Web of Dreams by VC Andrews
Series: Casteel, #5
First Published on February 1st 1990 by Pocket Books
Genre: Romance, Fiction, Young Adult
432 pages
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased
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Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
With nowhere to go, no one to help her, Leigh fled into the arms of Luke Casteel! Leigh Van Voreen had to escape from Boston’s Farthinggale Manor. The foul secret she harbored within her seemed to darken her life forever. Jillian, her mother, would not believe her…and Tony Tatterton, her stepfather, had betrayed her most cruelly.
But the pure devotion of Luke Casteel promised her hope and respect. Only Luke knew her deepest of secrets…only Luke would love and protect her. Bravely she bore the suspicions of the Willies’ hillfolk, as she tried to grasp the happiness that had so long eluded her. Leigh prayed with all her heart that her bright, shining dreams would save her from tragedy at last…
Review
What I always like about VC Andrew’s story is its simplicity. There were no super impressive words you’ll need to consult your dictionary with every single minute, which I guess is one of the reason why I enjoyed this story more. Ofcourse there were times where I like it when a book has some few very intelligent words in it, but sometimes I just want an easy casual read, and this is one of those times.
As for the story, I wasn’t actually an instant fan while starting the first few chapters of this book. I actually thought it was a bit bland, maybe because I was already looking forward to knowing what this book is really all about. It’s hard for me to guess it just by looking at the cover and it’s accompanying picture, so I guess that made me want to hurry to know what this story is all about, lol.
And once I got an idea about the story, I can’t help but feel really bad for Leigh and her dad. Her mom is such a selfish person that all she thinks about is herself. I guess she really did love her daughter in her own twisted way, but it’s not hard to see that she loves herself more. I thought that’s the only extent of the thing she could do to hurt Leigh, but nah! She became really more irritating once she got remarried, just thinking about how she betrayed Leigh breaks my heart. It wasn’t just her mom who betrayed her but all the people whom she thought loved her did. I actually felt disturbed reading those chapters after her mom got remarried.
Leigh grew up really comfortable being the daughter of a shipping company owner. She had a loving dad and a mom who looks after her, even though she can be really too much at times. However, that happy life shattered once her parents got divorced. Her life literally did a 180 turn, which is mostly because of her mother. I just can’t imagine how hard it would have been for her dealing with all of those changes at such a young age. I don’t think there were instances in this book that I hated her character. Yes she grew up from a wealthy family and used to have all the nice things in life, but despite all of that, I think she grew up to be a fine lady. I actually admire her braveness and innocence, but because of such awful people, she got tainted. Just thinking about how her mom and step dad betrayed her still makes my blood boil. But the girl got spunk and I’m glad she was able to find happiness despite what happened. I’m just really sad it ended so soon, huhuhu.
I really don’t like the ending. There’s so many sides I would like to read more after the decision Leigh made at the end. But then I just found out that this book is a part of a series, lol, and apparently this is the story of Heaven’s mother. So sorry for that slight spoiler, wahahhaa. But in all fairness, I wasn’t really confused with the characters because there weren’t that many to keep track of.
I may not have liked the ending, but I got really invested to Leigh’s story, which explains the 3.5 star rating, *wink. I’ll definitely be hunting down the other books in this series soon.
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I only read Flowers in the Attic and the one after that from this author.
I have that one in my reading list, did you enjoy that story?
I used to read every VC Andrews book that I could find. I do want to do a reread of some of my favorite series. I think that the Casteel series was my favorite back in the day.
Now that makes me even more excited to read the other books of this series <3
I’ve never heard of this author before. I’m glad to hear that at least some parts of the story were compelling enough to interest you, although the ending wasn’t as satisfying as hoped.
claire @ clairefy
I actually like how simple VC Andrews write her stories. As for this book, the ending may have been a little let-down, but this series as a whole still intrigued me. Hope you’ll get the chance to read something from hers 🙂