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Brianna Wolfson
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Rosie Colored Glasses: A Novel Hardcover – February 20, 2018

by Brianna Wolfson (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 191 ratings
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“What a wonderful, emotional ride! It’s like the Ordinary People of the 21st century...such an achievement!” —Robyn Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Summer That Made Us

SEEING THE WORLD THROUGH ROSIE COLORED GLASSES

Just as opposites attract, they can also cause friction, and no one feels that friction more than Rex and Rosie’s daughter, Willow. Rex is serious and unsentimental and tapes checklists of chores on Willow’s bedroom door. Rosie is sparkling and enchanting and meets Willow in their treehouse in the middle of the night to feast on candy.

After Rex and Rosie’s divorce, Willow finds herself navigating their two different worlds. She is clearly under the spell of her exciting, fun-loving mother. But as Rosie’s behavior becomes more turbulent, the darker underpinnings of her manic love are revealed.

Rex had removed his Rosie colored glasses long ago, but will Willow do the same?

Whimsical, heartbreaking and uplifting, this is a novel about the many ways love can find you. Rosie Colored Glasses triumphs with the most endearing examples of how mothers and fathers and sons and daughters bend for one another.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    MIRA
  4. Publication date
    February 20, 2018
  5. Dimensions
    6.3 x 1.26 x 9.23 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0778330699
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0778330691
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Wolfson's writing is superb. Without so much as dipping a toe into cliche territory, her heady descriptions of love will curl into readers' souls. With a simplistic elegance to her prose, the author delivers a treasure of a read."
--Washington Post

"Rosie Colored Glasses begins with love, imagination and wonder, then slides into haunting loss and longing, but oh, how love remains and bursts forth to fill the story."
–CAROL FITZGERALD, Bookreporter

"Brianna Wilson has done a marvelous and generous thing by writing Rosie Colored Glasses. I followed Willow with a hopeful, breaking heart, reminded how all of us, daughters, mothers, parents, children, are 'different' in so many ways, and yet so beautiful and absolutely deserving of giving and receiving our love."
–NANCY THAYER, New York Times bestselling author of Secrets in Summer

"Rosie Colored Glasses is tender and bright, a compelling novel of a young girl (who completely owned my heart) and the mother she adores and fears and needs so badly. Brianna Wolfson is a wonderful writer. She has captured so brilliantly the demons and angels of mental illness, love and longing."
–LUANNE RICE, New York Times bestselling author of The Beautiful

"A brilliant and beguiling debut exploring the highs and heartbreaking lows of love. Sparkling, insightful and honest, the Thorpe family's powerful story will stay in my thoughts for a long time."
–PHAEDRA PATRICK, author of The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper

"Rosie Colored Glasses is a bittersweet, tender exploration of many kinds of love. This compelling novel, with unpredictable turns, reveals what love can save and what it can't."
–HELEN KLEIN ROSS, award-winning author of The Latecomers

"Heartbreaking and beautiful all at once... a stained glass window pieced together from shards of broken family life that create an illuminated picture of what it means to survive one's childhood."
–BUNMI LADITAN, author of Confessions of a Domestic Failure

"A great debut ... Brianna Wolfson's Rosie Colored Glasses has a voice that is irresistible."
–J.P. MONNINGER, award winning author of The Map That Leads to You

"What a wonderful, emotional ride! It's like the Ordinary People of the 21st century...such an achievement!"
–ROBYN CARR, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Summer That Made Us

"While sadness hides behind the beautiful language, the idea that children see their parents through rose-colored glasses will resonate with readers beyond the last page."
–Booklist

"Wolfson takes the reader into the heart...[and] demonstrates the power and limitations of love and the ability of family to heal."
--Library Journal

About the Author

Brianna Wolfson is a New York native living in San Francisco. Her narrative nonfiction has been featured on Medium, Upworthy and The Moth. She buys a lottery ticket every Friday.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ MIRA; Original edition (February 20, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0778330699
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0778330691
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.3 x 1.26 x 9.23 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 191 ratings

About the author

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Brianna Wolfson

Brianna Wolfson

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Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
191 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Lowrey H. Jones
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a beautifully written book
Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2018
Verified Purchase
Brianna hits the nail on the head conveying so intimately and vividly the feelings of a child going through the divorce of parents... It has been 70 plus years since my parents divorced and all the feelings returned big time and with unbelievable emotion. This book should be read by every parent as there is no way they can know the deep impact of divorce if not experiencing this from a child’s view...This is a beautifully written book, very real , touching, and carries a huge impact!
2 people found this helpful
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CS
4.0 out of 5 stars Broken People, Broken Hearts, a Love Story about Healing
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2018
”Willow Thorpe knew friction. The heat it created when one thing rubbed against another. When one world rubbed against another.”

From the prologue, we know that Willow’s world is filled with tension, with every “Late again, Rosie.” followed by a dismissive retort from her mother. With every time the walls of her world changed from the fanciful, art-filled walls to generic white ones that scream out that the rules are different here, the children feel the change.

But how did this come to be? And how did her abundantly affectionate mother who lives by what feels right and good to her in the moment end up married to her emotionally distant father who is a stickler for a neat, ordered life, and rules?

When Rosie was in her mid-twenties, she believed with her entire being in love. A magical kind of love where the gift of loving and being loved would change everything, and that love was endless. She wanted it for herself, but she wanted it for everyone, as well. Whenever she would come upon a couple in the park, on the subway, anywhere, she would dream a life for them, inventing conversations, loving touches, the small moments that confirm their love.

And so, when Rosie had the change to take a job at a flower shop, it seemed as if destiny was tapping her on the shoulder. This was her chance to immerse herself in all that love that was being sent as flowers, imagining herself privy to the stories behind the flowers.

And this is how she meets Rex, who calls in an order of flowers to be delivered, and Rosie asks him what he would like the card to say. Rex responds in frustration, as though he has never sent flowers before, a non-heartfelt message, and hangs up. So Rosie takes it upon herself to intercede and send a message that is very unlike anything Rex would have sent.

And so they meet, Rex ranting at her until he stops and stares at her, taking in her willingness to let him rant without letting it affect her.

”Rex was struck breathless by it all.”

And if your heart is melting, it won’t be for long, because this isn’t that love story. This will melt your heart, then chill it, and then smash it until it breaks into little pieces.

When two people who see the world in completely different ways are so determined that their view is the absolutely only one that is right, that it is the only one that their children need, it is heartbreaking. The confusion and division it creates inside of these children who desire only to be shown the same love they’ve always known, and for their world to not be in turmoil, confusion and disarray. To go from a manic world abundant in some frenzied form of love and joy with no rules to a controlled, overly structured world with little joy, no expressions of love and with rules for everything is, at the very least, confusing.

And then there are the drugs that Rosie has been taking, perhaps in the beginning for physical pain, but then to take the edge off life. Depression: the flip side of her manic, fun-loving self. Eventually she needs them more and more often. Endangering the children, Willow and Asher.

Time shifts throughout this story, from the past to the more recent past until time catches up to the present, and although this is a sad story overall, there is a lot of love sprinkled throughout these pages, and some moving, heartening moments, as well.

And all those broken pieces of your heart will be put back together again, not without their fault lines, their broken jagged edges, but by piecing their cracks together into a new vision made up of the old. Together, when the light eventually gets in, it creates an image that even more beautiful than before.

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Harlequin US & Canada
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Jeannie Zelos
3.0 out of 5 stars Two and a half, a story I struggled to believe in, just couldn't see Rex and Rosie getting past a few early dates.
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2018
Rosie Colored Glasses,  Brianna Wolfson

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: General Fiction

I found this book hard going in that so much of it is like reading a long monologue of thoughts, mostly willows. I so felt for that poor girl, she's going to need lots of help to cope with the trauma her parents have put her and Asher through. He's a cute boy but Rosie shields him from much of the hurt, nurturing and protecting him from his own parents.
The parenting they received from Rex was safe but needed more affection, but Rosie's parenting, full of on-the-surface affection was irresponsible at best, incredibly dangerous at worst. That they survived it was more a testament to Willow's resourcefulness that their parents.

I didn't like Rosie, as a single lady she wasn't carefree, more careless. She was single-minded, only what she wanted to happen was allowed to happen, and she shaped her world that way. It did make me wonder why she was like that, how she survived financially when she walked out of jobs at whim...I guess my practical minded self always figures on things like that. In the real world we just can't do that and still have a roof over our heads, warmth, food etc.
I didn't much like Rex either, so rigid and set in his ways. There are people like him though, and once more there's usually something in their upbringing that has made them have this irrational need for total control.
You couldn't have found two more opposite people. I could see they had an attraction for each other, someone so different from themselves but I reckon a few dates where Rosie doesn't turn up, or is late, or dressed unsuitably, and where Rex annoys her as he's too pompous, too overbearing and that would be the end of them.
I just can't see how they'd last more than a few weeks. But they do, and have two precious kids and that's where the story gets so sad. The kids have to bear the results.

Rosie's parenting means No Rules, just Fun all the Way, and Rex, well, he seems to feel he needs to make up for it by having Rules, Lists, and No Fun. Rosie's is all kisses, kisses, kisses and Rex doesn't seem to know how to show affection. I could see he cared for the kids, loved them in his way, and I just can't imagine in that case that he wouldn't give them a hug and kiss, even if only sporadically.

Of course the spiral of two such different parenting styles cause issues for the kids, and it was heartbreaking seeing it happen. I disliked Rosie when she was single, but she wasn't hurting anyone ( except the poor saps who employed her), but as a parent she was a disgrace. It looks like all fun, but really its just Rosie doing what she wants, to be a parent that's loved, to be a friend to her kids, and she's not doing them any favours, and her behaviour becomes dangerous at times. Anyone who's stood out at school for being different will know how cruel kids can be, I was a skinny kids, glasses, dark skin tone and that set me up for bullies. Nothing to be done about that, but Willow and Asher, Rosie turned them into victims by her careless parenting.
Things get harder for Rosie to deal with, she's struggling with life before she has the kids and after, and then the divorce, well, its hard. I felt for her, she was clearly depressed, but dealing with it by getting more and more OTT, more manic, more outrageous in what she does with the kids.
I was furious at her way of coping, who does that when they love their kids? To me it felt Rosie was a show parent, wanted them and others to see her as fun, but didn't really care enough about them to deal with her issues, once more it was Rosie's needs that superceded everyone else. You just know its leading to disaster....and it does, big time.

 Stars: Two and a half, a story I struggled to believe in, just couldn't see Rex and Rosie getting past a few early dates. It had some harrowing events, some heartbreaking moments. I wouldn't call it whimsical, that suggests light-hearted and this is anything but. Its well written but not want I want to relax with.
ARC supplied for review purposes by Netgalley and Publishers
 
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Lily C
5.0 out of 5 stars A beautifully written novel about a family and different types of love
Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2020
Verified Purchase
This story grabs you–it is difficult to put down. So interesting to read this family story from the perspective of the child.
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Top reviews from other countries

Laura Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a really touching story about a girl and ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 12, 2018
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
This is a really touching story about a girl and her relationships with her family. Her mum is struggling and yet is so vibrant to start off... things go downhill and this tells the story form the child's eyes.
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Bellyobibblyboodles
4.0 out of 5 stars A super read.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 30, 2018
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
A super read - I lost myself in this story of Willow (Rosie's Mum), Rosie, and Rosie's Dad Rex and the challenges they both face dealing with mental illness. It's a beautiful book - heartwarming but heart wrenching at the same time.
Really well written,
Timely, in this current age of understanding mental health issues better.
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Nozza
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 7, 2018
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
Beautifully written and very poignant. Superbly crafted, with flashbacks to the past, interspersed with snaphsots of real life from each member of the familys point of view. Also an interesting essay on what constitutes love.

This novel dealt with deeply harrowing subject matter in a sensitive and caring way…and there was a happy ending without trivialising the suffering along the way. An extremely brave novel by the author who was writing about her own childhood experiences. I do hope she has found some comfort in writing this.I read this in an hour and was deeply moved. The characters were painted in such a way as to make them truly real

Thank you for the ee cummings reference

I hope to read more form this author in the future
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Arkgirl
4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting story about love and parenting
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 28, 2018
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
A story that has some bits you find hard to believe, even though it has some basis in truth as inspired by the author's own life, but it is a tale that might challenge you to think about what kind of parenting style you adopt!!
Willow loves being at her mum's house and spending time in the free living, no rules environment - pizza nights, splattering paint on walls and staying up late - but struggles with the rules and structure at her Dad's home. There is tension between her parents and her young brother seems to be more relaxed at the contrasting homes.
This story takes you back to tell the story of how her parents got together and you do find their relationship hard to understand ... how did they stay together for as long as they did? As you see more of their past and the current situation with Rosie and Rex the story becomes more and more tense; there are parts that become very uncomfortable but the story has heart and you become more and more involved as the story progresses.
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Petra 🤗📚📓🖋📮
4.0 out of 5 stars colourful writing with a few grey bits inbetween...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2018
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
Rosie Coloured Glasses written by Brianna Wolfson for me was a good read and one I would recommend to those who like to read books based on family life and for this family, there is a lot to write about.
Rosie loves her parents, and for obvious reason, she loves to stay with her Mother as her life is full of colour and fun while her father is grey in colour and so steadfast and lives his life by a regiment of rules.
The story of Rosie and her family is a good one and one which a lot of readers will connect with. The writing is fresh and bright, and for me addictive from the first page is read.
A good read which I am happy to recommend.
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