Customer Reviews

Cinnamon (Shooting Stars, Bk. 1)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Cinnamon's life is about to take a sharp turn. SHe's used to living her life normally at home with her parents and in school with her best friend Clearence. She dosen't have many friend and isn't considered popular becasue of her dark clothes and makeup. But when her mother loses a baby before it's born, she goes crazy. Now Cinnamon has to deal with visiting her mother in the mental hospital, her grandmother taking over her home, romantic feelings for her best friend, and having no one to talk to. ALl she wants to do is exist in the lies she tells. And she might be able to because she has a gift that could make everything better.

I found this book to be a step up from the other mini series. It was just as suspenseful and exciting but it was a little more real. My only complaint is Cinnamon's cover picture dosen't really match the one we're given (where's the dark makeup!) but you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover and this one was really good. I reccomend it to fans of VC Andrews work.

Andrew Neiderman's work seems to be improving. Cinnamon is better than the Orphans, or the Wildflowers, but as usual, it's very typical. I knew what would happen from page 1. This book was no V.C., but hey, it's getting better. I will read this series, even though I swore after reading Eye of the Storm I wouldn't read another ghostwritten book (under VCA's GOOD name) ever again.

I think this mutated semblance of literature needs to be crushed in the iron grip of "out of print" as does most of the poor dead idiotic ramblings of "the Ghost Writer" *cough* Andrew Neiderman.
Every word that floated into my vision from that most horrible book made me want to throw up all over again.
Oh and goodie-goodie! She's a goth! Yay! Diversity! *NOT* Everyone in highschool doesn't beat the different popularity over the head with a stick. It may just be my highschool, but I'm pretty much the picture people get in their heads when you say "non-conformist" and guess what, I have a.) never been accused of being a lesbian with my teacher b.) never had my mother go crazy for a month then come back and c.) never had a putrid evil half-mad grandmother.
Andrew had better have some body-guards, old Cleo V. Andrews might roll out of her grave and make an attemp on his life if this keeps up.
2 stars for the lack of romantic interest she had for her family members.

V.C. Andrews died several years ago and since 1987 a ghostwriter had been writing books under her name in "her style." I find the GW has been losing his touch after the Landry series and especially with the miniseries.

However, I did find this book enjoyable and that is why I give it four stars. It's unlike all the other miniseries books because of the fact that Cinnemon does have a somewhat good relationship with her parents, there are no dark secrets that she had to find out, and I liked the supernatural touch of the "haunted" house she lived in.

All in all I found this to be a nice change from the usual bland tales told by the girls in miniseries and I hope this suggests a change in the way the books are written.

V.C. Andrews must truly be spinning in her grave considering that her once good name has been dragged through the mud time and time again by Andrew Neiderman. I hope he can barely sleep at night knowing that he's only in it for the money and the family should TRULY be ashamed of themselves. The worst thing that happens to Cinnamon is Ooh, her "Mommy" goes crazy for a short period of time, and Ooh, she gets accused of being a lesbian with her teacher. The horror! *major sarcasm here* And can you tell me in what alternate universe does every single teenager call their parents "Mommy" and "Daddy"?! Not a single one of my friends does, that's for sure, nor anybody I work with or have ever met. Also the whole "Yes, Mommy", "No, Daddy, "Okay, Joe" thing gets REALLY annoying! Nobody says the person's name after every sentence. I think they should just let V.C. Andrews rest in peace. The only reason I gave "Cinnamon" two stars was because she wasn't your typical goody-goody in the lines of Ruby, Dawn, Rain, etc. She actually had a personality, shock of all shocks, and wasn't so obsessed with making everybody like her. A vast improvement in main character even though Neiderman remains VERY stereotypical in some senses. Of course the Goth Girl would believe in spirts and in "Ice" which I've just started she lives in a project. 'Cuz all black people live in a project, don't you know? *major, MAJOR sarcasm* Beware those who are asking for different ethnicties. You might get an Asian main character, but she'll probably have a "Mommy" who tries to control her every move, a grandmother stuck in the old ways, and a "Daddy" who owns a corner store. I don't think there's anything that can save these books except finding a different writer or at least firing Andrew Neiderman!

I enjoyed Cinnamon. I think that this is a type of a book that some teenagers might be able to relate too. I think that it had a decent storyline, but in some parts got a little predictable. I think that this series along with the rest will be really good. So I deffaintely look forward to the other books in this series...

I am sorry, but I was horribly dissapointed with this book, but I was also disappointed with Rain and that entire series. It just seems the V.C. Andrews books are losing there magic. I have loved every previous series (including the orphan series) before the most recent two, but somehow the plot and the character depth has become lacking. I guess it was inevitable with a company writing books for a dead author, but this book especially was repetitive to the past books and rather boring. There was nothing in it to draw you in like in her early novels... sigh, I do highly recommend reading the Dollanganger series as well as the Casteel series and many of the others (all of the other longer books and the orphan series).

The book Cinnamon isn't as good a read as compared to the hudson family series novels, ie. Rain, Lightning Strikes, Eye of the Storm, and End of the rainbow, but I feel that it has the magic that runs through in all the V. C. Andrews' books. A ritualed tradition in the V. C. andrews, the narrator in Cinnamon is also a female, she lives in the ghastly mansion which is in constant taunt by her peers as the 'Adams family mansion'. After the move-in of her obnoxious grandmother, her father is under the bonding mother-son you-have-to-do-what-I-say-because-I-am-your-mother-or-else-stress. Relatively, Cinnamon's mother isn't really adored by her intimidating grandmother. Her 5"4 in height might not seem all so intimidating, but her sharp remarks make her so. On one faithful afternoon in school, Cinnamon is interrupted by her grandmother's gleeful I-told-you-that-would-happen-soon-enough-face, and is taken out of school, to relate to some saness to her mother's temporarilly madness, because of the heavy impact of her second mis-carriage. Could our herione, survive the horrifying ordeals ahead of her, stand up to her grandmother, or not get possessed by the spirits lingering in the dim-litted-hide-away of an attic? Read the book to open the door to another world......

When I first began reading Cinnamon, I noticed many classic V.C. Andrews elements: a wicked grandmother, a fragile family, an unstable parent, and a forbidden romance...but as I delved into its pages, I felt personally involved in the story, and, before I knew it, I was done and hungry for more. I can't wait for the next Shooting Star book, Ice. I recommend this book to V.C. Andrews fans and newcomers alike.

I wasn't very happy with this book. I am an avid V.C. Andrews reader and found that this book lacked the v.c. andrews spice in all her later books. I am looking forward to the last novel that brings all the four girls together in hopes that it will make the miniseries some what entertaining. I loved the Hudson series and enjoy the novel series much more than the mini ones. The smaller books leave no room for more detail, enriching plots and the famous surprising twists that I love so much from V.C. Andrews.