Even though it felt a bit rushed at times, I still quite enjoyed this family drama. It carried emotions very vividly.
I haven't read Flowers in the Attic (or seen the movie) yet, but hopefully one day I'll get around to do it, and maybe I'll come back to this book with new eyes.

This is a modern day "Flowers in the Attic" - if you enjoyed that series you will enjoy this book. I enjoyed both and like the twisted world of taboo attractions

I enjoyed this book so much ! While for a while there in the middle of the book it did remind me of flowers in the attic with the evil grandmother and the two brothers getting intimately close during the experience. I was shocked toward the end when it did a 360 and turned out to be a dream! I was not expecting that at all!!! A great book! Tons of suspense, and comedy I loved the remarks the kids made toward the grandmother and even their father during this dream! This is a book I will definitely recommend and will leave my review on goodreads and my blog as well as riverdale ave books.

Stepbrothers in the Attic, sound familiar? Hummm, maybe. I always loved that story and why I picked this book...

Two men fall in love in college when not many people were even out of the closet for being gay! They marry, buy a home, adopt children and everything is great until it is not. I thought it was way to long, scenes not needed, things explained over and over. Not to much sex or anything like that. It just wasn't really for me or I guess what I thought it would be. This was basically a new twist on the story Flowers in the Attic (which the title eludes to this story so shouldn't be a shock) but about a family with two dads. One is in an accident and they other the stay at home dad with a college education but has never worked or used his education and basically it looks as if Marcus has always been taking care of and is afreaid he cannot take care of the kids when he thinks they are in debt with no insurance when an accident had happened at the house and to David. So after staying with neighbors he calls him mother and then tells of his mother a grandmother to the children and they are going to go stay with her until he can get a job, The two adopted teens boys that were stepbrothers that had been taken from their family at the age of 5 and saved by David and Marcus, want to help and will go to work to help stay and finish school they think it is a terrible idea. The boys had been with the dads and trusted them, the dads that had made a family and a loving home. Then later they adopt two more children a girl and another boy I am unsure if it tells why, when, if they are in the system but I believe they come to the family at a pretty young age and have been raised by David and Marcus and with their brothers Eric and Brad. They are truly a very happy family. The call to the mom made the story go kind of nuts and the Attic comes soon after, its done in shock, not meant to be harmful.

The two dads being Gay is not really explained or talked about as you learn later in the book when the boys are almost 18 and actually turn 18 during some terrible weeks/months it seems and in the end they are true hero's. I am not a huge fan of retold stories, it would have been much better if it was not quite so drawn out, some information takes forever to get to but you are guessing this happens to Marcus and David at Marcus's house when Marcus thinks its a great idea to bring his love of his life home to meet the parents, its a few hours drive and they stay far to long for promiscuous young in love college men. It seems they wanted to get caught, like Marcus wants his out as a shock an awe and David who loves him doesn't really care of the consequences. I kind of didn't like this weekend at all, period and it put a very bad taste in my mouth and a stain on the book, just unneeded blame and guilt lives in Marcus, we later find out and I just personally didn't like it and thought it could have been done better! Marcus family does not just find out that he is gay and his friend is not a friend but his lover but find them just after sex and naked in the Attic no less which was also weird. His parents were very strange I mean WAY out there and because they had a LOTS of money. They had an arranged loveless marriage and they were first cousins, so that was weird as well but being gay wasn't. I dunno I know many people fall in love and I know arranged marriages were common to be close within families way back! So Marcus knew telling his parents whom were both weird and his mom carrying the bible and seemed religious but dressed crazy and a ton of make up just weird and we don't know much about the dad but that he read. We do learn a bit more about them both later but obviously his mother really ran the home and they were very old when they had Marcus and should never have been parents, they were unable to be loving or close to anyone it seemed! I do get why Marcus wanted to just tell and leave, walking away from his family forever as a gay man. But it happens and it is life changing as Marcus knew that it would be, that he would be shunned and being the only name sake for this weird family that they would have wanted him to marry well and have children. So he has a family the kids do not know about but he is not good enough and the mother/grandmother is Terrible with a capital T.

The ending was a twist though so if you choose to read this book then you will know it isn't exactly like Flowers in the Attic, they have quite a bit of differences, one being the older brothers don't act exactly as the girl and boy do in the Flowers in the Attic and that was Good that in this terrible situation they restrain and worry about the brother and sister and how to get OUT! They did find each other sexually interesting but this wasn't the time or place, finding a way out of the Hell that they were living was most important, yet again Is it really Hell, in the End you will question this!

Thanks to Net Galley and Riverdale Avenue Books for the opportunity to review this book!

Not my usual read but good story overall. Wasn't a fan of reading about teens and sex. Enjoyed the story of David and Marcus though. Reminded me Flowers in the attic.

To be completely honest, this book was not for me. The writing is good, with good characters and a good story. It just didn't float my boat. However, I would probably recommend it to others if I thought it would be to their liking.

3 Stars

I'm torn on what rating to give this book. I loved the story, but I really disliked the author's writing style. I read Flowers in the Attic when I was a teenager, along with most of the Dollanganger series, and loved them, so when I saw this book while cruising NetGalley, I couldn't pass it up. It's different from what I normally read, but I wanted to give it a try. I had such high hopes for this book. The story was brilliant and the ending was unexpected. I never saw it coming and it left me wanting more.

Now let's get to the writing. It was way too formal and repetitive. The author seemed to use the same words over and over. I'm reading a gay novel, with gay characters, you don't need to use the word gay 100 times to describe these men! The writing was not only formal, it was "telly", not "showy". That's one of my biggest pet peeves when reading a book. When you tell the reader every step that's happening instead of showing them, you fail to bring the reader into the world you created. You can't connect with the characters.

All in all, this was a wonderful story with amazing characters, but in the end I'm left frustrated at the the author's writing style, the abrupt ending and I'm left with so many questions about Eric and Brad. Still, a recommendable read.

*Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie by the author/publisher via NetGalley for my reading pleasure, a review wasn't a requirement.*

over all this book came off as weird, and I could never find the connection I needed to get into what the characters were feeling. I am huge V C Andrews fan so the idea of a twist on flowers in the attic was intriguing to me. However this book just fell very short for me. Without some connection to the characters and their plight this book was not a read I liked at all.

This wasnt a bad story.. The characters were interesting and it was a lot like reading flowers int he attic honestly.. but with a twist... i did feel like some of it could have been different and better but overall i really enjoyed it and im glad i got to review it

Sitting on the fence with this one. Very different to what I normally read. I literally have no words. I'll try reread it ....if I can