A Wilder Rose

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."