Customer Reviews

Delia's Heart

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I am an "older" reviewer (in my early 30's) having become interested in VC Andrews books after the Flowers in the Attic movie came out (even though the movie sucked). I started reading VC Andrews in jr. high and pretty much spent those years and through high school and the beginning of college reading all the books through the Ruby series. I was done when I read Melody and decided that it wasn't anything new and different. The formula was the same and I was tired of it. However, I recently discovered that the Delia series was to take place in Southern California (where I live) and the heroine was Latina (which I am) so I decided to give it a shot. Unfortunately for me though, it was a big waste of time and money. I thought the author generalized Mexican culture. If the author had mentioned the exact area Delia came from it would have lent the story a bit of authenticity. I guess I could have stopped reading the books after the first one, but something compelled me to finish the series. Possibly, hoping that it would get better (it didn't), or maybe thinking that the character developments would somehow reveal a major plot twist... like maybe Delia would die and the story would pick up from her child (nope). Delia's character development was unevolving and her constant poor decision making made me feel like she deserved all that happened to her. I couldn't relate to her at all on ANY level, and I couldn't even root for her because she seemed like she never learned and was always going to be the damsel in distress, going around making stupid decisions left and right. To sum it up, the writing was bad, I didn't like the characters and the ending was lame.

btw-In my opinion, Heaven series was the best and will always be by far the most interesting of all the VC Andrews books.

Delia's Heart was just a rehash of everything we've heard before, over and over again. Including the horrifically bad writing...characters "chant" and "recite," their "eyes grow small." (WHAT does that mean? They squint?)

These books are horrible. Even if these books are now geared toward teenagers, they deserve to read better than this.

It honors me to review another book by V.C. ANDREWS aka Andrew Neiderman. I had hoped to beat the "Queen of Mean" to a review but alas she beat me. But here is a good review for you. I only wish some people would get over the fact that Ms. Andrews died 20 years ago and without Mr. Neiderman's brilliance, we would not have VCA novels anymore.

I never review the book or the plot. You have to read it and enjoy it. But this is not a tweener novel as the Queen of Mean suggests. Delia's Crossing pleased me very much, but simply put, I was blown away by Delia's Heart. This is an honest, heartfelt, gripping novel of a young woman pulled in so many directions I could hardly keep track of them. Yet she still manages to hold her head up high and come through it with the greatest gift of all... a child on the way.

Aunt Isabella is a villain as true as Olivia Foxworth. You want to like her, you want to feel for her and her circumstances, but you just can't. She turns off hot and cold like a water faucet! I said it before and I will say it again... Isabella Dallas deserves a novel of her own!

Beginning with the Willow series and continuing with this, the Delia series, there is a marked maturation of the characters and the plots. Young folks, "tweeners", and us old folks (ha ha) can enjoy the Willow and Delia works. I also liked very much that the book takes place over a matter of some years... not a short period of time. We get such a better insight into the characters. Will Delia's Gift blow me away even more? I sure hope so!

Later in the year we will be treated to the Heavenstone Secrets. Dare we hope for more brilliance? Bravo, Mr. Neiderman, bravo!

Delia's Crossing was okay... for a tweener novel. As a VCA novel, it was entirely unacceptable. When you compare the newer series with the old (Early Spring, April Shadows, DeBeers, Gemini, Attic Secrets vs Dollanganger, Cutler, Casteel) it is clear that the quality of Neiderman's work has declined greatly.

It is clear to me that he is not even trying anymore, and that he is only using VCA's name to milk it for profit. V.C. Andrews has been dead for only twenty years. Andrew Neiderman has been writing under her name for over twice as long as VCA herself has! Doesn't that seem wrong to you?

It was one thing for him to finish the books she was unable to finish, and I also enjoyed the Cutler series immensely even though some others did not.

But this is ridiculous. Delia's Crossing, like I said, is nothing more than a tweener novel. Losing her parents in a accident, living with a mean aunt, etc etc... Isabella isn't a villain, not a real one. Malcolm and Olivia Foxworth, Vera Whitefern, Jillian and Tony Tatterton, Kitty Setterton/Dennison, Emily and Pa Booth, Clara Sue and Phillip Cutler... now, these were villains (each in their own fantastic way)! Isabella is a pale imitation, and this book is no better than the last one.

Mean high school kids, a unexpected pregnancy, same old blah stuff that Neiderman keeps recycling over and over and over (and in unimaginative ways) And now there are no more prequel books.

Is this a good or bad thing? Good, because it means that we don't have to read about the same flat, cardboard characters, and they were shallow enough as is and offered no real explanation to why their families turned out the way they did.

Bad, because it means that the "villains" (I used the quotation marks here for a reason) don't have their motives explained, or why they became "villains". Garden of Shadows, Web of Dreams, and Darkest Hour were fantastic prequels which helped explain the series they belonged to.

Andrew Neiderman, do us all a favor. If you insist on continuing to write these tweener novels, do it under your own name. You have been abusing VCAndrew's name for faaaaaaaaar too long. This book is nothing more than a tweener novel with cardboard characters and a predictable plot, and is more than unworthy of Ms. Andrew's name. Her books were always a pleasure to read, and sometimes I would reread a passage because I enjoyed the wording so much. I blaze through these new "novels" in a matter of two hours, sometimes just one and a half, because these books are laughably simplistic (and with the WORST metaphors and similes I have ever seen)

V.C. Andrews, may you rest in peace, and may your legacy always be cherished. True VCA fans like myself will always do so. We love you.

I suppose this trilogy was better than the duologies before it (Secrets and Early Spring). The epilogue in the last book seemed a tad tacked on. None of the characters were remotely the same. Also why is Delia NAKED in the stepback pictures of her. Who in their right mind would be unclothed in the the middle of a cemetary, OR A DESERT!!!!!! Anyway, did they even use the same model? It sure doesn't look it!

I guess this book was okay, it kind of seems like each series lately is becoming more and more lame though. I'm so sick of the whole teenage pregnancy thing, and the villans in this series are hardly evil at all. Hopefully the next series will pick up a bit.

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There were a couple of the last VC Andrews books that didn't do much for me, as I have read all of her books, but this series is pretty good, keep me interested and could not wait to get each new book :)

i have enjoyed reading vc andrews but finally had to put this book down half way because i found i couldn't read any more - very disappointed

This book was better then the first and I could not put it down from start to finish. I would recommend any one buy it!