Even though I enjoyed the little house books as a kid as well as the Rocky ridge years of Rose’s childhood. I unfortunately didn’t’ really like Rose as an adult. So this wasn’t the book for me nor was I the reader for this book.

I read this book with interest since our family lives by Walnut Grove and we are rather immersed in the real history of Laura Ingalls Wilder. The book is a fictionalized account of Rose Wilder (Laura's daughter), mostly during the 1920's and 30's as she came home to her parents' Missouri home and supported them with her writing, eventually helping her mother write the Little House books.

I am not one of those fans who's going to say that Rose didn't do the bulk of the writing of those books, as it's patently obvious that she did. Laura was a fine writer for newspaper pieces but she did not have any experience or talent for writing dramatic fiction. The correspondence between mother and daughter clearly shows that Rose took Laura's bits of memories and crafted good fiction (but fiction, nonetheless) out of it to help her mother sell those books. My husband and kids act in a local outdoor play every year that tells the real history of the Ingalls Family's life here in SW Minnesota, and even that bit is completely different from the books. The timeline is completely different, they were here twice, they lived in a house and not a dugout for much of it, Pa went to work in Mankato, they had a little brother, there was no one Nellie Oleson (she was based on three different girls Laura disliked growing up) and so on. We also know from Laura's own diary how different her life was than the one in the books, and we can clearly see how she actually wrote when we compare Laura's book that was published posthumously by Rose's money-hungry adopted libertarian grandson, which reads nothing like the other books since Rose wasn't around to edit it and was a huge disappointment to many fans.

So I have no issue with the premise that Rose did the work, and why. My issue with the book is that it's just not interesting other than the look into the publishing world and politics of the time. Rose was a fascinating woman and if you're going to fictionalize her life then give her a heartbeat. Why did so many women live with her for years at a time? Can we address the lesbian rumors please? Why not deal with her terrible depression and mental health issues, and the fact that she herself self diagnosed herself with mental illnesses and also said that she seriously contemplated killing the president. The book is so dry and dull, written like someone writing her autobiography who doesn't want to give out any of the juicy bits, the way you'd detail your life in an interview for the local college.

Very sanitized and dull, sadly. Three stars for some history I didn't know (not the family's but the country's and places like Albania, where Rose traveled extensively), but mostly a wasted opportunity.

Digital ARC courtesy NetGalley.

A lovely read. I really didn't know anything about the Ingals family, perfect book to educate a novice on the topic.

Having, like so many people, grown up with the Little House books, I found A Wilder Rose a fascinating read. It doesn't diminish from the Little House series, but adds some complexity to one's reading of these titles and depicts a complex mother-daughter relations. Well worth a read.

Book 61 of my 2018 Reading Challenge

**I received an electronic copy of this book via NetGalley and would like to thank the author and/or publisher for the opportunity to read and honestly review it**

A Wilder Rose by Susan Wittig Albert

Summary (via Goodreads)
The Little House books, which chronicled the pioneer adventures of Laura Ingalls Wilder, are among the most beloved books in the American literary canon. Lesser known is the secret, concealed for decades, of how they came to be. Now, bestselling author Susan Wittig Albert reimagines the fascinating story of Laura’s daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, an intrepid world traveler and writer who returned to her parents’ Ozark farm, Rocky Ridge, in 1928. There she began a collaboration with her mother on the pioneer stories that would captivate generations of readers around the world.
Despite the books’ success, Rose’s involvement would remain a secret long after both women died. A vivid account of a great literary deception, A Wilder Rose is a spellbinding tale of a complicated mother-daughter relationship set against the brutal backdrop of the Great Depression.

My Opinion
I'm shocked that even though I read the books, grew up in Iowa, and visited the sites listed in her books on a family vacation, I somehow completely missed that a) Rose was an author in her own right and b) this conspiracy theory is a real one (the only hint I had was the noticeable difference of The First Four Years from the rest of the series - I thought it was because it came out after Laura's death so it wasn't a fully fledged manuscript but was it because it came out after Laura and Rose's deaths and that's what the whole series would've looked like without Rose?).

However, this book is a work of fiction as the author notes in two different places; first when she makes the disclaimer that this book is a work of fiction so any conversations, events, etc. are either "products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously", and again in a note to the reader that "[the author] is exactly as true to the real events, settings, and people of A Wilder Rose as Rose and Laura were true to the real events, settings, and people of the Ingalls family's pioneer wanderings across the American plains. The books they wrote are fictional representations of Laura's life as a child growing into young womanhood; A Wilder Rose is a fictional representation of Rose's life in the 1930s and her struggle - not always successful - to make sense of it all." So now that it's been clearly established that this book is fictional, on to the review.

I really enjoyed it. I would read it before bed and it was perfect because it was intriguing enough to clear my mind and settle my body but not crazy enough to affect my dreams or keep me up late. The name recognition drew me to the book but it's good even without it as a look into the mother-daughter dynamic.

Rose speaking to Norma Lee was a good way to get the information shared but also felt a little clumsy. I much preferred the "flashback" scenes to the "current day" ones.

Laura was called "Bessie" by her husband and "Mama Bess" by her daughter and I have no idea why...nothing to do with the book, just a sidenote into how random nicknames can be sometimes.

After reading this book, I want to read Rose's work, the biography of Rose by William Holtz called The Ghost in the Little House (which the author credits as "establishing the factual basis on which her fiction is built"), and research this theory further. It won't impact how I look at the books but it will satisfy my curiosity.

Quote from the Book
*quote from an ARC and may be changed in the final version*

"The two of us had been fighting a battle of wills since I was old enough to realize how good it felt to be willful, if not willfully bad. She was afraid of what I would come to if she let me go, and I was afraid of what I would come to if she held on."

I am a big "Little House" fan. This was an interesting spin on the story of Rose Wilder. I enjoyed it very much

This was definitely an engaging read - not at all what I expected and the characters were very relatable.