A Wilder Rose Susan Wittig Albert

A Wilder Rose by Susan Wittig Albert
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book through Net-Galley in exchange for a fair review.

I read all of the Little House books as a kid and loved them, but as I grew older I wondered how it was that Laura came to be a published author, especially once I learned that Rose had become a well know author. However, I knew nothing about the Little House books history until I read this book.

I enjoyed and was frustrated by this book all at the same time and towards the end found myself skimming through all of Rose's various financial problems and details regarding the stories she wrote while living at Rocky Ridge. I found Rose to be very unlikable and was frustrated by her constant self-serving generosity and her semi-bizarre friendships and relationships.

The most enjoyable part of the story was her relationship with her mother and how the Little House books came to be. Unfortunately, this was the least fleshed out part of the book and left me wanting more. I felt like we never really got to know Laura and Almanzo in this book, they were just characters that stopped by occasionally and we never learned the true motivation behind any of their relationships or the books, and maybe that is totally an unknown. But certainly in a book written as a novel we could have had a bit more of the story, even if it was just the authors idea of what took place.

This book did not ruin my feelings about the Little House of the Prairie series, I think I assumed all along that they were edited and that others had a hand in there process and to have it be Rose I think is a perfect fit. It also fit Rose's personality of being exceptionally generous to do this for her mother and not want the depth of her involvement known.

Overall, this book was interesting and I liked to insight into the stock market and its eventual crash as well as the glimpse of life prior to and during the depression. I knew very little about Rose Wilder Lane and plan on reading some of her works in the future, particularly, Hurricane.


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