Falling Roses

Rosemarie Piemonte
Author House (2005)
ISBN 1420838520
Reviewed by Audrey Hauser for Reader Views (8/06)

What happens when a young teen is thrown into the world in rock stars, sex, crime, and drugs? In the book, “Falling Roses”, Gabrielle/Bobbie, is seriously injured when struck by a car while walking home in Chicago. Lying in a coma, she does hear and feel what is going on around her but is unable to respond. Her fear is that the doctors are going to give up on her and she will die.  Enter Johnny Ravolie, her favorite rock star. Johnny is in the hospital to visit children in the burn unit as part of a publicity promotion and he is asked to look in on Bobbie. This is where the story takes a fairy tale turn.

Bobbie is 14 years old and Johnny is in his 20s. He brings her back to life, i.e.: the real world, and tells her he is in love with her. Bobbie expresses her love for him. Because of the age difference they cannot make a public announcement of their love.  When Bobbie goes home from the hospital she thinks Johnny has forgotten her.  But he finds her and somehow convinces her strict parents to allow him to be Bobbie’s guardian and as well as for her to go to New York to live with him. What ensues is a growing relationship, supposedly hidden from the world. There is a former lover in Johnny’s life who is a psychopath and will stop at nothing to get rid of Bobbie and get Johnny back.

Throughout the course of the story, Bobbie and Johnny seem to maintain a private illicit relationship. Bobby is introduced to a world she had never dreamed of.  Having been a brilliant student and, in her parents eyes, capable of being a great doctor or lawyer, Bobbie found she wanted neither of those things.  Rather, she wanted to belong in the world of rock music at Johnny’s side.  During this time she goes through 2 kidnappings, a pregnancy, and a reunion with Johnny.

I feel this story does introduce us to what might happen if a young girl is thrown into a world for which she in not ready, but the realism of the happenings in the book is a little far fetched. The author has vividly described the events for us and made it easy to picture what is happening, though as a reader I had a hard time believing the story. My own personal experience of being a 15 year old in love with a 23 year old gives me the right to say this probably isn’t the way it would be.  I did in time marry this man, but the years leading up to it were nothing like what Bobbie went through.  It’s true I was not in a coma and my hero was not a rock star, but I did have the distinction of graduating valedictorian of my class. I made the choice at the young age of 18 that I wanted to marry rather than go to college. Bobbie had already made this decision when she was 15. She and Johnny were simply waiting until her 18th birthday. Would strict parents of an intelligent young 15 year old girl just turn over her guardianship to a rock star? I don’t think that would happen. I feel the genre is teens and young twenties for this book and the story might be misleading to this group as to the realities faced in a similar situation.

While Rosemarie Piemonte has good writing skills, I would like to see a story line that embraces more plausible situations.

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