Willow (De Beers, #1) by V.C. Andrews

Willow (De Beers, #1) Reviews

• 
  Bodosika Bodosika

  Willow is an interesting and emotional story and it kept me awake for some time just to know how it all ended,and I love how it all ended and I will soon begin to look for the sequel WICKED FOREST.
• 
  Patricia

  My favorite V.A. series. I think the Willow books are clever. Written with a psychological perspective.
• 
  Ashley Schlueter

  For more reviews, visit
  https://oneyearonehundredbooks.com/
  
  In my childhood home, like so many in the mid 90’s, there was a dusty shelf on the bookcase filled with old V. C. Andrews paperbacks. My parents were extremely strict about policing what I watched on T.V., but were much more casual about what I read. When I was around ten or eleven years old, I picked up Flowers in the Attic, and my eyes were opened. It was my first encounter with a book that dealt with overtly sexual themes such as incest and rape, and I had no idea what was happening in the more “adult” scenes. Nevertheless I found that I enjoyed the high melodrama and the continuous cycle of betrayal and forgiveness. All through high school, while I was taking AP Literature and preparing to begin my degree in English, these books were my guilty pleasure.
  
  This past Christmas I had the chance to spend the holidays with my family back in the States for the first time in many years. While I was sitting and catching up with my parents I took a glance at the family bookcase and there they were. The same tattered V. C. Andrews paperbacks I had read and re-read so many times. They had dwindled in number over the years, no doubt lost to garage sales and thrift stores. I was immediately hit by a wave of fond nostalgia, and when I returned to Canada I decided I wanted to revisit V. C. Andrews by reading one of her books that was new to me. On a whim, I chose Willow, which is the first novel in the five-book De Beers series.
  
  Why is any of this important? Because the nostalgia factor here is very strong, and definitely swayed my opinion on the book. If a person who was not previously familiar with V. C. Andrews read Willow, they would probably see it as the most ridiculous and silly kind of smut. But for me, going back into that world was so relaxing. It was like taking my brain off at the end of a long day.
  
  Willow has all of the trademarks that make V. C. Andrews the bestselling author of trashy family dramas. The title character suddenly finds herself dealing with the ritz and glamour of Palm Beach high society. The upper echelons of the upper class are pictured here as if they have been drawn by someone who had only the rudimentary idea of what wealth is. I’ve certainly never run in those circles, but somehow I find 6:00 am beluga caviar feasts as people toast themselves and how fabulous they are a bit far-fetched. Such though is the charm of V. C. Andrews, whose books have always focused on the super-rich and their dazzling lifestyles. Even though this novel is set in 2002, the characters behave as if they are perpetually trapped in some long ago era. The women are shallow and ornamental, the men strutting and arrogant. It’s all just so deliciously silly.
  
  I haven’t said much about the plot, but that’s because the plot is largely inconsequential. What matters is that Willow De Beers is suddenly transported to a life of fabulous wealth and dangerous secrets. How and why she got there aren’t treated with any great importance.
  
  Books like these are impossible to review. Objectively, Willow is terrible. The characters are paper-thin, there is virtually no plot. It’s mere window-dressing, but sometimes the window-dressing can be a lot of fun. I doubt I’ll read the other four books in the DeBeers series, but I’m glad to have read Willow.
  
  My rating: 2.5/5
• 
  Kim Smiley

  This book was ok. It was very slow to start. Willow DeBeers is an almost 19 year old college student. She was adopted at birth by her psychiatrist father, who had a patient that became pregnant and wanted to get rid of the baby. Willows adopted mother was a complete bitch who tried everything she could to get her father to commit her, fearing she'd inherited psychological problems. we hear a bunch of horror storeis about her adoptive mother, as she was pretty cruel to Willow as a child, but presently she is dead.
  
  Then of course, Willow's father suffers a fatal heart attack. He leaves Willow a diary in which he reveals he really is her bio dad. Apparently, he fell in love w/ a patient and after she was treated, stayed on at the Willows, (his name for his practice as well for his daughter) and had their child. His wife never knew that Willow was really his.
  
  So, Willow takes a leave of absence from college to seek out her bio mom. She finds her in Palm Springs, living in the guest house of her quite large estate, that she leases to the Eatons. Here, Willow meets Thatcher Eaton, the son of the Eatons. They are complete snobs and are the first to gossip of Willow's mother. They tell her she was raped by her step-father, resulting in the birth of her son, Linden, who lives w/ her in the guest house, which also houses their servants. They talk of her bio mom and half-brother as some kind of social outcasts. Now Willow is there under and assumed name, claiming to be doing research on the social lives of those in Palm Beach.
  
  Thatcher is immediately taken w/ her and later finds out her real name. His parents, still unaware of who she really is, invite her to live with them instead of in a hotel while she is doing her research, claiming they have many friends and many parties, so she will be able to observe on a better well. AFter she develops a romantic relationship with Thatcher, she takes them up on it.
  
  She does get the opportunity to meet her real mother, who immediately knows who she is. Her half-brother on the other hand, is a very talented artist, but very angry and withdrawn from society. He has his sights on Willow, and once he realizes who she is, flees in his sailboat and has a horrible accident, leaving him with amnesia due to his head injury.
  
  Once Thatcher's parents find out who she really is, they are horrified and she is asked to leave. She does return home briefly due to the death of the caretaker of her home in South Carolina. While she is gone, Thatcher doesn't contact her at all and she believes she has lost him as well, due to the influence of his parents.
  
  In the end, Willow decides to sell her family home and move in w/ her mother. The Eaton's lease is almost up at the main house and she looks forward to throwing them out and taking control of the estate, as she re-enrolls in a college nearby. Book 2 should be better, as the first seemed to set us up for what is to come. This book definitely got better, just as it was almost over.
• 
  Lamya Al Zadjali

  
  And people still wonder why I keep reading VC Andrews's books!!
  Basically they're like drug to me,they make me sick but I enjoy them anyway lol. Willow's story is unique, and it was full of unexpected things, I can't write down what the story is all about because it was just too much...I loved and lived the charterers. Linden was my favorite. It wasn't the best of bests but it was good and I enjoyed it.
• 
  Redfox5

  I could remember almost nothing of this book so it was like reading it for the first time all over again. I must read more of my v.c Andrews collection more often. This book now goes to live with the rest. I can't wait to start re-reading the rest of the series.
• 
  Emily

  This is a good beginning to a decent series. Andrews has a good plot in this one, since the later series seem to rely on previous plots....But a good read and good series.
• 
  Lia Rock lantz

  It was a good read although I did not care for the ending. I'm ready for the next one in the series.
• 
  Emily Kerr

  Slow start but it gets better around halfway through..
• 
  Lori Cotten

  I usually love V.C. Andrews and I still do but I had a hard time with the doctor/patient relationship. Interesting enough to read the second volume!
• 
  Stephanie

  I received this book from a fellow BookCrosser for winning a sweepstakes on BookCrossing. Since the author's name brought back memories of the "Flowers in the Attic" series I absolutely loved in high school, I thought I'd give it a go.
  The story unfolds as college student Willow delves into her family's secrets hinted at in a diary her father left to her after his death. The characters and the story line are all over the top, which the last sentence on the back of the book sums up nicely: "But as Willow spirals into a passionate love affair and becomes intoxicated with the lifestyle of the rich and famous, the dark truth about her birth family threatens her fabulous new life, pushing her to the brink of insanity..." While staying on a lavish Palm Beach property belonging to Willow's mother, but now rented by the parents of Willow's love interest Thatcher, Willow meets her "crazy" birth mother and [spoiler alert!] her artistic but reclusive half-brother, who was conceived through rape.
  When I read the included excerpt from the second book in the series and it turns out that Thatcher's mother was raped by the same guy as Willow's mother and now they're all somehow siblings or something, I realized I've truly left my "Flowers in the Attic" days behind. While the book was entertaining, I don't feel compelled to read the next one.
• 
  Anne Marie

  This is definitely another great VC Andrews book series. In this book, we meet Willow, the daughter of a recently deceased psychiatrist, who after reading his diary, goes to Palm Beach to try and meet her biological mother. She does get to meet her mother and half-brother after concocting a story that she is doing research on Palm Beach society for school. She also meets Thatcher, who lives with his parents on the property of her mother. They could almost be falling in love, until the truth of why Willow came to Palm Beach comes out. The only complaint about this book is Willow herself. She acts way too mature for her age and it gets annoying at times. She should have already graduated college to solve that problem.
• 
  Loraine

  Similar story themes to previous Andrew's stories with a pshycological view. It was alright, an easy fast read. I hated Thatcher's character immediately and considering how Willow was disdainful towards Palm Beach people, and everything that had happened to her Mother, I was surprised that she would fall for his pathetic charms. I could see right throught him and could have written the plotline that continues on the second book of this series. Oh and surprise, surprise - the brother fancies his sister. As much as I love V.Andrews, I think the same story told over and over is getting a little bit thin.
• 
  M.M. Strawberry Library & Reviews

  After the lackluster Hudson series, I, as a longtime VCA fan, was excited to pick up this book when it was released on the shelves nearly ten years ago. but I was disappointed. The ghostwriter using VCA's name obviously wasn't trying as much as he had been before, and everyone was flat. The story was only mildly interesting, and there was none of the thrills and chills that came with reading a real VCA book, or one of Mr. Neiderman's earlier ghostwriter books (Cutler, Landry)
  
  And I'm not sure why Mr. Neiderman couldn't have chosen a better family name, instead of the name of a jewelry/diamond business.
• 
  Kris - My Novelesque Life

  When I read these novels back in the day I would have given them 3-3.5 STARS and now would say about one Star
  
  
  I started reading VC Andrews books in the 1991 and stopped about 2003.
  
  I have read:
  -Dollanganger Series
  -Casteel Series
  -Cutler Series
  -Landry Series
  -Logan Series
  -Orphans Series
  -Wildflowers Series
  -Hudson Series
  -Shooting Stars Series
  -DeBeers Series
  -Broken Wings Series
  
  As a preteen reading these novels was a rebellion and the gothic theme also seemed cool. I stopped reading this author because the novelty wore off, the novels are too formulaic that I could not tell one book from another and gothic aspect was lost.
  
• 
  Kat

  After the death of her father, Willow discovers her biological mother is alive in Palm Beach. She gets sucked into the life of the rich and famous, sliding down a dark path of secrets.
  
  I enjoyed this one quite a bit. There was a lot of creepy vibes from each characters, even Willow when she was talking to herself. While the story seemed stiff in places, it was more enjoyable than some of the other books that have been written in Andrews name. Unnerving and ominous. Not kidding when they say not all that glitters is gold.
  
  Full Review:
  
  https://beentherereadthat.blog/2018/0...
• 
  Amy Packwood

  After discovering deep family secrets in her adoptive father's diary, Willow leaves her North Carolina college and sets out in search of her birth family amid the ritzy glamour of Palm Beach. But dark secrets about her family are lurking close by and threaten to derail the new lush life that Willow has quickly become used to.
  
  The De Beers series isn’t my favourite, but that’s not to say that it isn’t good. The glitz and glamour of Palm Beach certainly comes across and Willow actually has some sense about her, unlike some other VC Andrews protagonists.
• 
  Kathryn

  The first instalment in the DeBeers saga falls rather flat.
  
  Willow DeBeers is a college student who has just discover that her adoptive father is also her biological father. She is the product of a liaison between her father and one of his psychiatric patients. And that's really about the most credible part of the book.
  
  If the authors intention was to shock readers, he certainly succeeds through melodrama, flat characters and unbelievable situations.
• 
  Dawn

  This is the first book in the Willow series. Good read, but not my favorite series by this author. Her first couple of series were the best. A ghost writer has been writing under her name since her death. They have kept the same topics that she wrote about(abuse,incest, etc.). I will probably keep reading these books, but I think it is time to let V. C. Andrews rest in peace.
• 
  Chantal Noordeloos

  VC Andrews is a guilty pleasure of mine. I know they aren't the best of novels, but I can still enjoy them. This one I didn't enjoy at all. The characters were so flat and the story wasn't at all exciting. I was very disappointed, but then again I might just be getting too old for VC Andrews. It was something I really loved when I was a tween.
• 
  Cindy

  After the death of author V.C. Andrews, an unfinished manuscript was found by her family. They hired Andrew Neiderman to complete the manuscript and he went on to write many additional books under the V.C. Andrews pseudonym.
• 
  Clotilde Martinez

  Willow, the heroine of this saga, goes on a quest to Palm Springs find her biological mother after discovering that her late father had an affair with one of his mental patients. Along the way, Willow discovers the dark family secrets that might tear her apart.
• 
  Gabi

  I read the first book in the Debeers Series, "Willow" and I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately my Library here did not have the rest of the series. BUT I did find the whole series on ebay for a great price and bought them. SOOO excited to start this series!
• 
  Ren

  I'm too old for this junk now... Super unbelievable. I felt like I was watching a Soap Opera. Though I will say it did make me giddy to read a lot of Florida locations, since I was born and raised there.
• 
  Jodie Angeline Lee

  I really liked this series. I enjoy the books being set in more modern times for a change of pace.
  
  The character of Willow is quite an interesting one and her story keeps you reading and wanting more.