Flowers In The Attic By Virginia Andrews - Review

Advantages: Shocks and Thrills, Excellent Writing, The Best Book I Have Ever Read !
Disadvantages: None - Although Those Hoping That Books By Her Ghost Writer Will Match Up, Will Disappointed

...the mansion, whilst they are confined, is very interesting as at the start they are full of hope that one day they will venture downstairs when their grandfather dies and their mother can inherit. Over time the relationship changes and the children begin to lose hope in their mother whilst the older children become parental figures for the youngest. I would recommend this book 100% and it is actually based upon a true story. Read this book first, followed by the 3 sequels Petals on The Wind, If There Be Thorns and Seeds of Yesterday which take the family through many years to adulthood. Then Garden of Shadows the prequel which in my opinion contains the biggest shock of all and completes the series perfectly. Whilst Virginia Andrews books, from Flowers, to the Heaven Series (Casteel) are finely written and re-readable as well as the only book...

charley99 14.06.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Flowers in the Attic - Virginia Andrews

Lightning Strikes - Virginia Andrews

Advantages: Easy read
Disadvantages: Bit slow in places

...and his family. Just when a happy family relationship appears to be on the cards, Rain learns that her Grandmother Hudson has died and she returns to America for the funeral. This is a reasonable read but once again lacks the drama of the early Virginia Andrews books. It is worth noting that this book was ghost written though as Viriginia Andrews is in fact deceased. The current books are being released as a brand name. Easy to read, a few quite dramatic high points but a bit slow in other places. Easy to pick up but easy to put down to. Not necessarily a page turner. Worth reading with the others in the series but probably a bit lost on its own....

aliree 29.11.2004 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Lightning strikes - Virginia Andrews

Rain - Virginia Andrews

Advantages: Easy read
Disadvantages: A bit slow in places

...the hope of finding herself. On the whole it is a reasonable plot with a few good dramatic moments. It is an easy read though which requires very little thought or much concentration on the plot. Ghost written under the name of Virginia Andrews it is worth remembering that the original author is deceased. I can't help feeling that recent books have lacked some of her ability to shock with plot lines. The series is still worth reading though if you are a Virginia Andrews fan....

aliree 29.11.2004 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Rain - Virginia Andrews

Gates of Paradise - Virginia Andrews

Advantages: passionate
Disadvantages: I hate it when they kill off the main character!

...The first book i read by Virginia Andrews was 'Into the Garden', and i was hooked from there. I got the Casteel Family Saga for about 1.69 each from the local charity shops, and they are, in my opinion the best books i have ever read. 'Gates of Paradise' is the 4th book in a 5 part series. The writing changes point of view from Heaven to Heavens daughter, Annie. This put me off a bit, I was even upset, because after about 2 weeks of reading about Heaven, and her ordeals, I felt i knew her, which shows how good Virginia Andrews is at writing. It starts when Annie is approaching her 18th birthday. Her and her cousin, Luke, dream about going to Farthinggale Manor, her great-grandfathers home where her Great-Grandmother, Jillian, Grandmother, Leigh, and mother lived. After a party at her Aunt Fannys', and maybe one too many drinks...

toria2k4 06.01.2005 (07.01.2005) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Gates of Paradise - Virginia Andrews

Into the Garden - Virginia Andrews

Advantages: Brilliant Storyline
Disadvantages: didnt know it was a sequel :@

...This was the book that really got me interested in Virginia Andrews. Purely by chance, i won it on a raffle and had it sitting under my bed for a few weeks before i actually started reading it. It is the last in the "Wildflower Miniseries" about a group of girls, Misty, Star, Jade and Cat, who met in a group therapy session. They had all been hurt somehow by their parents, either abandoned, abused or ignored. The book revolves mainly around Cats family. After the sessions ended, the girls meet in Jades mansion and form a group called the OWP or the 'Orphans with Parents'. Cat is kept a prisoner in her home by her 'mother', Geraldine, who doesnt approve of the other OWPs, and so she has to sneak out to see them. Then Geraldine mysteriously turns up dead in the living room. Cat calls the other OWPs, not knowing what else to do...

toria2k4 07.01.2005 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Into the Garden - Virginia Andrews

My sweet Audrina - virginia andrews

Advantages: The style of wrting, and how it hooks you from the very first page
Disadvantages: unable to put it down, and got behind on coursework

...Ages ago for my 13th birthday one of my best friends bought me this book, because she knows i love to read, and to be honest WOW! i can not sing this books praise enough. i Loved it so much, it's actually right up their as one of my favorites, and i can't thank my friend enough. It's so gripping, and grabs you right from the very first page. The only down fall is that i got behind on homework and the likes because i had to re read it so many times. It goes into detail in such away that astounds me. The plot is so intericate, and just amazing and original that i loved it. There will never be another book like it. It has so many twists and turns, but it draws you in, and you feel like you know her, and are living threw what she is. PLEASE if your going to do anything today, order this book! virginia andrews makes audrina as a charactor...

xxxRachelxxx 18.03.2006 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of My Sweet Audrina - Virginia Andrews

Virginia still lives on

Advantages: excellent plot, well written
Disadvantages: hard to put down

...Having been a fan of Virginia Andrews for so long I eagerly await each new release, 'Lightning Strikes' being one of the latest. It seems such a shame that such a talented author has passed on but thankfully her fanily could see her greatness and decided to get help with 'tidying up' some novel ideas she had had before her death. Lightning Strikes is the second novel in the series about the Hudson family. The main character in these books is Rain Arnold. She is an eighteen year old girl of mixed race sent to live with a family she never knew she had. This family being all white and because of their class, not really wanting to admit to having her as a family member. The one person that really seems to accept her is Grandmother Hudson who, to everyone else comes across cold hearted and mean but she has a soft spot for Rain...

gemini26 11.06.2001 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Lightning strikes - Virginia Andrews

Brooke

Advantages: Great plot, gripping
Disadvantages: Ghost writer, Short

...From the day I could read, Virginia Andrews has been one of my favourite authors. Her ability to draw you into her books and really will the characters forward is a skill not all have and I have read many a book by others where I find myself not finishing it. However Virginia Andrews has always created a great story which means I find it difficult to put my book down and leave it till later. In turn this means that because her books are mostly considered a light read I have found my way though most of her collection. The life of Virginia Andrews was unfortunately far from perfect. Born in Portsmouth, Virginia in 1923 Virginia was only daughter of the family. As a teenager she feel down a stairwell at her school which would eventually cause her to spend her life in a wheelchair. She then spent four years succesfully completeing...

ovetta2001 06.02.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Brooke - Virginia Andrews

Not quite a gem but definitely readable

Advantages: A decent enough read
Disadvantages: A little predictable at times

...NoW I'm not usually a fan of the style of novels that Virginia Andrews writes and wouldn't particularly choose to read one of her books of my own accord. However for Christmas my parents bought me a somewhat large collection of her books and so I thought I'd give them a go. From the collection I decided that I would read the Landry Family Series first and so picked up the first book entitled 'Ruby' and got stuck in. This story is in fact rather an intriguing one and I somehow found myself being drawn into the chapters and pulled along by the tale as it unfolded before my eyes. Now I wouldn't normally do this in a review but the novel itself is one that is not complex to follow but has a rather complexly intertwined plot that the wrong words could spoilt too easily and for this reason the plot summary I have given below is simply...

MI9to5 04.02.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Ruby - Virginia Andrews

Crystal

Advantages: Good story, one of five books
Disadvantages: Not actually V.C

...V.C.Andrews is a very famous author known primarily for her books The 'Dollanganger Family' one of which is titled flowers in the attic. Most of the books under her name come in fives. Four separate stories which somehow wind together to create a fifth. Crystal is no exception and it is the second instalment to the 'Orphans Miniseries'. The others are known as Butterfly, Brooke, Raven and finally Runaways. Now before I go further I have to break a few hearts. Even though V.C.Andrew is famous for many a book she has personally penned few herself. She did write the whole Dollanganger family series just as she wrote half the Casteel family series and My Sweet Audrina. Apart from this the only thing she contributed was her notes on the idea of a book. A ghost writer fills in her shoes and writes her ideas under her name. He is called...

ovetta2001 14.01.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Crystal - Virginia Andrews