I received this novel as an advance copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I was first drawn to the cover and title of this book, both of which seemed a bit quirky. The premise sounded a lot more serious but it really appealed to me because of its focus on a child who is torn between two parents. Here are my thoughts:
Summary (Goodreads): Willow Thorpe knows friction… The friction between her parents, Rosie and Rex. The friction inside herself as she tries to navigate two worlds since their divorce.
But life has not always been like this.
When Rosie and Rex first met, theirs was an attraction of opposites. Rosie lived life for those heightened moments when love reveals its true secrets. Rex lived life safely, by the rules. Common sense would say theirs was a union not meant to last, but it was genuine love.
Now Willow just wants to be with Rosie, to bask in her mother’s outsize glow and, she thinks, protection. Because Rosie is the only person who can make Willow feel totally alive and completely loved.
But as Willow and Rosie and Rex try harder and harder to stay connected as a family, Rosie’s manic tornado of love continues to sweep up everyone in sight, ultimately to heartbreaking results.
My Rating: 
Review: Trigger warning for suicide and drug abuse.
I wanted to love this book so much. But it just didn’t work for me.
The story is told from 2 different perspectives. We hear from Willow, the daughter of Rosie and Rex, as she struggles with having to go between her parents now that they are divorced. We also hear from Rosie and Rex when they first met and how they fell in love with each other. I really liked that we had these two perspectives because they made for a very interesting and well-rounded story.
I think that the issues this novel explores are very interesting and deep, and deserve to be mentioned. It is definitely a sad and moving story.
But the novel left me wanting more.
I wanted to understand Rosie more and I wish the author had used this novel to give more of a platform for mental health issues. I wish that there had been more opportunities for the reader to connect with Rosie and Rex because they felt very awkward and stilted; the only time they came alive was when Willow was describing them and I felt like there was a missed opportunity here for readers to understand Rosie and Rex.
The ending was sad but it felt unresolved for me. I finished this book wanting more from it and feeling like it missed the mark. For those reasons, I’m giving it a 2/5 stars.
Happy reading ~
Great honest review.
It sounds like an emotional story. It’s a shame you felt the ending was unresolved..
Glad you liked the review! I think that it just came off as super abrupt and incomplete. I wasn’t expecting something sappy but it just…. didn’t give me the feeling that the story had ended.
People writing about mental illness is always a tricky thing. Did it feel like they were just there without any understanding of it?
I had been looking to pick up this book, but I think I’ll go read something else on my TBR. Thanks for reviewing!
For me, it felt like the author was just grazing the surface. I think that it was great for the author to describe the signs that the child was seeing but there was only one or two excerpts from the POV of the person who was struggling. The author also didn’t put a name to the disorder and there wasn’t enough detail; since I’m someone who works in the mental health field, I can put things together but for someone who doesn’t know a lot about mental health, they wouldn’t really understand how difficult it can be. It wasn’t badly written by any means but the author could have delved deeper into it to give readers a better understanding of the situation.