This book was such a disappointment. I seen VC Andrews and got excited. Then I realized this must be a ghost writer. Because this is not like her other books.

Well, I have watched all the movies and have enjoyed them… This is the first book I have written by this author.
Even though I haven’t read it before, I knew what to expect from the movies, and it was everything promised and more.

It’s made me want to go back and read all the books. If you are a fan of this off, so you will not want to miss this.

Eden’s Children by VC Andrews is a deeply disturbing story of two adopted children whose mother is injured and they have to fend for themselves as their father is a long-haul trucker. They are in their mid-teens so it is not as dire as it sounds. While on the face of it, it is a well-ordered household, the reality is the mother is deeply disturbed and is raising the children to be as well. I really did not care for this book: it was depressing and depraved. I will be more careful before I select another of of her books. Although it was well-written and engaging, it was not for me.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of Eden’s Children by Gallery Books, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #Netgalley #GalleryBooks #VCAndrews #EdensChildren

First book in the Eden series, typical Ghost written V.C. Andrews book I am compelled to read all these books because I have been reading from her very first book. this book read like a book I've read before so we will see where the series takes us. Thank you to Netgalley, Gallery Books and the Author V. C. Andrews for an ARC of this book in exchange for honest review.

Faith and Trevor were adopted together out of foster care. They aren’t biologically related, but their adoptive Mama just knew they needed one another. They are not 14 and 16 and being homeschooled together. They never leave their property and they share a bed…not typical teenagers by any stretch of the imagination. When their neighbors grandson comes to visit they start to question why they have been kept away from everyone all these years and what experiences they have missed out on.

I loved Flowers in the Attic when I was younger and this book definitely has those vibes. This one wasn’t nearly as entertaining, but equally as disturbing.

This book was gross. I don’t care if Trevor and Faith were blood related or not. Their adoptive mother had some serious mental issues and their adoptive father was just as much to blame for barely being present in the kids’ lives and turning a blind eye to what was really going on. What a messed up story.

Mother Knows Best....or Does She?

Another spooky V.C. Andrews novel. In this story the mother Paula Eden and her husband adopt two children from an orphan's home. The children are not related, but they have grown close and protect each other so she adopts both of them. A Boy Trevor and a girl Faith.

She keeps the children close and keeps them from being exposed to the outside world, homeschooled and taught by Paula.

One day the young nephew of a neighbor, Lance, comes to visit his grandfather and everything changes.

Paula cannot release control of the two children and wish them to carry on her legacy as a family. She resorts to drastic measures to ensure this.

The story is a good story, but a bit repetitive at times. I did guess most of the story before it happened, although I was a bit off but it was still a bit easy to guess where it was going.

Thanks to those writing for V.C. Andrews for writing the story, to Gallery Books for publishing it and to NetGalley for providing me with a copy to read and review.

I had hoped that this would be reminiscent of V.C’s classic style-maybe the ghost writer had taken notes and would write in that vain, but this was nothing like what I would have expected. It was creepy but not like Flowers in the Attic creepy. It was icky creepy. There was no character that you could connect with, the kiddy porn storyline was just gross and the adoption from an orphanage would have been great had the mom not been using them for ungainly purposes. No thanks.
Thanks to Gallery Books and NetGalley for this eArc in exchange for my review.

I haven't read VC Andrews in many, many years - it was nice to revisit the nostalgia. A very creepy premise of tight control, Eden's Children stays the course - an evil parent figure, strange circumstances, and it leaves you hanging with room for the next installation in the story. I look forward to the follow up.

I've read most books from this author. Sadly, over the years and after her death, the quality has gone downhill. I've skipped some of the more recent books, but decided to give this one a try. This was a bit disappointing. It was dark and somewhat predictable, which I expected. The writing, however, was very disjointed. There wasn't as much dialogue as I am used to in a book, and I never really engaged with the storyline or characters.

This was a hard book to read for many reasons. First, there isn’t enough dialogue. There is so much prose, and a lot of it is useless and boring. The whole book feels so slow. I was 30% into the book, and if I had not read the synopsis, I still wouldn’t have known what the plot was. Second, the relationship that is forced between Faith and Trevor by their adopted mother is hard to read. While they aren’t biologically brother and sister, they were raised as brother and sister. Yet, the mother seems to want more from them together. The author, a ghostwriter as the named author has passed, decides to put a lot of sexual tension between Trevor and Faith; I honestly wish I had some kind of warning prior to reading this book. Basically, what I thought I was going to get based on the synopsis was not what the book is at all. I wish the book would have touched on a described some of the mental health issues that Paula was dealing with. Instead, her behavior was just accepted. However, I did enjoy that Faith recognized that things weren’t right and wanted more for herself. I’m not sure I’d recommend this book. I’d say, be wary reading.

I'm usually a big fan of V.C Andrews books. I'm not sure what I think about Eden's Children tho. I did like reading the story but the ending felt rushed and unfinished. And it didn't seem to gel with the rest of the story. Idk, I did look forward to sitting down and reading but the last 1/4 of the book wasn't what I would have expected from Andrews. A solid 3 stars.

Trevor age 15 and Faith age 14 know next to nothing about their biological parents. As far as they are concerned they never had parents until they were taken from the foster home and adopted together. They lead very sheltered lives, having no interaction with other children or with anyone other than their adoptive parents. Their mother tells them this is to keep them safe from the evils out there but in reality, it is to protect herself from others finding out about her own evils. The children's adoptive father is conveniently on the road most of the time, and looking the other way when he is home.

I must say I really hated Trevor and his mannerisms. The smirking and shrugging made me want to smack him even though I couldn't actually see him doing it I could picture it in my mind. The father could have been a likable character if not for being so weak-willed and always kowtowing to his wife's demands.

The story is told from Faith's point of view and is at times only what is going on in her thoughts, which gets a bit draggy. It's also fairly predictable but I will probably tune in for the next installment to see how it ends.

My thanks to Gallery Books.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC. I love anything VC Andrews and I just could not get into this book. I really tried.

V.C. Andrews has always been one of my favorite authors. The newer books are reminiscent of the original books she wrote before her death. Eden's Children made me think of Flowers In The Attic. Faith and Trevor have been kept at home since being adopted as children. Homeschooled and without friends and forced to bury their emotions. Faith wants friends and to meet boys and that leads to punishment and horrors that any good V.C. Andrews story requires.

Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I have seen Flowers in the Attic & Petals in the Wind, so I was intrigued to read my fist V.C. Andrews book!

Twisted and compelling, Eden's Children takes a glimpse into life of foster children, Faith & Trevor, who have been rescued from a grim life and adopted by their forever family.

A sincere thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for providing me an advanced reader copy (ARC) of “Eden's Children” in exchange for an honest review. I am grateful to have had the opportunity and leave my review voluntarily.

As a fan of this author I was a bit disappointed with this novel. Not up to par from what has been put out by this author years ago. I appreciated the opportunity to read it though, but overall was somewhat disappointed.

I’m a big fan of reading V.C. Andrews books and have been ever since they first started coming out. I actually own every single book although the earlier ones are getting very worn and tattered! This books synopsis doesn’t really give you a look into what this story is really like. Now I know a ghost writer named Andrew Neiderman writes these books ever since Virginia’s death and that there is a difference in their writing. With that being said, I think this book is the closest he has come to resembling Virginia’s work. There were parts to this story that resembled and made me think about the earlier books. The mother for one, who I did not like, made me think of Corinne because I felt she was selfish and really only cared about what she wanted. She was twisted in my opinion. I really did enjoy reading this and I’m not sure why there are such bad reviews. I was happy to read about a new family and I look forward to the next book in this series to see what happens between the children. I’d like to thank Gallery Books for accepting my request and NetGalley for the arc to read, review and enjoy. As long as there are V.C. Andrews books written, I will continue to keep reading and adding them to my home library. I’m giving this a 4 star rating!

To cut to the chase, the last batches of V.C. Andrews novels, ghostwritten by Andrew Neiderman, were a pale shadow of their former selves — or, in other words, they sucked. The quality of Neiderman's writing has degraded with each new book over the past fifteen years. Maybe he's lost his writing abilities or is just getting older, but he's completely forgotten how to create an effective Gothic atmosphere that was crucial to V.C. Andrews' storytelling. Whether it's a modest house, a cramped apartment, or an opulent mansion, the "home" must play a supporting role in the story—right alongside the youthful protagonist—and has been poorly written to the point that the reader can't tell the difference between the characters' voices. The storylines have become repetitive; several novels are without a plot—due to poor writing or laziness. Therefore, I was apprehensive about reading Eden's Children—the first novel in The Eden Series. But then I pondered, "Can it go much worse than Becoming My Sister?"

The prologue to Eden's Children is considerably better—in terms of writing—yes, there are genuine descriptions and a frightening atmosphere—just in the beginning; as you get to the first chapter, everything gingerly unravels—for the better and the worst.

The novel is told in the first person and focuses on Faith, a young orphan adopted, along with her older brother, Trevor, by a former teacher, Paula Eden, and her truck driver husband, Big John. Paula is the story's villain, a religious nutcase seeking to protect her adoptive children from the outside world. She homeschools the children in their classroom—yes, there is a classroom in their home—a home with a bedroom that they are not allowed to enter; that's a giant red flag if I ever saw one. Then there's the Cemetery for Unhappiness, a site in the backyard where Paula forces the kids to bury their emotions—literally—digging a hole and everything.

Let's fast forward; Faith develops feelings for the visiting boy next door and gets caught "fooling about" with him. Paula compels her to remove her clothing and sleep in the prohibited bedroom, which contains a dusty crib and a decaying newborn. If you think that's strange, you'll enjoy this: Paula orders Trevor to "cleanse" Faith. It wouldn't be a V.C. Andrews novel without a bit of incest.

This time, the story is better, with a more gothic tone—absent in the recent ghostwritten outings. Apart from the protagonist, Faith, the rest of the characters are a mess with little to no personality—especially Trevor, an emotionless, one-dimensional character—in need of further development. The home should have been a significant feature— but the author, Andrew Neiderman, opted to describe it in as few details as possible—rather than being a character in its own right, it's just there, serving no function other than to be a building.

The "twist"—to put it mildly— is disgusting... and unsettling. If the surprising portions were handled better, I would've been mildly interested—maybe even startled—by what happened between the siblings—however—I'm left wanting more from a narrative that could've been written better by someone else—preferably a woman. The sections depicting Faith's first menstrual cycle were poorly worded—giving the impression that they were written by a man—in this case, Andrew Neiderman. The situation—and the character Faith herself—would've been conveyed stronger by a female author.

I can ensure that some readers will find the plot fascinating and others will call it straight-up trash, and some readers won't even pick up the book because it's "ghostwritten"—but will take the time out of their day to post their nasty comments online—even months before the book's release date. For my part, I evaluate books strictly based on their written content; if I enjoy what I read, I will give it high acclaim; if not, I will pick out the last flaw in the book and share my criticism with everyone.

What it boils down to is that I enjoyed Eden's Children—or at least the concept of it. Despite the novel's many—many—many flaws, it's one of the decent V.C. Andrews novels in recent memory—at least fifteen years.╌★★★✰✰

Faith and Trevor Eden are adopted by Paula and Big John Eden as young children. Mama homeschools the two, to shield from the horrors she saw when she taught at public school. As Faith and Trevor grow up, they begin to wonder about some of Mama's techniques. When they meet the neighbor's grandson Lance, the delicate balance Mama has instilled starts to unravel and before long, their entire world has fallen apart.

V.C. Andrews books take me back to the early '80s, when I first discovered Flowers in the Attic. Over the years, I read more of her books, my favorite being the Heaven Casteel series. They all follow a similar formula and if you've read any of the books, you'll know what you're in for. Although Andrews has been dead for a number of years, her estate has hired a ghostwriter to finish the seemingly never-ending backlog of story ideas Andrews created during her lifetime.

If you need something that's quick to read and takes you back to your preteen/teenage years, this will probably do the trick.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Available January 3, 2023.