#Favorite #Books #Spotlight- #MySweetAudrina by #VCAndrews

(click image to go to the Amazon page for the paperback, with new cover art)

(From the back blurb of the copy I have Copyright 1982)

V.C. Andrews, author of the phenomenally successful Dollanganger series, has created a fascinating new cast of characters in this haunting story of love and deceit, innocence and betrayal, and the suffocating power of parental love.

Audrina Adare wants so to be as good as her sister. She knew her father could not love her as he had loved her sister. Her sister was so special, so perfect—and dead.

Now she will come fact to face with the dangerous, terrifying secret that everyone knows. Everyone except...My Sweet Audrina

I started reading V.C. Andrews when I was a teenager. Honestly, I can't remember what year it was, but I had to be thirteen or fourteen because I can remember that the middle school library had copies of her books. My introduction was through the first four books of in the Dollanganger Series, starting with Flowers in the Attic. I remember borrowing my aunt's four books (later discovering the 5th one along with several other series).

She hadn't read them, but I saw them on her bookshelf and was mesmerized by the haunting cover art and blurbs. I remember going home that first night with them clutched in my fingers and being scared out of my mind about whether these were horror novels or something else. After reading the first chapter late at night (around midnight), I was so freaked out, thinking it was a horror novel, that I put it down, turned off the lights and huddled under the blankets.

Soon after that though I discovered the depth of her novels, the description and emotions she put into the story lines and I've aspired to write with that kind of vivid depth of feeling and visuals ever since. Though I love all the books that V.C. Andrews wrote, I slowly lost interest after the ghostwriter took over and supposedly wrote based on her notes once she passed away. I'm sorry Ghostwriter, but you have nothing on V.C.

And though I love the series books, My Sweet Audrina is one that I can take up and read in no time because it is a stand-alone. Every time I read it, I get so caught up in the story, I forget I've read it numerous times before and the tears still come at the same places, just like all the laughter and joy.

It's books like this that remind me that great books, just like great movies or music, always take us back to a good place, a reminder of heartaches, happiness and how deeply affected we can be by emotions.

Have a Great Thursday and don't forget to stop by
Krista Ames'
A Passion for Romance for my
AUTHOR, AUTHOR interview and my MEATBALL recipe!