read more. because it a great read that keeps you hooked to the story and the characters until you need to know how they fair and you need to know how this story might end. could it all be the same sad ending for them all? can no one heal? and what needs to step in in order for the change, love, healing to change the paths of those to come.
and somehow also through it all in this book you come to care for them. you know they aren't all lovely gorgeous humans. these people have flaws. but they also have issues and we all actually have the knowledge of just where those issues could have grown from. so you feel for them.
in real world you don't always know the backstory. for this we do. and so you know how these futures were already possibly paved.
both our characters took to coping in different ways. both you want to step in and just have a word or hug with. or sometimes very much shake.
but then their loyalty to each other. and that protective nature especially for brother to sister is also really endearing.
I really enjoyed getting involved in this book. it felt like a such a fitting tribute and follow on from the original and stood it ground so well in its own way.

Book Whisperer, who will be rereleasing it on September 15, 2025, provided a galley for review.

After reading the original The War of the Roses earlier this summer, I was interested in seeing what its sequel had to offer. Adler jumps the story from the 80's into the 2000's as now we are focusing on the grown-up Rose kids in this new century.

This book is very much a focus on Josh's household and marriage with Evie serving as a secondary, support character until much later in the book. It certainly works for me. It is also about secrets and transparency, and how too much of the former and too little of the latter can lead to major problems. As with the first novel in the series, this one turns up the heat at a steady pace and brings the whole situation to an overflowing boil of emotion and reactions. It is interesting to see characters put through this kind of gauntlet.

Having enjoyed the movie version of The War of the Roses, I was anxious to read the sequel and was not disappointed. The novel is an interesting depiction of family relationships (mother/daughter, brother/sister and parents/children). In addition to dealing with family relationships, lies, deceit, private schools, food and sexual indiscretions play integral roles in this novel. The novel is quick reading and very entertaining and I would not hesitate to recommend this book. I thank NetGalley, Mr. Adler and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book prior to publication.

As someone who loved 'war of the roses' both the film & book, delving into the lives of the children of the Roses was a real treat! Catching up with Josh & Evie as adults and how their parents contentious divorce affected them was a fun ride, filled with drama, mishaps, revenge and plotting. I really enjoyed this story and it kept the tone of the original. Both funny and endearing. Would definitely recommend!

While the premise is intriguing and the return to the Rose family’s legacy adds a nostalgic hook for fans of the original, the plot can sometimes feel overstuffed with subplots and exaggerated characters. The humor is there, but it occasionally undercuts the emotional depth the story hints at.

Still, it’s a lively, sometimes absurd exploration of marriage, family loyalty, and the patterns we inherit. Readers who enjoyed the original's biting wit may find this sequel an entertaining, if less impactful, continuation.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The story that began with the War of the Roses continues with us following the (mis)adventures of their offspring. Although Josh and Evie Rose seem to be cut from different cloth than their vengeful parents, similarities may lurk below the surface.

In an era where helicopter parents and insanely competitive schools often serve to fuel tensions between members of school communities, things quickly get out of hand over some missing chocolates at Josh's son's school. The mayhem that is part of the fallout does beg the question of whether the rose blooms have fallen far from the bush.

An enjoyable, darkly comedic story, this is worth a read, especially if you enjoyed the earlier story of the senior Roses.

This was everything that I was looking for in a sequel to War of the Roses, it had that element that I enjoyed and was hooked from the first page. The characters felt like they belonged in this world and was enjoying the overall feel of how they were used in this setting. Warren Adler continues to write a strong storyline with characters that I cared about and enjoyed the overall storyline.