After her stepmother runs out on her backwoods family, bright Heaven Leigh Casteel must battle her wicked, greedy father, and his vicious scheme to shatter his children's dreams to join society.
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After her stepmother runs out on her backwoods family, bright Heaven Leigh Casteel must battle her wicked, greedy father, and his vicious scheme to shatter his children's dreams to join society.
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Acceptable. A readable copy. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (However the dust cover may be missing). Pages can include considerable notes--in pen or highlighter--but the notes cannot obscure the text. Book may be a price cutter or have a remainder mark.
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Good. Size: 1x4x7; Prompt shipment, with tracking. we ship in CLEAN SECURE boxes Horror; Good mass market paperback with clean pages, staining edges, creasing, nicked, and prompt shipping with tracking.
This is the first V.C. Andrews book I ever read and one of the best, especially since it IS V.C. Andrews before she died and her ghostwriter took pen/processor to her many unfinished manuscripts.
Heaven Leigh Casteel is a beautiful young girl growing up in "The Willies" of West Virginia, which are vividly depicted. "Home" is a beyond-shabby cabin heated (sort of) by a wood stove the family calls "Ole Smokey"; beds are thin floor pallets.
Heaven is eventually the eldest of 5. On the eve of her 10th birthday she learns that she was actually born to her Pa's first wife, a delicate 14-year-old Boston runaway he met in Atlanta, married quickly, and loved so dearly that he still longs for her although he married Sarah rather quickly after his "Angel's" death in childbirth. Granny further gifts Heaven with Angel's suitcase full of rich-girl clothes, and a gorgeous doll that looks astonishingly like Angel--Heaven can tell, because she too looks just like her mother--except for her black "Indian Casteel" hair. It is this combination that finally explains Pa's bad attitude toward her...or is it?
When Heaven is 14, Sarah is expecting yet another child, and feeling more and more trapped. Heaven uneasily feels that it isn't "just talk" with her--one day, Sarah might actually up and leave, and then it's Heaven who will be trapped with all those kids and their/her aging grandparents. The worst does happen, and it's even worse than Heaven has been dreading, because Granny dies, taking the warmth and wisdom Heaven has thrived on and now needs more than ever.
But things are about to get worse even than that! Pa finally decides what would be the "best" for his kids (Heaven reads that as "himself") and follows through with his plan, one kid at a time (except for the first time). Heaven dreads being put in the worst situation, and although she is placed in an affluent setting and her "father figure" seems to care about her, her "mother figure" sees her as a chance to settle a score with Luke Casteel and takes every chance to treat Heaven brutally. Still, Heaven clings to the fact that she is away from "The Willies" and Pa, and that much closer to Boston--since learning the truth about herself, she has thought she should go to Boston and find her mother's parents.
A bit heavy on the dialect, and fine china is called "Royal Dalton" instead of "Royal Doulton," but a great read.
HEAVEN/DARK ANGEL/FALLEN HEARTS/GATES OF PARADISE/WEB OF DREAMS--The Casteel Saga
Selina
Oct 1, 2007
Heavenly
This is the best story in this rather dark series. This is a great character driven book, full of surprises. A young girl discovers family secrets after her father sells his children. This is a dark and twisted tale.