The Gold Rose by Jodi Lea Stewart is a gripping tale chockful with intrigue and a story with strong and mature themes. Charlotte Hunt-Basse works for ROSE International, a secret rescue agency veiled as an international horticulture enterprise and funded by some of the wealthiest people in the world. Charlotte is stuck in dire conditions due to bad weather, and again, flashes of dangerous work she has done for the agency begin to come to mind. She has handled very dangerous cases, especially the two-year-old Pinkie and Babe. 

During a violent storm, two-year-old Pinkie wanders away from a tragic scene into a dirt road. Found by Clint Sutton on his way to Mexico, driving Angelina home, the oil tycoon takes the baby with them. Angelina is supposed to keep the child only temporarily, but Clint doesn't come back for them. The child is stolen by a Croatian Romani and brought to Argentina. ROSE International is out to get the child, but the captor is very slippery, succeeding to move Pinkie to Brazil. Can the child be saved?

Against the backdrop of the war in 1941, the child of missionaries based in Texas is hidden within a Chinese family as the Japanese invade China. The child moves from one foster home to another after a tragedy and is forced to disguise herself as a boy. When Babe's life is threatened by the matriarch of her foster family, now a powerful communist, she must follow a secret code from a rescue agency and navigate treacherous landscapes to reach Hong Kong.

Jodi Lea Stewart's The Gold Rose is a riveting story that features relentless conflict at multiple levels. The key characters in the story are at their most vulnerable when readers encounter them, their lives surrounded by mystery and intrigue. The author uses their circumstances to build suspense, keeping readers in the dark and making them guess what could happen next. The first-person narrative voice is expertly executed; the characters are vividly drawn, and the historical settings are impeccably written. This page-turning novel is a propulsive and unpredictable romp of a thriller that offers unsuspecting twists. The clear writing and the gripping narrative voice make it more enjoyable!