April Shadows

What I like best about VC Andrews books is that I know they will just keep coming. There are so many lonely people types in the world to base books on. In APRIL SHADOWS, Andrews does it again, taking a person who is not picture perfect in her own mind and suffers many losses to deal with. Voila! Another dysfunctional situation as well as a character many can relate to, to get to know. Glad to see gay issues out of the closet and onto the page. The Uncle and his big doll make for a wonderful twist(ed) addition, too. Now, on to book two of the series. Good!

Finally a book that is almost worthy of true V.C. style. After the Casteel series, everything went downhill on the writing front. I always felt as though i was reading a book meant for teenagers. This book pretty much blew me away as far as great storyline. V.C. would be proud to see that her style is being put to good use once again! Keep up the good work...can't wait for the next book!

My book was about a girl named April. She was an outcast in school and doesn't have many friends. She has an older sister named Brenda and she's a few years older than April. Brenda is an all star athelete, and is all around good person. In the begining of the book April talks about her life before her dad turned into "Dr. Jkyle". She talks about how their life was and how they laughed all the time and had fun. Their dad is turning meaner and meaner every day and they have no idea why. He comes home late almost every night, and when he has to fly out for buisness meetings he ususally forgets or just doesn't bother to call them at all. It makes the family very upset. In the book he even forgets about Brenda's birthday. Later on in the book you find out that her dad leaves them in the middle of the night, and they have no idea why. A few weeks after a letter came in the mail talking about payments to this one facility. It was about 4 hours away, but they decide to go and see if their dad is there. When they get there, they find out that he put himself there because he had severe brain tumors and hardly had a chance to live. He didn't want to tell the family about it or make them sad. He thought it would be best to just get up and leave without saying good bye. They are so devestated by what happens they don't know what to do. They come back their house and everything changes. Their mother gets really weak and small. Brenda is more furious than ever, but April doesn't really change that much. Brenda gets accepted to Memphis with a full scholorship for basketball. It gets really lonely at the house with just April and her mom. Brenda finally plans a visit home and brings her "new friend" along with them. Her name is Cecila. They are room mates at college, and they are together 24/7. You eventually find out that Brenda and Cecila are actually lovers. April doesn't know what to think of their relationship, and doesn't really bother thinking about it. April and her mom were planning on going to see Brenda at one of her all star games, but her mom cant' go because she felt ill the morning they were suppoes to go. So April takes the car with her mother's permission and travels to Memphis. She stays with her sister and Cecila in another room. After the big win of the game April calls her mother to check up on her and she is acting wierd, but April doesn't question her. She gets a phone call the next day about her mother and the next door neightbor told them to hurry home quick. It just so happens that her mother killed herself that night by taking too many sleeping pills. They are both devistated, with two parents gone they don't know what to do. April, Brenda, and Cecila buy a small house with a studio apartment. April lives in the apartment. April meets a boy named Peter smoke at a chess club meeting. She goes to the meetings twice a week to see him. She gets him to come along to one of Brenda's games, and he does. April actually likes him a lot, but she

Hmm....So far no bad reviews. I've visited this page since the book came out waiting for the oh-so-thought-provoking and unevitable review titled "ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww!" Like some other reviewers have stated, this book does break a lot of ground, and in an impressive way. Right away, we have some new character types. First of all is April Taylor, who is overweight and suffers from low self-esteem because of this. Her sister Brenda is athletic and outgoing. She also breaks a lot of ground character-wise. She is not a "wicked jealous older" sister "or really her step-sister". Although there's times that she does come across as mean and insensitive, there is always a reason for it. Another interesting twist to the story is that her sister prefers women to men, and this is handled in a sensitive, very open-minded manner. Her parents fall more into the generic VCA formula, and readers will recognize them. I did like this book and will be looking out for the next one.

Aah... so once again I, the biggest fan of Mr. Andrew Neiderman, get to review this latest V C ANDREWS novel. It is my pleasure and my priviledge to do so! April and Brenda are two very different sisters. Or are they? April is chubby and shy and Brenda is athletic and outgoing. And Brenda prefers women. While it takes April a while to realize it, once she does, she struggles with her own identity. After the deaths of both their mother and father, things spiral downhill pretty fast for the girls. Brenda is so clearly unhappy and takes out her frustrations with her athletic prowess. And you never really trust Celia -- Brenda's lover -- because you just know that she is so coyly trying to get on April's good side... with disastrous results! Intrigued? You will have to read this novel for yourself. It is never my intent to outline the novel for you. Instead, it is my intent to look at the overall novel and compare it to the writing style of the original VCA. I am so happy that this novel took place over years, not over days or weeks. You really get a good character perspective as you watch them all grown and change. While I wish Brenda was stronger (she whines a lot and she knows it) you have to consider her age and the things she goes through. My hat is off to Mr. Neiderman for his sensitive handling of Brenda and Celia's love affair. The words homosexuality, gay, and lesbian are never mentioned (to the best of my memory). Dyke is used once. Cleary Mr. Neiderman has an understanding of what these young people are going through and he treats them all with dignity, respect, and caring. Ms. Andrews would have done the same thing. I am bitterly disappointed that the number of books in the latest series are limited. While WILLOW was the standard-formula VCA 5 books, the GEMINI series (Celeste) was only 3 books and the APRIL series appears to have only 2 books in it. I still hope for more GEMINI books. All in all, Mr. Neiderman has provided us life-long fans of VCA with another great novel, one that is tender, sensitive, and exciting at the same time. Bravo, Mr. Neiderman, bravo!