Review: Rosie Colored Glasses

Rosie Colored Glasses by Brianna Wolfson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A very moving and timely story of a family dealing with the fallout from mental health and addiction issues. The titular Rosie is an ebullient, force of nature with, as we see from the first pages, serious boundary issues. While her life with few rules and much love sees her as a relatively functional single adult, her marriage and parenting are harmed by her choices and behavior. Rex, an uptight, straight-laced and success-driven man falls in love with Rosie only to have her nature, so opposite and foreign to his own, cause chaos in his life. But it's not cute, romantic chaos. Imagine that you finally learn to love and your love unhinges everything, including the lives of your children? As the book opens, Rosie's daughter Willow, who loves her mother with the burning intensity of the sun, is barely on the cusp of understanding the drawbacks of her mother's lifestyle. Her mother represents everything good and freely given, whereas Willow is pained by the difficult relationship she has with a father who struggles to show his love for her. His awkward, laconic demeanor contrasts so strongly with that of his ex-wife's dynamic and effervescent nature. Rex is all structure, rules, and schedules and Rosie has no rules, no structure, and few boundaries. Willow becomes, over the course of the book, increasingly parentified, trying to care for her six-year-old brother Asher whenever they are in their mother's care and the reader senses the oncoming trainwreck that will impact the two children, and their father, who so obviously still loves, but cannot live with, Rosie.

Easy to read and hard to put down, this is a heartbreaking book that nevertheless ends on a positive note.

I received a Digital Review Copy from NetGalley and a paper review copy from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.

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