Garden of Shadows by V.C. Andrews

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Title: Garden of Shadows 

Author: V.C. Andrews
Series: Dollanganger (Book #5 / Prequel)

Genre: Suspense Thriller

Length: 376 pages

Published: 1987

Publisher: Pocket 

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) Before terror flowered in the attic there was a young girl. An innocent, hopeful girl...

When young Olivia arrives at Foxworth Hall, she thinks her marriage to handsome Malcolm will bring the joy she has longed for. But in the gloomy mansion filled with festering desires and forbidden passions, a stain of jealous obsession begins to spread— an evil that will threaten her children, two charming boys and one very special, beautiful girl. For within the halls of this cursed house a shocking secret lives. A secret that will taint the Foxworth family for generations to come...

My Review:

I give this book a 5 out of 5. 

This is more like a prequel than the fifth book in the series. This takes up the story from the grandmother's point of view, starting with how she met Malcolm Neal Foxworth and ending with the day Corinne returns to Foxworth Hall with her four children to hide them away in the attic. This book will tell you what caused Olivia to become the cruel grandmother that Cathy, Chris, Cory and Carrie find waiting for them in Flowers in the Attic. 

Even more, a shocking secret will be revealed that hasn't even been hinted at in the other books. This secret will blow your mind. To fully enjoy the series during your first read through, be sure to read this book last. If you decide to read again, then you can read in any order you want, since you'll already know the secret of the Foxworths. 

You can purchase Garden of Shadows through Amazon in hard copy or Kindle format. 

Have you read Garden of Shadows? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

Seeds of Yesterday by V.C. Andrews

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Title: Seeds of Yesterday

Author: V.C. Andrews
Series: Dollanganger (Book #4)

Genre: Suspense Thriller

Length: 408 pages

Published: 1984 (original) 1990 (version I read)

Publisher: Pocket 

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) The horror began with Flowers in the Attic, the terrifying tale of four innocent children locked away from the world by a cruel mother. 

The shocking fury continued with Petals on the Wind and If There Be Thorns. Now V.C. Andrews has created the last dark chapter in the strange, chilling tale of passion and peril that has captivated millions of readers around the world. 

Cathy and Chris, entwined with the evil that haunts their children, living with the fearful spectre of Foxworth Hall, are awaiting the final, shuddering climax... prisoners of a past they cannot escape.

My Review:

I give this book a 5 out of 5. 

This takes place a good 15 years after the events of If There Be Thorns. Chris and Cathy arrive at the newly reconstructed Foxworth Hall. Bart says there is a surprise waiting for them. They are there to start overseeing some of the plans for Bart's twenty fifth birthday party, where he will come into his money and he'll have all the money left to him by his grandmother. Soon Cindy will join them, as well as Jory and his wife Melodie. They will be a family again. Cindy, Chris and Cathy will go to Hawaii after Bart's birthday party and that will be the end of it. Or so they think.

Setting foot in that house was just another tragic story waiting to happen. Event after horrible event keeps them in that house for far longer than they desired initially. The question running through the whole book is "Will Bart be redeemed in the end?". He can't forgive or forget that Cathy and Chris are brother and sister. He can't look at Chris as anything more than his mother's brother. He loves Cathy intensely but also hates her. And throughout it all, there's yet another bitter old man leading him along.

This book was excellent and closed up a lot of loose ends. I can't wait to read the fifth book in the series (which is truly a prequel but I was told to read it last so that I got the full effect of the situation without spoilers), Garden of Shadows, as it should help shed some light on some of the mysteries around the Foxworth family.

You can purchase Seeds of Yesterday through Amazon in hard copy or Kindle format. 

Have you read Seeds of Yesterday? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

If There Be Thorns by V.C. Andrews

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Title: If There Be Thorns

Author: V.C. Andrews
Series: Dollanganger (Book #3)

Genre: Suspense Thriller

Length: 374 pages

Published: 1981 

Publisher: Pocket 

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) Fourteen-year-old Jory was so handsome, so gentle. And Bart had such a dazzling imagination for a nine year old.

Then the lights came on in the abandoned house next door. Soon the Old Lady in Black was there, watching their home with prying eyes, guarded by her strange old butler. Soon the shrouded woman had Bart over for cookies and ice cream and asked him to call her "Grandmother."

And soon Bart's transformation began...

A transformation that sprang from "the book of secrets" the gaunt old butler had given him... a transformation fed by the hint of terrible things about his mother and father... a transformation that led him into shocking acts of violence, self-destruction and perversity.

And now while this little boy trembles on the edge of madness, his anguished parents, his helpless brother, an obsessed old woman and the vengeful, powerful butler await the climax to a horror that flowered in an attic long ago, a horror whose thorns are still wet with blood, still tipped with fire...

My Review:

I give this book a 5 out of 5. 

The third installment of the Dollanganger series starts with a prologue by Cathy, summarizing what would be found within the pages of the novel. The book then follows alternating viewpoints of Cathy's two children: Jory and Bart. Jory is the golden child who feels loved and content in his world. Bart is the child that feels as though no one loves him. He's clumsy, awkward, has shortened nerve endings so he does not feel pain like others, and feels like he doesn't belong. 

Then the abandoned house next door is fixed up and an old, veiled lady in black moves in with her elderly butler and a few maids. Chris and Cathy are unsuspecting that their secret is about to come out to their children - in a way they did not choose. 

Bart is torn between loving his mother and hating her as he befriends not only the old lady next door, but her elderly butler: a spiteful, wicked, scheming old man who gives him Malcolm Neal Foxworth's journal and makes him read it. 

The conclusion is terrifying and heart-breaking at the same time. I admit fully that I teared up during one of the final scenes. Though it can be difficult at first to distinguish between which brother is narrating, you soon get a feel for their different viewpoints and styles. Jory is ever the optimist and Bart is always a pessimist. Definitely worth the read!

You can purchase If There Be Thorns through Amazon in hard copy or Kindle format. 

Have you read If There Be Thorns? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

Petals on the Wind by V.C. Andrews

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Title: Petals on the Wind

Author: V.C. Andrews
Series: Dollanganger (Book #2)

Genre: Suspense Thriller

Length: 439 pages

Published: 1980 (original) 1990 (version I read)

Publisher: Pocket (version I read)

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) For Carrie, Chris and Cathy, the attic was a dark horror that would not leave their minds, even while they built bright, promising new lives. Of course mother had to pretend they didn't exist.

And Grandmother was convinced they had the devil in them.

But that wasn't their fault. Was it? Cathy knew what to do.

She now had the powers she had learned from her beautiful mother. She knew it in the way her brother still yearned for her, in the way her guardian touched her, in the way all men looked at her.

She knew it was time to put what she knew to the test. To show her mother and grandmother that the pain and terror of the attic could not be forgotten... Show them.

Show them—once and for all.

My Review:

I give this book a 4 out of 5. 

This was good, but slow starting. The book picks up with Chris, Cathy, and Carrie on a bus south to Florida. While on the bus, Carrie gets violently sick and a mute black woman makes the driver take the four of them to her "doctor-son", who she works for. Chris and Cathy relate most of their story leaving out some of the details, such as information about Cory and his death. The doctor takes the three of them in and arranges to become their legal guardians. 

The book follows through several years of their lives, as they continue growing up (though Carrie doesn't do much growing). Cathy relates some of the awful things Carrie went through at school because of her size. Chris is on his way to becoming a doctor and Cathy is on her way to becoming the prima ballerina she wants to be. She is also intent on revenging Cory's death, and their imprisonment against both her mother and grandmother. 

It took me awhile to get into the story, and all I kept thinking was "wow, Cathy is such a wanton creature". The story ends with Cathy, Carrie and Chris back at Foxworth Hall, as Cathy's quest for revenge is carried out. 

All in all it was a good book just a little slow in starting as the three remaining Dollanganger children try to come to terms with the horrors of their youth.

You can purchase Petals on the Wind through Amazon in hard copy or Kindle format. 

Have you read Petals on the Wind? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews

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Title: Flowers in the Attic

Author: V.C. Andrews
Series: Dollanganger (Book #1)

Genre: Suspense Thriller

Length: 411 pages

Published: 1979 (original) 1990 (version I read)

Publisher: Pocket (version I read)

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) The four Dollanganger children had such perfect lives -- a beautiful mother, a doting father, a lovely home. Then Daddy was killed in a car accident, and Momma could no longer support the family. So she began writing letters to her parents, her millionaire parents, whom the children had never heard of before.

Momma tells the children all about their rich grandparents, and how Chris and Cathy and the twins will live like princes and princesses in their grandparents' fancy mansion. The children are only too delighted by the prospect. But there are a few things that Momma hasn't told them.

She hasn't told them that their grandmother considers them "devil's spawn" who should never have been born. She hasn't told them that she has to hide them from their grandfather if she wants to inherit his fortune. She hasn't told them that they are to be locked away in an abandoned wing of the house with only the dark, airless attic to play in. But, Momma promises, it's only for a few days....

Then the days stretch into months, and the months into years. Desperately isolated, terrified of their grandmother, and increasingly convinced that their mother no longer cares about them, Chris and Cathy become all things to the twins and to each other. They cling to their love as their only hope, their only strength -- a love that is almost stronger than death.

My Review:

I give this book a 5 out of 5. 

Words can not describe how much I loved this book. A very good friend of mine has been telling me for a very, very long time to read this series. I've been putting it off. I finally got around to it (mostly because of the Lifetime version of the movie which just came out last month). I COULD NOT PUT THIS DOWN.

I spent the entire book rooting for these poor children who are locked away in an attic. I spent the entire book hating their mother for doing this to them in the first place and hating her even worse at the end. I was not expecting the twists at the end. I almost threw the book, but then I realized that I wanted to find out what happened even more. (I won't say more because I don't want to spoil things for anyone!)

I can not wait to start in on the second book in the series, Petals on the Wind. I have high hopes it will be just as thrilling as this one. 

You can purchase Flowers in the Attic through Amazon in hard copy or Kindle format. 

Have you read Flowers in the Attic? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.