V.C. Andrews

A young woman struggles with her past and a future thrust upon her with threats coming from the past and now the present. Does she have the strength to withstand and grow? From #1 New York Times bestselling author and literary phenomenon V.C. Andrews (Flowers in the Attic, My Sweet Audrina). In her grandmother’s fine, labyrinthine Boston house, Heaven Leigh Casteel dreams of a wonderful new life of new friends, the best schools, beautiful clothes, and most important, love. She is determined to make the Casteel name respectable, find her long-lost brothers and sisters, and have a family again. But even in the world of the wealthy, there are strange forebodings, secrets best forgotten. And as Heaven reaches out for love, she is slowly ensnared in a sinister web of cruel deceits and hidden passions.

Dark Angel

Jolie

Jessica 

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  “It’s not that I’m afraid to die, it’s only the road to death that terrifies me, for sometimes it can be so drawn out.” 


Okay, so, I actually remembered Dark Angel surprisingly well! Reading it didn't feel like going into a darkened room. So, I think this is one of those original V.C. Andrews novels I likely read when I was a bit too young. (Story of our life, right, V.C. Andrews fans?) And, to be perfectly honest with you, Dark Angel just may be my favourite of the lot.

Surely it is the best of the Casteel novels. Like all good V.C. Andrews novels, they aren't good at all. Objectively, they are terrible and horrifying. They are completely enthralling awful and indulgent. If you love campy, soap opera antics mixed in with dark and thorny themes that may make you want to flinch back, then Andrews is the author for you. Dark Angel is, frankly, one of her finest novels and proof of where her career would have taken her, had she not passed away.

(It is one of her final novels.)

Picking up nearly immediately after Heaven ends, Dark Angel sees our Heaven Leigh off to find her biological grandmother. Always searching for a family to call her own, life seems all glitz and glamor from her standpoint. However, as all V.C. Andrews' heroins find out, reality isn't quite the luxury they believe it to be. Soon, the house of cards begins to fall and readers unravel the truth right alongside Heaven.

Finally out of the clutches of the predators from Heaven, Heaven thinks she is finally safe and headed to a better place. At this point, all she wants is a new beginning, find out who she really is, and snag a safe place to land.

Only, sometimes, the truth is dangerous circumstances can arise in any place--even the luxurious halls of her grandmother's estate and the private school she has now been enrolled in. While Heaven tries to move forward to her life and maintain some sense of familiarity from her old life, we see her stumble through new chills and fall in love with an unexpected man.

Dark Angel is exactly the kind of addictive I wanted Heaven to be (although, Heaven was addictive in its own right, it just so happens that Dark Angel was even moreso and felt more mature) and then some. From trashy characters we've already known (Fanny, Logan) to new, punchable faces (Tony) and unexpected love stories, Dark Angel takes us on a wild ride from start to finish.

Part of my keen interest in Dark Angel was getting to the bottom of that side of Heaven's family, but another was seeing just where V.C. Andrews would take the plotline--if there is one thing she was known for, it was for her electric and triggering plot-twists. And, boy, did she deliver.

Dark Angel

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