What do You think about April Shadows (2005)?
I actually read the second in the series (Girl in the Shadows.) before reading this since it was all they had in the library. I enjoyed it, so I wanted to read the first and got bought myself a copy. Anyways, although the ghostwriter really drifts away from VCA's original style I actually enjoyed the Shadow Series. The best thing it has going for it is the fact, that April seems more realistic. She's just a normal girl with insecurities going through some weird stuff. I wish the series was longer, it's only two books, so it doesn't exactly leave a satisfied feeling. There wasn't exactly anything really all that shocking in the books. But still, I liked them.
—Sadie
If you ignore the name on the cover and the fact that it's marketed as adult fiction instead of YA as it should be, this is a decent book. However, it does not have the darkness and disturbed nature that one expects from V.C. Andrews. April is a girl who finds herself in quite a few tragic and unpleasant situations, but not anything near the horror related in "Flowers in the Attic" or even more recent works like "Melody." Sadly, V.C. (or the ghost writer, rather) has completely lost her edge. It makes me sad.
—Emily
Although I am very picky about what books I read, but this book in particular has just made me have 100 different turns in a matter of 4 hundred and something pages that I could not put down. I felt sorry for April and everything that she had to go through, her father hid his illness and died leaving them treated like shit and not loved. Her mother commits suicide by taking a bottle of pills and heartache of losing her husband which is April and Brendas father. Brenda treated April like shit and Ceilia was a trifling skank. I admired Aprils uncle the magician, he died from being an alcoholic but he loved the sisters and let April travel with him like gypsies in the end. Most of the time I wouldn't have been able to get into anything that's so into detail and descripture about every problem that surfaces. I give this book 5 stars because it only took me 2 days and I couldn't put this book down :)
—Christina Cici-lee
