Darkest Hour

First lines

About this book

***Growing up on the thriving plantation called The Meadows, Lillian Booth cherishes the brightest, happiest dreams....*** ***Lillian's world is full of grand parties, of sunshine and promises, as thrilling as the fairy tales*** Mama spins for her and her little sister, Eugenia. No one, not even her cold, stern Papa and her Bible spouting sister Emily, can crush her spirits -- until the day Emily reveals the shattering secret at Lillian's birth, a secret Mama sadly cannot deny. ***Still Lillian refuses to believe Emily's hateful claim that she is evil, a curse...even when sweet, gentle Eugenia loses her fragile hold on life, and Mama retreats further into her fantasies.*** But when tragedy befalls her best friend, the one boy whose tender heart mirrors her own, Lillian comes to believe Emily's grim words. Meekly, she endures her penance, finding a strange solace in the endless repetition of prayers in a room stripped of all comforts. ***Lillian's heart is torn anew when, in a drunken haze, Papa subjects her to the most brutal degradation.*** Then Papa loses The Meadows in a card game, and Lillian is faced with a new and terrifying prospect. Arrogant, handsome playboy Bill Cutler will return the plantation -- if Lillian will marry him! Now Lillian must leave her girlhood home behind, and make a bold new beginning as the mistress of a hotel called Cutler's Cove...

Themes & subjects

About the author

V.C. Andrews

6 June 1923 – 19 December 1986

V. C. Andrews - vcandrewsbooks.com **Cleo Virginia Andrews, better known as V. C. Andrews or Virginia C. Andrews, was an American novelist.** She was born in Portsmouth, Virginia. Andrews died of breast cancer at the age of 63. Andrews' novels combine Gothic horror and family saga, revolving around family secrets and forbidden love, and sometimes include a rags-to-riches story.Wikipedia Born:Cleo Virginia Andrews, Jun 6, 1923, Portsmouth, Virginia, U.S. Died:Dec 19, 1986, Virginia Beach, Virginia, U.S. Occupation:Novelist