Customer Reviews

Lightning Strikes (Hudson Family, Book 2)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I am a huge fan of V.C. Andrews and her "ghostwriter," Andrew Neiderman. When "Rain" first came out, I completely, thoroughly enjoyed it. And the sequel does it complete justice. In this story, Rain goes to London to attend the Drama school, but she must stay with her great-aunt and uncle, who contain a horrifying secret in their dark, scary mansion. And remember Larry Ward, Rain's elusive father who is rumored to be a Shakespearean scholar in England? He fits into the twisting plot as well. I love Rain and the story is vivid and wonderful. A delightful book!

The last time we saw Rain Arnold, she was being told by the only mother she has ever known that she is in fact not her own child, but the daughter of a wealthy family, and she will moving in with them. After dealing with tragedy on top of tragedy, Rain managed to graduate High School with the hopes of making it as an actress.

"Lightning Strikes" begins with Rain preparing to attend a performing arts school in London. Grandmother Hudson has made the arrangements for Rain to attend the school, and live with her sister Lenora, under the condition...they never find out Rain's true identity.

Rain arrives at her great-aunt Lenora's estate, with the family believing she is an au pair from America. Upon her arrival, she has been forced to deal with the creepy, estate manager, Mr. Boggs, and the story of Lenora's dead daughter, who supposedly haunts the estate.

Rain begins hearing noises during the night, seeing lights in parts of the house where no one lives, and feeling a strange presence around her.

Rain finds comfort in the form of Randall, a young man from her school that she is falling in love with, but will Randall feel the same after finding out Rain's true identity...To further complicate matters, she comes in contact with her real father.

Will Rain ever fit it...will she ever have a loving family...or will she be cursed with the lies and deceptions that have plagued her family's past...

As in all V.C Andrews novel's, the love relationships become tainted, the settings and characters are creepy, and the reader never knows which characters can be trusted.

V.C. Andrews has consistently written bestseller after bestseller, with a formula all her own, and it works. This type of fiction may not be for everyone, but anyone looking for dark, twisted, gothic fiction will enjoy this one.

Nick Gonnella

Many may not know it, but VC Andrews passed away a few years or so ago and her kids hired a writer to finish up her books. So far this writer has done a wonderful job. Although I did not care for the little mini series as much as the regular series books. Lightning Strikes continues the story of Rain. It kept me up the first night reading till I was about 1/2 way through the book. I can never seem to put VC Andrews books down anyway, but this one I just couldnt find a good spot to stop. Usually I can stop at a chapter end, but not with this one. You just want to keep reading and reading and find out what is going to happen next. You want to know more about the secrets of Rain's past. This book reminds me of all the other regular VC Andrews series from Flowers in the Attic and on. I cant wait for the next book in the series to come out. This book is a must read, along with the FIRST in the series "Rain" for any VC Andrews fan as well as anyone looking for a great story to read.

Yes, it behooves me to admit I read Part II of the so-called "thrilling" Hudson series. And more than likely, I'll be reading the last one as well.

I forgot to mention my problem about the characterization of Rain's sister Beni from the first book. Why was the darker-skinned sister portrayed as the troublemaker? I think the Andrews ghost-writers need a little sensitivity training (amongst other things). Talk about catering to stereotypes.

Was I hoping that somehow, the ghost writer(s) would vindicate themselves by allowing Rain to become more than a single-dimensional figure?

I was obviously asking for way too much.

The tawdry tale thus far...Rain Arnold ends up in London, once again taking the world by storm (no pun intended). On her way to theatrical bliss, she finds her real father, gets laid twice, and discovers that her psycho uncle likes to play dress-up with little maids in a dollhouse.

Meanwhile, back at home, Rain has become a filthy rich heiress, and her real family isn't thrilled in the least.

Haven't we done this already?

Not that I'm a prude, but what's this with all the unsafe sex? Why can't a V.C. Andrews novel feature a female character who isn't dropping her panties in every third or fourth chapter? I don't mind sex in a novel when it makes sense, like in romances, where there are two people expressing love in a physical way.

And I'm sorry, but Rain having sex with her brother/not brother is the height of tacky. It may have worked for shock value in the Dollenganger Series, but like much of the V.C. Andrews staples, has become too predictable.

Are there some unresolved issues in the Andrews' family that should be coming out?

Let me give the writers of this stuff a word of advice. If you're looking to emulate the great gothic novelists of the past, do yourselves a favour and READ THEM!

It goes to show you that sometimes Lighting *doesn't* strike twice. When it comes to V. C. Andrews books, it has "struck" for a long, long time.

I know most of the more recent reviews here praise this book being "wonderful", the "best I've ever read"...blah, blah. But, honestly, you want to *real* truth? Okay. I know you do.

We find Rain going to London and being the help of her Aunt and Uncle in secret. They don't know her true identity. During this time, she goes to a music school and falls in love, out of love and all the teenage melodrama that has saturated these books since the Ghostwriter took over. We also see Rain on a quest for her real father and we even see Roy again. And ,of course, Rain finds out some secrets that her realtives keep hidden in closed down cottages.

And...that's about it.

Yep, that's it. Nothing more and nothing less. Call this "Rain's little adventures in London". The book copies many elements of the Cutler series to similar scenes to right down to actually wording. Oh yeah, it also has a little Casteel "mystery" to it but not as pronounced. To be honest, there really isn't anything in this book WORTH celebrating. I could get more drama in a daytime soap opera--during a slow week. Everything was just predictable. You've read the Cutler series? You even *remember* the Cutler series? Then you've got Lightning Strikes.

I could have given it a lower score, but I find this to be an improvement from the previous novels. A little more interesting, but not that much.

Or at least her dream is. I have read all of the other books and was a bit disapointed though read them quite enamered by the style of the writing. I find this book was hard to put down and I wish it could have gone on longer. By the end of some of the most recent books I had found myself wanting it to end. This book I WANT MORE! Keep um coming!

I agree with all the negative reviews. I'm tired of brother-sister or half-brother/half-sister unions. I'm also tired of people raised as siblings ending up in the sack. The thing I found most distateful about this book was Roy's stupid phony act of not knowing who Rain was when they finally (and you knew they would) slept together. It was so stupid, phony, contrived and such an insult to all readers' intelligence. Get an umbrella for the RAIN!

Disappointed by the earlier ghostwriters' mininovelettes, Rain and Lightening Strikes have once again lightening bolted their way back into my heart. This book, LIGHTENING STRIKES, is a more indepth stormy look into our characters' life. The book jumpstarts with a thunderous beginning which grabs the reader and tummels you into the story. Believe me, you will light your emergency candles to stay up with this one through the storm until the very end which will leave you flailing waiting for your SOS from Amazon.com that you are moving on into the "Eye Of The Storm". I give this book 5 thunderclaps of praise...well worth a trip to www.AMAZON.com for your own personal copy to read and reread again!

I have all of Virginia Andrews' books (except the Wildflower series) and yes, they are pretty much all the same - the formula - but I still enjoy reading them.

But this one annoyed me. There were so many glaring errors regarding her life in London. She gets given tickets to see a show on a Sunday - with very few exceptions theatres don't perform on a Sunday here. She is looking through the phonebook for her dad and looks up all the men with the first name Larry (can't remember what his surname was) - phonebooks here don't list first names, just initials. The maid where she worked was called Mary Margaret - that is an almost unheard of combination over here. Her father's wife (who is English) wrote a poem which mentioned a 'trash can' - not a phrase an English person would use. And don't even get me started on the cockney style of writing...

Either get a ghost writer who knows about life over here or keep your characters in the US. It is niggly things like that which made me doubt the characters and didnt allow me to get as involved as normal.

Well, this series is just like the Cutler series. Despite it being so predictable I did like the fact that there was some new diversity. Although I didn't like how the darker sister (Benny or Benji) was villianized in the first book, but that's just my pet peeve and I really don't expect anything different when it's written from an outsider's perspective. Anyway, I resent the fact that the ghostwriter(s) can't seem to let these girls be anything except dancers, painters or singers. It's like saying that the only thing that a desirable innocent girl can do is something in the cultural arts. Why can't these women be fiercly intellectual? The only ones who are smart, are the unattractive and evil ones.

I don't want to say only negative things, because I do feel that the series had improved... a little. Hopefully, somebody is paying attention to the posts, so the readers can get something more substantial.