Single Sundays: Rosebush by Michele Jaffe

Single Sundays: While this blog may be focused on reviewing book series as a whole, we can’t forget about the good ole’ standalone novel! On Sundays, I will review a novel that is considered to be a standalone novel. Here is this week’s offering:

Synopsis for Rosebush (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.

Review:

This is one of those few books that gets my “judged-by-the-cover” tags on my Goodreads account. I came across this book entirely by accident at my library one day. I was there to grab some other books when the cover of this book (not to mention the title) caught my attention. I read the synopsis and decided to give it a shot.

And am I glad that I did: I really enjoyed reading this book!

I love thriller movies and I felt like I was simply reading one instead of watching it because I got hooked into the story. I really wanted to know what was going on and how everything happened. I didn’t find it predictable but once you get further into the story you are able to piece together all the clues and reach the conclusion. It was suspenseful right up to the end and I liked that.

What I didn’t “love” was Jane. She was nothing special and I just didn’t like her character too much–she was just your typical popular, boy-chased teenaged heroine. I actually thought she was an idiot–especially with how she lets her boyfriend treat her. Ugh, I hate that about teenaged heroines–grow a spine for goodness’ sakes!

I also want to point out that I read this book about 4 years ago–which means I was 4 years younger and within the target demographic for this novel. Reading other people’s reviews and ratings on Goodreads prior to writing this I realize I am in a minority of people who liked this book. I think if I read it now, I probably wouldn’t enjoy reading it so much because all the little bits that I was able to look past before would probably irritate the crap out of me now. But I think at the very least my rating would still be a 3/5.

Conclusion:

This book was a hot mess but I didn’t mind that it was. I had a lot of fun reading it and liked the thriller aspect to it. I think older readers won’t enjoy it too much because of the lack of maturity in the characters but teens will like it.

Rating: 4/5

Shorthand Stats:
Genre: Teen/Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller, Romance
Recommended for: 16+
Heat Rating: cool
Similar Reads: Unravel by Calia Read and The Lying Game by Sara Shepard (The Lying Game #1)