Book Review: Rosebush by Michele Jaffe

Title:  Rosebush

Author:  Michele Jaffe

Publication date:  December 2010

Publisher:  Razorbill

Source:  Different Area Codes ARC Tours

Synopsis (from Goodreads):  Instead of celebrating Memorial Day weekend on the Jersey Shore, Jane is in the hospital surrounded by teddy bears, trying to piece together what happened last night. One minute she was at a party, wearing fairy wings and cuddling with her boyfriend. The next, she was lying near-dead in a rosebush after a hit-and-run.



Everyone believes it was an accident, despite the phone threats Jane swears were real. But the truth is a thorny thing. As Jane's boyfriend, friends, and admirers come to visit, more memories surface not just from the party, but from deeper in her past . . . including the night her best friend Bonnie died.

With nearly everyone in her life a suspect now, Jane must unravel the mystery before her killer attacks again. Along the way, she's forced to examine the consequences of her life choices in this compulsively readable thriller.

My Thoughts:  I didn't love this book but...I didn't hate it either.  It was just okay.  There were a lot of parts where I was like "yeah right...that so wouldn't happen" but about halfway through it got to be pretty interesting.  However, it took me quite a long time to get into the book at all.  There were times at the beginning that I didn't think I'd be able to finish it at all.

This book kinda reminded me of the old classic movie "Gaslight".  A young woman gets married and then thinks she is going crazy only to find out her husband is doing things to make her think that.  Same way with Jane.  She is getting gifts from a secret admirer that seem sweet but have an underlying threat.  She gets strange phone calls from someone promising her she will die soon and she sees a creepy message in her bathroom mirror.  However, everyone else comes up with logical explanations for all these things so poor Jane is left doubting her own self (and you are left doubting her as well). 

Pete was an awesome character.  A high school dropout, his father has made him volunteer at the hospital so he can keep on eye on him.  He's funny, hot and extremely smart.  Yeah, he was by far my favorite character and I wish we could have seen a lot more of him.

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

Things that I didn't like about the book?  The brand names that were dropped constantly throughout the book.  I mean, every page had a detailed description of how someone was wearing Prada shoes or a Chanel necklace and on and on.  I mean really?  I don't frickin' care what brand the characters are wearing.  I got that they were super rich when they were driving around in BMWs and had 23,000 square-foot houses.  I found it so extremely annoying!

There were also so many uneccessary scenes that really didn't add anything to the book except to keep it dragging on longer.  There was a girl-on-girl kissing scene that seriously went nowhere.  There was no reason for it.  It added no motive to anything and really no background to anything.  The whole "revealing" scene with Scott was also just weird.  I mean, what was the point of it and what happened to Scott after he left?  Was that just the end of him?  He was a creepy stalker guy and then just boom....he's gone and it's over. 

I also found the murderer's motive lacking.  I'm still not sure what exactly her motive was.  There are some other things in the murderer's background that were a little confusing as well but maybe it was just me trying to hurry through the book to finish it on time.  Maybe I missed something...maybe not?

Also, what happens to Ollie?  What about David?  There were just a lot of loose ends that didn't really add up.  Same with the whole David/Sloane scenario.  Did something happen there?  What did Jane really see?  At one point it says that she sees David on top of Sloan doing "his thing" and then Sloan says she doesn't remember and she was on her period so nothing happened?  And then it just doens't resolve itself at all and kind of leaves you wondering what really happened there.

Oh, and the last thing that annoyed me....all Kate's sentences end in a question.  Even if it's not a question.  I just got annoyed with that little detail.  Maybe it doesn't bother anyone else but really...who talks like that?

So yeah, wasn't my favorite book but like I said, it wasn't horrible.  Towards the end (the last 100 pages) I kinda got into trying to figure out who tried to kill Jane but not a book I would buy to read again.