Redemption by Heather Gray Book Review

     This tells the story of Minnie Drake who is a suspect in the murder of her husband William Drake.  She move back home to the small town of Larkspur.  There she meets up with an old friend Arty Paulson.  While there Arty tries to figure out who really killed Minnie's husband.  While investigating two men show up in the town and are following Minnie and her family.  Both men are arrested and it is found out one is actually a detective from the city that Minnie and her dead husband were living in.  Both find out from the other man that Arty's deputy was in on the plot to harm Minnie and the men take off to check on Minnie.  They arrive at Minnie's house and found out that she had been kidnapped.  They chase down the deputy and save Minnie.  Months after the incident Arty asks Minnie to be his wife and she accepts.
    I really liked this story.  It was a real page turner.  I had to keep reading it until the very end.

Petals on the Wind by V.C. Andrews book review

     The story takes place after the events of Flowers in the Attic.  Christopher, Cathy, and Carrie are on a bus heading toward Florida; when Carrie starts getting sick on the bus that upsets some of the passengers.  One of the passengers is a maid to a doctor and takes the children to the doctor that she is employed by.  The doctor takes them in and sends them to school.  Christopher ends up becoming a doctor just like he wanted too.  Cathy becomes a ballerina and becomes somewhat famous.  Cathy was going to marry the doctor but the doctor's sister interferes and Cathy's ends up marrying her dancing partner Julian.  Julian then becomes violent with Cathy and eventually Cathy becomes pregnant.  But before Cathy could tell Julian about it; Julian gets into a nasty car accident and ends up paralyzed.  While in the hospital Julian commits suicide after Cathy tells him she is pregnant.  Cathy give birth to a son and names him Jory.  She ends up moving back to the town that the nightmare began for Cathy and her siblings.  While there she meets up with her mother, Corrine's, new husband, Bartholomew Winslow.  She seduces him and too ends up pregnant by him also.  Also her sister Carrie feels that she won't amount to anything and kills herself the way her mother killed her twin brother.  She then decides to crash a party her mother is hosting and reveals that she is Corrine's daughter and that Corrine had three other children also and that one was killed by Corrine.  When Christopher arrives is when Corrine confesses to everything.  Then Foxworth hall catches fire and everyone is scrambling to get out.  Once outside Corrine screams that her mother is still inside the house and Bart runs back in to save her.  Bart ends up dying in the fire with the grandmother and Corrine is put in a straight jacket and taken to a hospital.  Flash forward a few year and Cathy has married the doctor.  She has moved back in with him and is raising her two sons now with him.
     I loved how this book was written.  I'm glad that the author kept it on Cathy's point of view the whole time.  I really liked seeing how the characters developed after getting out of the prison that they had been in for three years.  I can hardly wait to read the next book in the series.