Last year, Erin Kelly debuted her book The Poison Tree which I blogged about previously. It is a suspense book that keeps you waiting for the next turn of events to happen. Kelly has done it again in her latest book The Dark Rose.
In The Dark Rose, the reader is exposed to two lives that are seemingly unrelated;however, as the book progresses Kelly weaves the lives of the people together. Kelly changes the perspectives of her chapters between the memories of Louisa and Paul. Louisa is now a middle aged women who lives in the past remembering her youth and the events that have changed her life. Because of what she has done as a teenager, she has attempted to live a solitary life in which she allows no one to get close to her, so she never has to discuss her past.
On the other hand, Paul is a young man who has gotten into trouble because he let himself be persuaded by a more charismatic friend, and he is recalling the recent past and how his friend, Daniel, has manipulated Paul’s life. Daniel has controlled who Paul’s other friends are and how he spends his nights–directing Daniel to different places. Their crimes begin small, but when Paul is a witness to Daniel murdering another man, Paul is afraid for his life when he reveals what happened on that night. As a result, the police agree to send Paul away to work in a troubled youth program that is secluded. While there, he begins a friendship with another working in the program, Louisa.
As Paul and Louisa become better friends, they slowly reveal why and how they have come to the program. Surprisingly, neither has a strong reaction to what the other has deemed their most sinful actions. What is shocking is the illegal plan that they brew with one another. Why they have tried to hide from their illegal behaviors in the past, they concoct a new deceptive plan with one another that is premeditated. Yet, this is not even the most surprising aspect of the book.
Unfortunately, since this is a suspense book, I can’t give more away! We see Paul’s and Louisa’s plan slowly fall apart, and they are redeemed from having to partake in more illegal activities, but in the end, they still have a price to pay.
This book is worth the read. It starts off slowly, but give it a chance. By the end of the book, the change of events and the final outcome for the characters provide a surprising twist.
Tags: Erin Kelly, The Dark Rose
a farmer bought a baby pig at the market and named her Pigmella. Meanwhile, the village’s Queen had a daughter and named her Priscilla. However, when baby Priscilla makes the most un-princess-like sound followed by a foul smell, the Queen drops her daughter and runs from the room. She didn’t notice that she dropped Priscilla over the edge of the castle, or that Priscilla’s landing caused Pigmella to fly into the princesses bed. Instead the Queen returns to find the piglet and assumes that an evil fairy has turned her daughter into a pig, after all, it’s the sort of thing that happens all the time in books. And so begins the story of 
anything else, including his kingdom. So when the people he rules come asking for improvements on the roads and at the playground he gives them a present. It’s even better, he tells them, than roads or swings, it’s a picture of him! The villagers, of course, don’t see it that way. And the next day King Duncan finds his precious gift vandalized, with a mustache! So of course he puts up wanted posters. All over the kingdom. All with his picture on them. And the next day they all have mustaches. So King Duncan does the only thing he can, he throws the whole kingdom into jail. Only they won’t all fit. So the jail gets bigger, the towns people get happier, and King Duncan gets lonelier. So he does what any sensible King would do and paints a mustache on his own face!
