Eden’s Children

By: V.C. Andrews

Thank you NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC of this book.

TW: Rape; Grooming, Mental Illness

Faith and Trevor are adopted by Paula Eden.  While they were adopted together, they are not biologically brother and sister.  Once a schoolteacher, Paula decides to homeschool the children.  They are very sheltered from the outside world, but long for independence. The next door neighbor’s grandson arrives for the summer, and Faith sets her sights on him.  However, Paula is desperate to keep their family together and Trevor is willing to do anything for his mother, no matter who it may hurt.

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.

If you want to read this, you can get your copy here.