review: cloudburst by v.c. andrews

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Cloudburst picks up Sasha Porter’s story three years after Family Storms. Although it is a continuation with many of the same characters, it seemed as though the author had not even read the previous book. The continuity errors started almost immediately with Sasha commenting on how having her own car would save her foster father from having to drop her off at school, but in the first book, the driver (who apparently no longer exists in this book) always took her. From there, Sasha was quite nearly a different girl altogether as she snobbily flitted about her private school. I tried to convince myself that Sasha’s personality change was due to all that happened to her in Family Storms as well as what must have occurred over the three intervening years, but her forgiveness of her foster sister was hard to swallow.

When a novel carries the V.C. Andrews name, there are expectations that go along with it; this story seemed more like a typical young adult general fiction novel. That’s not to say it wasn’t still a decent read (after one ignores the continuity issues), but those looking for something similar to Flowers in the Attic or Dawn will likely be disappointed. Here Sasha suffers more typical teen dramas like gossip about how far she’s gone with her boyfriend and her foster parents not wanting her to see said boyfriend. There is a brief glimmer of a V.C. Andrews-esque plot, but it is quickly ended.
3/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Pocket Star Books.