Roxy’s Story (The Forbidden Prequel) by V.C. Andrews-a review

Roxy’s Story (The Forbidden Prequel) by V.C.Andrews-a review

Roxy's Story

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ROXY’S STORY (The Forbidden #2) by V.C.Andrews

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date September 2013

The thrilling sequel to “Forbidden Sister,” featuring a high-priced escort whose goal is to reunite her sister with their relatives, but instead finds unexpected love. Kicked out of her house because her father can no longer tolerate her constant delinquency, Roxy wanders the streets of New York, living in a fleabag hotel. Spotted by an “agent” for Madam Brittany, a sophisticated woman who runs an escort service, Roxy is taken into the Madam’s “training program” where she is educated and set up with her own boutique apartment. When Roxy takes her sister in after their parents’ death, she doesn’t expect it to be for long. Her plan is to get her sister to Paris where she can live with relatives. But then Roxy’s own life becomes complicated when she falls in love with a wealthy young Frenchman while on vacation, and suddenly her immediate future seems uncertain…

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REVIEW: Roxy’s Story is the second storyline (and prequel) to V.C. Andrews (Andrew Neiderman) Forbidden Sister and focuses on RoxyWilcox-the prodigal daughter of American Norton Wilcox and his Parisian wife. Although this is a prequel, the storyline also runs parallel to some of the events in Forbidden Sister.

From her difficult birth to the day she was sent packing just prior to her eighteenth birthday, Roxy has always been the troubled child-fighting, disobedient, smoking, drinking and sex. The day her father had finally had enough was the start of Roxy’s new life and one that would eat away at her parents until the end. Leaving behind her younger sister, Roxy ventures into a world of the unknown only to realize that life isn’t as easy as she had thought it would be. Roxy’s Story is told from Roxy’s POV from a young age to the present covering approximately nine years in total. The premise parallels some of the storyline in the first book of the series Forbidden Sister and answers many of the questions about what happened to Roxy following her expulsion from her family home and the only life she had known. 

The storyline premise follows Roxy as she endeavors to survive the mean streets of New York. Expecting that one day she would be on her own, Roxy had a little money saved up but found it difficult to make ends meet. Life was about to take an abrupt turn when Roxy is offered a lifetime of riches and promises-but in the end it would cost her her heart when the world of high end escort was the only means of survival for a young woman without an education, support system or family to call her own. We watch as Roxy relearns how to walk, talk and act-all in the name of the bottom line and survival.

V.C. Andrews (aka Andrew Neiderman) pulls the reader into a storyline of family dysfunction; betrayal and heartbreak; losing and letting go. We watch as one woman loses everything and everyone that she has ever cared about and in the end knows that to save her sister from the same lifestyle she will have to send her away.

ROXY’S STORY is a story of one woman’s journey from life with her dysfunctional family to the world of escorts and, the rich and famous. V.C. Andrews has written a story where a young woman is mentored into a lifestyle she had never known but one that will essentially become the very thing that will allow her to cross paths with the man to whom she will give her heart and soul. The storyline does not dwell on the sexual side of the business nor does it look at the potentially moral and ethical problems of an escort-this is one woman’s story about how she was able to survive with the help and promise made by the people who promised to protect her from the life that could have been.

I hope that V.C. Andrews will continue the sisters’s story-there is so much more to tell.

Reviewed by Sandy

Forbidden Series

Click HERE for our review of Forbidden Sister.

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Forbidden Sister by V.C. Andrews-a review

FORBIDDEN SISTER by V.C.Andrews-a review

Forbidden Sister

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date February 26, 2013

I HAD EVERY REASON TO HATE HER, MY FORBIDDEN SISTER. SHE WAS LIKE SOMEONE WHO HAD DIED BUT WOULDN’T STAY BURIED. . . . Bestselling author V.C. Andrews unlocks an adventure of intrigue and temptation that shatters the innocence of a girl in search of the sister she’s never known.

Emmie Wilcox was only six when her older sister, Roxy, was thrown out of their New York City apartment. Their stern father’s military-style rules left no room for rebellion, and Roxy was continually defiant and rebellious. Emmie, now an outstanding student at a private school, is obedient, respectful, a fille parfaite, as her Parisian-born mother lovingly calls her. Two sisters, total opposites—yet Emmie is secretly obsessed with the mystery and imposed silence surrounding Roxy: What had she finally done to deserve being cast out of her home? Where is she now? Emmie can’t help but wonder if there is a hidden side to her that resembles Roxy’s defiant nature. Sometimes she fantasizes that she is more like Roxy than she appears. Sometimes she wants to be. She wants excitement, and being a good girl all the time is harder than it seems. Finally learning that Roxy is a highly paid escort to wealthy and powerful men, Emmie goes behind her father’s back to track down and spy on the sister she can’t help but be fascinated with, a sister whose influence might run deeper than Emmie ever dreamed.

In a tale twisting with heart-pounding suspense, shocking revelations, and the compelling family drama for which V.C. Andrews is known, Forbidden Sister introduces two new original heroines to capture any reader’s imagination

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REVIEW: For anyone who is not aware of the identity of V.C.Andrews, I would like to re-print this little blurb: Her novels were so successful that after her death her estate hired a ghost writer Andrew Neiderman, to write more stories to be published under her name. (Goodreads)

FORBIDDEN SISTER is a sad tale of one young girl who is caught between the love of her family and the need to find her ‘forbidden sister.’

Told in first person POV, we watch as Emmie endeavors to discover where her older sister now resides. Kicked out nine years earlier for being a ‘problem child’, Roxy has led a secret life that accidently crossed paths with her father’s business and in his eyes there would never be any redemption. Clinging to the hope that one day her father would forgive Roxy, Emmie ventures into the big city only to realize she really does not know her sister at all. But when two family tragedies occur within a few weeks of each other, Emmie must seek out her sister and learn what it is to be a family all over-again.

Forbidden Sister is a well written, contemporary drama, sometime depressing and heart breaking storyline about family rejection and social discrimination. We watch as a young girl verging on womanhood must suffer the anguish of a broken heart, discarded by her friends as trash, and suffer the humiliation of being labeled a whore by association. First love is always difficult but makes it even more difficult when rejection is accompanied by betrayal of a friend.

The author takes the reader through the highs and lows of teen angst, depression and isolation, and the perpetual rejection by friends, enemies and frenemies. Even the adults in her life see Emmie as a potential problem. But Emmie’s life takes a fascinating turn when her ‘Forbidden Sister’ becomes her guardian and Emmie is exposed to a lifestyle she thought only existed in storybooks and magazines.

There are times in everyone’s life where the heartache of family and the rejection by friends can overwhelm one’s ability to cope, but V.C.Andrews pulls no punches with the this dysfunctional family drama. One must always remember, that the public façade hides a myriad of sins behind closed doors.

Copy supply by the publisher.

Reviewed by Sandy

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