This was a beautifully written book. Just as a heads up, there is sexual abuse in this story and it plays a prominent role. So if you are negatively triggered by this subject content you may want to steer clear. That being said, this was a family story that will make you feel the darkness. No character is perfect (in fact they may all rankle you in some way, shape or form) but they all play their roles beautifully. This book reminds you that there are times when you can never go home again. And sometimes you shouldn't. All in all, I will be pairing this book with all the right readers.

The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel is one of those stories that is haunting in the fact that it lingers in the back of your mind for a long, long time. Engel explores the darkness that hides in every family and what it means to love and be loved. To be placed under a spell that death seems like the sweetest escape.

Lane Roanoke's life changes forever after her mother commits suicide and she is sent to live with her grandparents in their vast Roanoke estate in rural Kansas. There she meets her cousin Allegra and the family secret that seems to be the cause for the premature deaths of all the women in their family. Like Lane, Allegra is an orphan too who's mother's death sentenced her to a life of living in hell's paradise.

We're told very early on what the Roanoke secret is but Engel helps us to understand why such horrible secrets tear a family apart or hold them closer together. After leaving Roanoke eleven years earlier, Lane returns to the place she loves and loathes equally.

Lane narrates the story as she tries to uncover the truth behind her missing cousin's story. It's obvious that the guilt of having left her behind ways heavily on her yet, Lane is a mess of sorts herself. It doesn't help that being back home in Roanoke brings back every bittersweet memory she's ever had and face to face with the only man she may have loved besides her Grandfather.

The Roanoke Girls was hard to put down. When I was forced to part ways for that shitty thing called life, I couldn't wait to get back into the shittiness that was the life of the Roanoke girls. The novel goes back and forth between the summer Lane lived at the Roanoke estate and hre return as she pieces together the mystery of Allegra's disappearance. Engel also introduces the women who came before.

I can't say there's any one character I didn't suspect of being the person whodunnit. Nor can I say with any certainty this story has any heroes. That may be why it's so good. Everyone has a secret and as their secrets unfurl I'm hardpressed to find anyone I think has any redeeming qualities.

I'll end my review there since I don't want to give too much away. I can't understand how anyone can love anyone the way the Roanoke women did enough to endure the reality of their lives. Amy Engel has produced a worthwhile read exploring family, love, obsession, and redemption.

Copy provided by Crown Publishing via Netgalley

Amy Engel's The Roanoke Girls is a dark (very dark) thriller about the secrets family keep and their disastrous consequences. The subject matter is upsetting, but the story is compelling and keeps your attention as we dive deep into the world of the Roanoke Girls and the people that populate their lives.

Despite the dark subject matter I really enjoyed the book. The plot is a bit predictable although this is something the character seem aware of as well, but interesting enough to keep me reading well into the night. The one thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars was the lack of depth the male characters had. Engel writes her female characters well, and so in comparison the male characters seem duller, less interesting and more static. This is most noticeable with the character of Yates Roanoke, who is supposed to be charismatic and powerful, yet he rarely feels that way to the reader. Given his importance to the novel, his flatness as a character stands out.

An ARC of The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel was provided to me by Crown Publishing Group via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lane Roanoke is only fifteen when her mother commits suicide in their dingy New York apartment. Her mother refused to speak about the family she ran away from as a pregnant teenager, but when Gran and Grandpa invite Lane to live with them, she jumps at the chance to get to know her estranged relatives. Their rambling estate in rural Kansas is also home to Lane’s cousin Allegra, who has lived with their grandparents since she was a baby. Just like Lane’s mother, Allegra’s ran away from home – and the Roanoke girls that don’t run away seem to turn up dead.

When Lane arrives at Roanoke, she bonds instantly with her exciting cousin Allegra, who is bursting with energy and loves to push boundaries. Allegra introduces Lane to the history of the Roanoke girls – a wall filled with the portraits of the women in the family, all of whom are now dead or missing. Other than Allegra, the only remaining family members are Gran, who is cold and distant to Lane, and Grandpa, whose charismatic charm may be hiding a more sinister side. The girls are given complete freedom, and they spend the summer with a couple local boys, Cooper and Tommy. However, Grandpa tells them that the boys will come and go, but he will love them always – and possibly not just in a familial way.

Lane’s relationship with Cooper is tumultuous. Passionate and angry, he seems to know more about the Roanoke family secrets than Lane does – but when Lane eventually finds out the truth about her dark and twisted family, she runs without looking back. Eleven years later, Lane is living in L.A., divorced and directionless, when she receives a call from Grandpa. Allegra has gone missing, and Lane feels the dangerous pull of Roanoke, calling her back to help search for her beautiful and damaged cousin.

Lane is immediately drawn back into the disturbing patterns of her family, and the lethargy of small-town Kansas. She reunites with Cooper and Tommy, who have remained in town – Cooper took over his dad’s mechanic shop, and Tommy is now on the police force. Even though Tommy has been investigating Allegra’s disappearance, Lane decides to do some searching of her own. Tommy is now married, but his obsessive love of Allegra is still strong, and in Lane’s mind, he is one of many suspects in her disappearance – including the caretaker and the housekeeper at Roanoke, both of whom are complicit in the family’s secret past.

The novel alternates between “Then” (the summer Lane spent at Roanoke) and “Now” (her investigation into Allegra’s disappearance). Sprinkled in between are vignettes of the other Roanoke girls, which slowly reveal how they died or went missing. The common link between all the girls is Grandpa, and his ability to charm and seduce everyone around him. When Lane finds a message from Allegra that simply says Run Lane, she knows she must put an end to the dark saga of the Roanoke girls.

The Roanoke Girls is very disturbing, showing the extreme levels of abuse in one family and the ways it can be passed down through generations. It’s difficult to read, but also so compelling that you can’t look away. There is a mystery here, but it is not truly shocking – it is more about the slow unfolding of deeply buried secrets. This is the author’s first novel for adult audiences, and it is sometimes obvious that her style is young adult – but overall, the novel is compelling enough to overlook its flaws and just let yourself be pulled along for the ride, disturbing as it is.

I received this book from Crown Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The female members of the Roanoke clan can’t seem to escape life in the family’s rambling Kansas farmhouse quickly enough……and for good reason, as the reader discovers soon after embarking on the first couple of chapters of Amy Engel’s THE ROANOKE GIRLS.
In this character driven tale of contemporary subject matter interlaced with gothic undertones lays a tale of foreboding, depravity and psychological trauma worthy of V. C. Andrews.

When her chronically depressed mother commits suicide, fifteen year old Lane is invited to live with her grandparents in Kansas. There she meets, and grows close to, her cousin Allegra. During her summer she becomes privy to the calamitous secrets that the family has carefully kept hidden for many years.

Lane runs from “the family” vowing never to return, leaving Allegra behind. Now eleven years later, Allegra has disappeared and Lane’s guilt over abandoning her cousin draws her back to the family farm where cryptic written messages from Allegra and an encounter with Lane’s first love Cooper Sullivan await.

Lane’s decade old love affair and Allegra’s mysterious vanishing act require resolution, but at what cost? Author Engel’s writing talent serves her well in tale of one family’s voyage into the heart of darkness but the subject matter may be a turn-off to some readers.

Lane didn't know what it felt like to be loved. Her mother, Camilla, spent most days crying and the rest ignoring her daughter. The only thing Lane knew about her mother was that she ran away from Roanoke, she never wanted to speak of her past, other than to say that she never wanted to return there.

After Camilla passes away, social services finds family for Lane to live with. Lane had no idea that she had family, and now she was headed to her wealthy grandparents that are also raising her teenage cousin at Roanoke. During that brief summer at Roanoke, Lane learns about love and the dark secrets at Roanoke.

I really enjoyed the toggling between past and present. The story was so suspenseful, that it was difficult to put the book down. The mystery kept me guessing right up to the very end. This was a great thriller everyone will love.

I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

This is one of those books that you hate to give a good review to because of the disturbing subject matter, but this was written so well with a storyline that just grabbed you and characters that made you intrigued to see what they would do next. I gave this 4 stars on goodreads.

The Roanoke Girls features quite possibly the most dysfunctional (although, supremely F’d up is probably more accurate) family I’ve ever encountered in fiction. It’s the kind of book that I was slightly embarrassed to be reading, but was completely unable to put down. The extent to which Engel pushed the premise of this book is preposterous (think The Flowers in the Attic on steroids mixed with a bit of Sweet Home Alabama) and the characters’ decision-making is frustrating, but I was impressed with the writing and was even able to tolerate a bit of a love story (which is rare for me). It’s a fast, if not demented and twisted, read and would make a great vacation accessory.

The Takeaway: A Southern Gothic homage to the Crastor family (GoT) as told by VC Andrews.

I enjoy a good Southern Gothic, and you'll certainly get one here, but how the author manages to dull the shock of incest is a real accomplishment (not a good one).

The pleasure of reading this book is not in the shocking details, but the character development, excellent dialogue (it's sparse but feels right every time), and the claustrophobic sadness that envelopes the women in this family. The Roanoke House sits exposed on a wide stretch of fallow prairie land, but Engle has managed to make it feel like a prison - the women who live there are torn between staying and running out of a fierce love for the patriarch that feels both exhilarating and shameful. Thanks to Netgalley for an Advance Reading Copy - I'll be sharing with patrons who enjoy Southern Gothic and VC Andrews.

The Roanoke girls appear to have it all, they're rich, stunningly beautiful and envied by all the townspeople. However, things are not as they seem. Over the course of the book, and as layers are sloughed away we find out what befell the girls in this family saga, and also solve the present day mystery of one missing Roanoke Girl.

Set in a fictional rural town in Kansas, 'The Roanoke Girls' is a deeply disturbing story. It is a complicated mix of sensual beauty with an underlying creepy darkness. It's a distasteful storyline with manipulative calculating characters.

With a decades old history unfolding as the narrative moves back and forth in time, unpalatable secrets are revealed about the girls relationships within the family and with some of the townsfolk. Engel has written a perceptively shocking, utterly compelling tale about the many affectations of love; innocent, lustful, cruel, selfish, controlling and warped. Some of the characters were pretty unlikeable but with the progression of the storyline and revelations about the family's past, it became easier to accept, but not condone, their behaviour and treatment of others.

The interaction between the main character, Lane and 'wild boy', Cooper really resonated with me. Their relationship was electrifying and the sexual tension and pangs of lust were palpable. Allegra and Tommy's relationship couldn't have been more different with the hopelessly infatuated 'wholesome' Tommy being teased and tormented by the more predatory and sexually aware Allegra.

I loved 'The Roanoke Girls' right from the get-go. Written in a style similar to Emma Cline's, 'The Girls' and likened to Virginia Andrews', 'The Flowers In The Attic', 'The Roanoke Girls' is a fabulous crossover debut for the YA/Adult readership. Its a tough subject matter to write well about, but with a cracking good storyline I think Engel absolutely 'nailed it', and I cannot wait to read what she offers up next.

Wow, this is a dark, twisted and disturbing book with a hopeful ending. It seems that all the Roanoke girls have issues and die young, usually by their own hand. After Lane's mother died Lane is brought to live with her grandparents and cousin Allegra who is a strange and disturbed young woman. Though the two cousins grow close eventually Lane like other Roanoke girls flees the family home but gets called back 11 years later when her cousin goes missing.

As Lane desperately tries to discover what happened to her cousin she also is reconnecting with her past love whose heart she broke when she left. The two are drawn to each other but this time instead of bringing out the worst in each other they may just be able to help each other break free of their pasts. With alternating chapters from past to present you discover the mystery of what goes on in Roanoke and why there is so much tragedy in this family.

This book is tragic and yet in the end you find hope that Lane will be able to break free and be happy unlike the other Roanoke girls before her. Amy Engel keeps you interested and slowly pulls you into the secrets of what is happening in this strange little town. Many of us are shaped by our pasts but we don't have to be defined by them. Lane doesn't have to be a " Roanoke Girl" she can be her own person. This book really touches on that and how we don't have to let tragedy or our families control our future. Well written, this book will stay with me for a while.

I would have a totally awesome quote inserted right here. Except for the fact that Kelly 'the book pusher' and Mitchell may really share parts of my brain. I checked and she had already stolen them. I'll let her slide since she threatened me bodily harm if I didn't hurry up and read this one. Because it's just pure goodness. (Don't read this 'head in the oven' book and look at us weird. We were already weird to start with.)

This book starts off with fifteen year old Lane after her mother's suicide. She lives with the neighbor drag queen for a minute before the state steps in and tells her she must have a legal place to go. And guess what? Her long lost grandparents not only will take her. They want her.
So off she goes to rural Kansas and her new home.

Roanoke.

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She is greeted by her cousin Allegra, who has lived with the grandparents since birth. When he mom took off right after her birth. She learns that Roanoke girls either run or they die.
That sounds like the perfect type of girls doesn't it?
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Gran is there also. She is one of those perfect types that would die if her hair wasn't in place.
Then the grandfather. Who is described as handsome but I think he is majorly creepy as heck. *shudders*
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I can't tell you much more because that would make me a spoilery butthole. Just know that this book is family drama times infinity.
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I'm gonna go take a bleach shower now.

Booksource: I received a copy from Netgalley and Crown books. In exchange for review. But really because I have no shame in my begging for a book like this.

I had trouble getting into this book, and after the second description of incest I decided I'd rather spend my time on the many other books I have available on NetGalley.

"I had trouble with roots. Still do. Always trying to stay one step ahead of my past, my granddad, Roanoke.
"Look how well that turned out."

When 15-year-old Lane Roanoke's mother commits suicide, she's shipped from New York City to the small Kansas town of Osage Flats to live with her grandparents and cousin, Allegra. The family estate, which bears the Roanoke surname, is bursting with dark secrets that come to light over the course of the one summer Lane can endure among what's left of her spooky family.

Allegra says Roanoke girls - her mother and her aunts who preceded them - either "run or die." Lane runs. And the only thing that draws Lane back is Allegra's mysterious disappearance a number of years later. If she thought she had the twisted Roanoke legacy all figured out, she was wrong.

I really, really wanted to love this book. Freebie from Read it Forward? Check. Family with skeletons in the closet? Check. Small-town setting? Check. Blurb from one of my favorite authors, Laura McHugh, on the back? Check.

But this novel went off the rails so quickly, it made my head spin. About 30 pages in, the family's dirtiest little secret was laid out pretty plainly, and from there I felt like I was watching a car crash. I knew it wasn't going to end well (although the author managed to tie up the story with a rather happy, if dull, ending), but I just couldn't look away.

The book alternates between "then" (the summer Lane lived in Osage Flats) and "now" (her return and search for Allegra). Sprinkled throughout are short chapters devoted to each Roanoke girl of yore. I usually like this format, but I feel like Engel gave away too much information too quickly in the process.

One character that I would have liked to learn more about was Charlie, the Roanokes' live-in handyman/ranch hand. I'm not saying Engel should have made him a main character, but there seemed to be gaps in his role in the story, and questions that perhaps were unintentionally left answered.

And while there were enough twists and turns to keep me reading, the thing I most found disturbing was that you can't swing a dead cat at the pages of this book without hitting a sex scene or a reference to someone's breasts. I'm not a prude, but please. I felt like all the sexual content really dumbed down what could have been a better novel.

2.5 stars.

Thank you, Read It Forward and Crown Publishing, for providing me with a finished copy of this book, and to NetGalley for an advance copy.

I wasn't sure that I would finish this book. I wasn't sure if I could.

This is a story about family secrets that were much more disturbing than I had initially expected. It focuses on a Dysfunctional (yes, that's a capital D) family which is steeped in horrific secrets that keep them tethered to one another.

The initial reveal of the big secret shocked me so much that I had to read the sentence a few times hoping that I was mistaken. I took time to digest this info, even putting the book down while I decided if I wanted to proceed. But by that time, Engel had drawn me into the mystery surrounding Allegra's disappearance and the back story of Lane and Allegra's summer at the Roanoke house as teens.

I was hooked ... yet apprehensive.

This book is a mystery but also a dissection of the dynamics of a highly dysfunctional, toxic family and the cult-like influence of its patriarch on its members. Readers, like myself, may feel like a rubbernecker at a tragic accident --- you're curious to see what's going on, but it's distressing to look and yet you can't seem to turn away. Welcome to the Roanoke family.

The topic addressed will be hard for many readers and like I said, I wasn't sure I could finish it myself. The subject matter made me uncomfortable, angry, sad, sickened ... that's a whole lot of emotions. It's a hard read and not a subject matter that I'd normally want to read. But Engel sensitively incorporates the dysfunction and secret into her plot without making it sensational but more of a explanation for why and how the Roanoke family developed.

Is it for everyone? No.

Is it well-written and a gutsy look into a toxic family? Definitely.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Crown Publishing for providing me with a complimentary e-book copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book has very disturbing subject matter- it is a multi-generational saga of familial incest. The writer does an excellent job of developing the characters and describing scenes. I could see it all play out in my mind. Amy Engel is a definitely gifted author and has a wonderful way with words; she drew me in immediately, and kept me entranced through the whole book. That being said, the book made me MAD!!! The amount of duplicity and lack of investigation and involvement from others in the know is reprehensible. Even more disturbing is that the grandfather and grandmother saw nothing wrong with their behavior, despite each of the girls/granddaughters in the family either running off or committing suicide.

This is a dark read, but a fascinating one. Worth your time.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishers for providing me with an e-copy of this book.

This review contains references that could be considered spoilers.
[In 2016 authorBryn Greenwood wrote the superlative All the Ugly and Wonderful Things, a book which centers on a very atypical romantic and physical relationship. This year's new release, "The Roanoke Girls" has me wondering if readers are now due for a slate of books about relationships designed to make us squirm. While Greenwood's book is extraordinarily well-written, and encourages readers to question their assumptions, this book only caused me to say "ewwwww!"

While there is still a "whodunnit"/"what happened" element of suspense to this book, the big bombshell is dropped early. With the secret out in the open the characters' actions were not believeable to me at all. I had a hard time accepting that so many people would act as they did for so many years. (hide spoiler)]

Thank you to Crown and NetGalley for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Dark but addictive. The Roanoke Girls is one of these books you just cannot stop reading. Very dark, with some disturbing episodes but a book that keeps you interested, something unique about the writing which makes you want to know more about the characters and know how the story and these characters will end up at. The Roanoke Girls, a book which I enjoyed a lot and one I totally recommend..