Review: Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel

Mothers never forget. Daughters never forgive.

In her compulsive, sharply-drawn debut, Stephanie Wrobel peels back the layers of the most complicated of mother-daughter relationships.

For the first eighteen years of her life, Rose Gold Watts believed she was seriously ill. She was allergic to everything, used a wheelchair and practically lived at the hospital. Neighbors did all they could, holding fundraisers and offering shoulders to cry on, but no matter how many doctors, tests, or surgeries, no one could figure out what was wrong with Rose Gold.

Turns out her mom, Patty Watts, was just a really good liar.

After serving five years in prison, Patty gets out with nowhere to go and begs her daughter to take her in. The entire community is shocked when Rose Gold says yes.

Patty insists all she wants is to reconcile their differences. She says she's forgiven Rose Gold for turning her in and testifying against her. But Rose Gold knows her mother. Patty Watts always settles a score.

Unfortunately for Patty, Rose Gold is no longer her weak little darling...

And she's waited such a long time for her mother to come home.

“Sensationally good - two complex characters power the story like a nuclear reaction...”—Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Blue Moon

“Dazzling, dark and utterly delicious”—J P Delaney, New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Before

“One of the most captivating and disturbing thrillers I've read this year. An astonishing debut”— Samantha Downing, USA Today bestselling author of My Lovely Wife 

Kindle Edition, 320 pages

Expected publication: March 17th, 2020

by Simon & Schuster
2.5/5

I think it was the cover that drew me to this book, plus seeing it out and about over social media. I loved the sounds of a thriller that would keep me on my toes.

I'll start by saying I know nothing of the news story that inspired this book and to be honest I have no intention of googling it because the thought, as a mom, is just mind-boggling. That being said be forwarned I am going against the flow with my short review. But I will start at the beginning.

This book got off to a great start, it was intriguing and got me curious as to 'the why' of Rose taking her mother in.  Told with alternating POV's between Mom, Rose and a younger Rose I was given a clear picture of what transpired.  While the book was well written the deeper I went the more I found it disturbing and really didn't like the characters anymore.  Unlike others, I did not feel an emotional connection to Rose.  I felt like a deer in the headlights and couldn't turn away, I had to see how it would end.  Ultimately the book ended in a way that left me feeling unsatisfied.

My thanks to the publisher (via Netgalley) for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.