Forbidden Sister

Emmie had only heard back things about his older sister, Roxy. How she was a trouble maker and this is why she left. Emmie's father will not let Emmie follow in Roxy's footsteps. Emmie is curious about who Roxy is. She decides to do some investigation of her own into her sister. Will Emmie have a happy reunion or heartache?

I have read a couple books by the ghost writer for V.C. Andrews. I have to say that while it is a nice gesture, the books are not the same. However I thought I would give them another chance. This latest book sounded good. Also, the cover caught my eye.

It is sad when I am more intrigued to get to know more about Roxy then I am her sister, Emmie. Especially when Roxy is the main focus in the next book. Part of the problem was that I felt that Emmie had no back bone. Her father was awful and I can see why Roxy ran away. He may not be physically abusive but he is almost as bad by being somewhat emotionally abusive. So, I wanted to see Emmie grow and stand up to her father. Instead she tried to be the good daughter but used her mother as her crutch to stand on. Also, I did feel she was gullible. Emmie did grow a little backbone in the end but by then it was too late for me.

My other issue I had with this book is that it moved too slowly for my taste. It too a long time for the story to pick up about mid way. The ending was a nice lead into Roxy's story.

In New York City, when compliant Emmie Wilcox was six years old, her martinet Papa threw out her rebellious older sister fifteen year old Roxy for breaking his rigid rules. Over the next few years, Papa cleansed any evidence that he had an older daughter and raged whenever her French Mama mentioned the forbidden name of Roxy. Emmie even concluded she goes to a strict private school as a reaction to Roxy's rebellion.

With her parents' unaware and accompanied by her best friend Chastity Morgan, Emmie begins to follow the mystical Roxy who the BFFs see escorting various men. When Papa and Mama die, Roxy becomes Emmie's guardian. As both struggle with their loss and coming together for the first time in a decade, Roxy's escort service causes issues for the student; and M's arrival at the escort's business leads to danger. However both venues begin bringing two sisters coming together trying to do what is right for each other.

Forbidden Sister is a deep family drama in which both siblings are fully developed and through their respective filters so are their parents. Character driven, readers will enjoy this discerning relationship tale filled with plausible surprises.

Harriet Klausner

First I must disclose that I know and like Andrew Neiderman, the ghost writer of the V.C. Andrews series for many years. While this is not a genre that I write or read, I have read four of Andrew's books but this is the first V.C. Andrews novel. It is an interesting piece of work and follows his writing rules to the line. Build outstanding characters and see how they react to the story plot.

This man, this writer, has written over 115 books and has sales of over 106 million copies. Now his writing has to be appealing to many readers. This book is the first of a series and I see there is now another one out. Andrew is very productive.

You can not go wrong reading a V.C. Andrews or Andrew Neiderman novel--you just can't. Borrow one from the library, rent one, buy one on Kindle, and then stock your shelves with them. I encourage you to start with Forbidden Sister and take the series as they come. You won't be disappointed.

This was not my favorite VC Andrews book, mainly because I felt like I was waiting for something big to happen to the main character, Emmie, but I finished the book feeling unfulfilled. Emmie is a teenager who is becoming curious about her older sister, Roxy, who was kicked out of the house when Emmie was a young girl. Emmie learns of her sister's secret life and desires to seek out answers about Roxy's life and the choices that she has made. Emmie has challenges of her own as she deals with death, friends that aren't really friends, and the beginnings of love - and some of these events bring Emmie and Roxy together. The second book in this series will be "Roxy's Story". I'm not sure I will look to read that one, as the storyline of this book was drawn-out and and I did not feel emotionally invested in the characters.

When Emmie Wilcox was only six years old, her father threw her older sister, Roxy, out on the streets. No one was allowed to speak of Roxy and all of her belongings were thrown away or burned (except for what their mother could save and hide from their father). Now Emmie's a teenager and she longs to find her older sister and discover the truth which ripped her family apart for so long...

`Forbidden Sister' fell flat for me. I didn't feel engaged by the story, the characters were less than two-dimensional, and the only person I actually liked out of all of this was Roxy. Emmie's journey to find her sister didn't resonate with me and I would only consider reading the sequel because it's Roxy's story.

In true V.C. Andrews fashion, this story was fantastic!
It didn't have the mystery I was used to, but it still had high amounts of intrigue. Some very sensitive subjects dominate the book, but some valuable lessons are learned from them.
Strong characters lead the way. I really enjoyed Emmie, whom this book is centered around, but Roxy is quite interesting to me too. Like Emmie, needing to know what happened became the sole focus for me. I had to keep reading until the story could fully come together, and disliked taking breaks or having to put the book down at all.
Can't wait to get my hands on a copy of the next book in the series. It focuses on Roxy.

He over did this one on the everything going wrong for the star. One bad thing after another, and nothing good at all. All VC books are dark, but this one had no light. It never resolves anything or goes anywhere. But, it is a book one. The characters and story is well built for a good book two. I would say wait and buy them both. Or read for free in a library. I didn't see any poor editing. The wording seemed excellent to me, though I don't know if they say Mama and Papa in NYC. The romance was a dud and missing, the star, seemed worse than the call girl. There is no way I could read this one again. You have to put something good in them. It's like he just wrote saying what other missery can I throw at her? Too much.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this. Granted my standards for the Andrews/Neiderman books have gotten extremely low over the past several years so maybe that's why I'm being so gracious with this one, but it was DECENT. I'd give it 3.5 stars if that were an option. AT LEAST THERE WERE NO VAMPIRES OR GHOSTS, so in that sense it was truer to the traditional VC Andrews stories we all miss. Aside from the general plot formula (teen girl that is smarter/prettier/more mature than her peers, tragedy, temptation, oh no what will she do?) there is at least a new story line that hadn't been done before.

This is the first VC Andrews book I've read in quite some time where I felt like I wanted to continue following the character's life, and would be happy to see a 5 book series. The next book in the series is a prequel but I hope they don't stop there, I want to know what happens to Emmie after this book. I feel like there's a lot of ways they could go with it. I felt like that leading up to the end of this book too, I didn't know until the last moment where they were going to go with it, the scary tragic outcome they seemed to be hinting at for a bit, or a more positive outcome.

Did anyone else find it ironic that this book was centered around a prostitute, and yet was the only one I can recall that did not have a single sex scene??

I've been particularly generous with these comfort-read ratings, so even these two stars are probably over-the-top. But this Forbidden series is especially dodgy, as I learned from THE FORBIDDEN HEART novella last year.

There is so much shaming, it's hard to know where to begin. Virgin shaming, slut shaming, fat shaming, French shaming, escort shaming, sister-of-escort shaming, non-military shaming, orphan shaming, and those are just off the top of my head - there's probably more. So many unlikable characters, stereotyping, and generalising.

For many unexplained reasons, Roxy Wilcox's parents kicked her out, or she left, when she was fifteen. During the next six years, she became a high-priced escort (because of course she's too beautiful to work the streets or whatever). That's right, ladies and gentleman - a sex worker named Roxanne. I can't remember the lyrics to that Police song, but I know Flight of the Conchords' "You Don't Have to Be a Prostitute", so I've got the gist of it.

Roxy's mother, Vivian, is from Paris, and reportedly she had an older sister who was quite like Roxy. So Roxy's dad clearly figures the "bad behaviour" is genetic. And French. Not American. So therefore not his fault, or whatever. I just don't believe that Americans are any less prudish than the French. YOU'RE ALL AS PRUDISH AS EACH OTHER, PEOPLE - HUG IT OUT!

So, how French is this family? So French that Emmie (six years younger than Roxy, and who narrates this novel) has been having wine with dinner for years. Because the French are winos, seems to be the insinuation. But I don't believe that Americans are any less drunk than the French. YOU'RE ALL AS DRUNK AS EACH OTHER, PEOPLE - HUG IT OUT! How much of a wino is Emmie? Enough that at her boyfriend's family dinner, she gives an instructional demonstration of how to properly taste wine, and how to pronounce if it's any good. Which of course it is, because rich folk aren't drinking to get drunk on cheap plonk. You know on "Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure" when James blows a whistle anytime someone (including himself) is being a "wine ponce"? This scene in the book is one big whistle-blow.

You don't have to be a promiscuous French wino to be offended by this novel. I'm hoping the sequel will be a little less awful, but it likely won't be.

P.S. Relevant links: [...] and [...]

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this. Granted my standards for the Andrews/Neiderman books have gotten extremely low over the past several years so maybe that's why I'm being so gracious with this one, but it was DECENT. I'd give it 3.5 stars if that were an option. AT LEAST THERE WERE NO VAMPIRES OR GHOSTS, so in that sense it was truer to the traditional VC Andrews stories we all miss. Aside from the general plot formula (teen girl that is smarter/prettier/more mature than her peers, tragedy, temptation, oh no what will she do?) there is at least a new story line that hadn't been done before.

This is the first VC Andrews book I've read in quite some time where I felt like I wanted to continue following the character's life, and would be happy to see a 5 book series. The next book in the series is a prequel but I hope they don't stop there, I want to know what happens to Emmie after this book. I feel like there's a lot of ways they could go with it. I felt like that leading up to the end of this book too, I didn't know until the last moment where they were going to go with it, the scary tragic outcome they seemed to be hinting at for a bit, or a more positive outcome.

Did anyone else find it ironic that this book was centered around a prostitute, and yet was the only one I can recall that did not have a single sex scene??

I've been particularly generous with these comfort-read ratings, so even these two stars are probably over-the-top. But this Forbidden series is especially dodgy, as I learned from THE FORBIDDEN HEART novella last year.

There is so much shaming, it's hard to know where to begin. Virgin shaming, slut shaming, fat shaming, French shaming, escort shaming, sister-of-escort shaming, non-military shaming, orphan shaming, and those are just off the top of my head - there's probably more. So many unlikable characters, stereotyping, and generalising.

For many unexplained reasons, Roxy Wilcox's parents kicked her out, or she left, when she was fifteen. During the next six years, she became a high-priced escort (because of course she's too beautiful to work the streets or whatever). That's right, ladies and gentleman - a sex worker named Roxanne. I can't remember the lyrics to that Police song, but I know Flight of the Conchords' "You Don't Have to Be a Prostitute", so I've got the gist of it.

Roxy's mother, Vivian, is from Paris, and reportedly she had an older sister who was quite like Roxy. So Roxy's dad clearly figures the "bad behaviour" is genetic. And French. Not American. So therefore not his fault, or whatever. I just don't believe that Americans are any less prudish than the French. YOU'RE ALL AS PRUDISH AS EACH OTHER, PEOPLE - HUG IT OUT!

So, how French is this family? So French that Emmie (six years younger than Roxy, and who narrates this novel) has been having wine with dinner for years. Because the French are winos, seems to be the insinuation. But I don't believe that Americans are any less drunk than the French. YOU'RE ALL AS DRUNK AS EACH OTHER, PEOPLE - HUG IT OUT! How much of a wino is Emmie? Enough that at her boyfriend's family dinner, she gives an instructional demonstration of how to properly taste wine, and how to pronounce if it's any good. Which of course it is, because rich folk aren't drinking to get drunk on cheap plonk. You know on "Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure" when James blows a whistle anytime someone (including himself) is being a "wine ponce"? This scene in the book is one big whistle-blow.

You don't have to be a promiscuous French wino to be offended by this novel. I'm hoping the sequel will be a little less awful, but it likely won't be.

P.S. Relevant links: [...] and [...]