Summer Reading;SuspenseHorror and Mystery
Discover the best summer reads with our chilling list of suspense, horror, and mystery books. Dive into thrilling page-turners perfect for your seasonal escape!
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The Unwanted
by John Saul
Cassie Winslow is sixteen. She has just lost her mother in a terrible accident. Now, lonely and frightened, she has come to live with the father she barely knows and his new family in tiny False Harbor on Cape Cod. For Cassie, the strange, unsettling dreams that come to her suddenly in the dead of night are merely the beginning. Very soon, Cassie Winslow will come to know the terrifying powers that are her gift. And in the village of False Harbor, nothing will ever be the same.
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Fallen Hearts
by V.C. Andrews
Proud and beautiful, Heaven came back to the hills -- to rise at last above her family's shame! As Logan's bride, she would savor now the love she had sought for so long. And free from her father's clutches, she would live again in her backwoods town, a respected teacher and cherished wife. But after a wedding trip to Boston's Farthinggale Manor and a lavish, elegant party, Heaven and Logan are persuaded to stay...lured by Tony Tatterton's guile to live amidst the Tatterton wealth and privilege. Then the ghosts of Heaven's past rise up once more, writhing around her fragile happiness...threatening her precious love with scandal and jealousy, sinister passions and dangerous dreams!
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Gates of Paradise
by V.C. Andrews
Her parents killed in a car crash and herself crippled, Annie Casteel Stonewall finds herself a virtual prisoner in Farthinggale Manor, frustrated in her quest for answers about her past
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Web of Dreams
by V.C. Andrews
With nowhere to go, no one to help her, will Leigh flee into the arms of the one person she shouldn’t run to? Don’t miss this fifth and final installment in the Casteel family saga from New York Times bestselling author and literary phenomenon V.C. Andrews (Flowers in the Attic, My Sweet Audrina), now a major Lifetime movie event. Leigh VanVoreen 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 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…
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Twilight's Child
by V.C. Andrews
As Mrs. James Gary Longchamp, Dawn is blissfully happy. But a legacy of deceit and betrayal still haunts her... At last Dawn can create a haven of warmth and love for her beautiful baby girl, Christie, and her darling Jimmy. Dawn is a huge success as the new owner of the Cutler's Cove hotel...and soon she and Jimmy will be blessed with a child of their own. Yet Dawn cannot quell her forebodings of evil. She can sense Grandmother Cutler's presence everywhere...can feel her bitter hatred as if the old lady plotted her vengeance from the grave. When Dawn discovers that her brother, Philip, still clings to his mad, shameful passion for her, she is heartstricken. Her spiteful, jealous sister, Clara, is far easier to ignore...until the day Clara's childish rage explodes into violence, destroying Dawn's most cherished, precious dream. Then Christie's father, debonair singing star Michael Sutton, returns. Now, as the heartaches and scandals of the past threaten to engulf her, Dawn must fight for her steadfast Jimmy...for only with Jimmy's love can she find the rainbow at the end of the storm.
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Midnight Whispers
by V.C. Andrews
Christie, Dawn’s daughter, searches for her own happiness and break the cycle of darkness that has plagued her family for generations in this book in the Cutler series from #1 New York Times bestselling author V.C. Andrews. Having grown up surrounded by love and safety, there’s no real reason for Christie Longchamp to feel that a cloud hovers over Cutler’s Cove—a cloud with origins in her family’s troubled history. But when Christie discovers the truth about her uncle’s unbrotherly love for her mother Dawn, she’s desperate to get away. Fleeing to New York City, she finds her real father...a pathetic, helpless has-been. Desperate and heartbroken, she turns to Gavin, her Daddy Jimmy’s young and handsome stepbrother. In his arms, Christie finds a refuge from her painful memories. But all too soon, she is torn from Gavin’s embrace and as black storms of evil gather around her, Christie must do what it takes to defy the curse that has haunted Cutler’s Cove for generations.
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Darkest Hour
by V.C. Andrews
Growing up on the thriving plantation called The Meadows, Lillian Booth cherishes the brightest, happiest dreams... Lillian's world is full of grand parties, 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. And when Papa loses The Meadows in a card game, 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...
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Ruby
by V.C. Andrews
Ruby Landry finds her simple life in the Louisiana bayou changing when she meets and falls in love with Paul Tate, a man from the right side of the tracks. Simultaneous.
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Pearl in the Mist
by V.C. Andrews
Fate whisked Ruby from a simple life in the Louisiana Bayou. But her new riches bring more treachery than happiness... Even after a year as a Dumas, Ruby still wonders at the splendor of the family's New Orleans mansion, and rejoices in the love of the father she had never known. But true happiness in her new home is as elusive as d swamp mist. Ruby must carefully avoid a venomous enemy: her stepmother, Daphne, who cringes and sneers at her backwater upbringing. And Ruby's every effort to befriend her twin sister, Gisselle -- especially since Gisselle's crippling accident -- is answered with bitterness and vicious backstabbing. So idyllic Greenwood -- the exclusive girls' boarding school that her father has chosen for his daughters' senior year -- seems to promise some peace from the conniving Daphne, and maybe even a fresh start with Gisselle. But Ruby's kind isn't welcome at Greenwood, and the legendarily strict headmistress, Mrs. Ironwood, plots with her stepmother to make her life miserable. Meanwhile, Gisselle is on a mission to break every school rule, leaving Ruby to suffer the humiliating punishments. But Ruby doesn't lose hope -- until a terrible tragedy leaves her alone in a world that never really wanted her. Ruby will have to summon every last ounce of her Cajun strength to reclaim her home, her future, and the happiness she once knew....
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All That Glitters
by V.C. Andrews
One of the most popular storytellers of all time, V.C. Andrews (Flowers in the Attic, My Sweet Audrina) continues an astonishing saga of psychological suspense with this third book of the Landry Family series—soon to be a Lifetime movie! Driven from the ornate Dumas Mansion back to her beloved bayou, Ruby struggles to begin her life anew in this atmospheric and thrilling novel. Living again in a humble shack, Ruby is determined to make a secure and happy home for her precious daughter, Pearl. At her side once more is Paul Tate, her first love, now a man of dazzling wealth. Whisked away to his grand house, it seems Ruby can forget the shocking reason she and Paul must wed in secret and remain husband and wife in name alone. But the grand walls of Cypress Woods cannot shut out the cold eyes of Paul’s mother. And when Ruby’s venomous twin sister, Gisselle, arrives to taunt her with news of Pearl’s secret father, the twisted lengths to which Ruby will go for love surprise even her. To save her family and her heart, she ally with her greatest enemy to do the unthinkable.
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Hidden Jewel
by V.C. Andrews
Raised in a New Orleans mansion filled with kindness and laughter, Pearl dreams of becoming a doctor. With all the finest families wishing her well, her high school graduation party is almost as festive as Mardi Gras itself. But the sultry Louisiana heat only seems to intensify her family’s sinful legacy and when a cruel accident befalls one of Pearl’s twin brothers, her tormented mother flees back to her Cajun roots. Pearl’s faith in her mother abides, but she cannot hold back tears when her other brother falls deathly ill, and her father retreats into his own bourbon-soaked world. As her dreams of success swirl away with the hurricane winds, Pearl journeys to the swamps in search of her mother and the shocking truths of her heritage. Luckily, she discovers a blessed refuge in the warm embrace of a gentle Cajun man. But, until the storm clouds clear, Pearl cannot savor the springtime sweetness that always, always seems beyond tomorrow.
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Tarnished Gold
by V.C. Andrews
In this captivating prequel to the mesmerizing Landry series, travel to the sultry Louisiana bayou and discover the twisted beginnings of the Landry family. Growing up in Louisiana, Gabriel’s young life is a happy one, despite the growing rift between her mother and her conniving, whiskey-drinking Daddy. Her dreams for a bright future as an artist are cut short, however, when her innocence is shattered by the rich cannery owner Octavious Tate. Pregnant and desperate to spare her mother the scandal, Gabriel agrees to a shocking plan that will allow Octavious’s wife Gladys to claim the baby as her own and will net Gabriel’s father a huge payoff. Hiding in a tiny abandoned playroom in the Tate mansion, Gabriel is miserable. Her only visitor is her mother, whose mission as a Cajun healer gives her an excuse to treat Gladys Tate’s supposed pregnancy. But nothing prepares Gabriel for the wrenching moment when her baby is taken away forever. Returning home to the swamp, Gabriel drifts in a world of gloom, brightened only by chance glimpses of her son. But as her father’s reputation as a swamp guide grows, a hunting party brings handsome, gentle Creole millionaire Pierre Dumas to the bayou. Falling desperately in love, Gabriel will not heed the voice warning that her new joy may bring her more grief than she can bear.
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Melody
by V.C. Andrews
Melody Logan knew her beautiful mother, Haille, was unhappy in their hardscrabble mining town.... But with her wonderful father's unwavering love, Melody always felt safe -- until a dreadful mine accident ripped her from her family's moorings. She was still devastated by her father's death when she left West Virginia with Haille to follow her mother's dream of becoming a model or actress. But first they stopped in Cape Cod to visit her father's family at last. Melody knew only that her grandparents had disowned their son when he married Haille -- just because she was an orphan, her mother said. Yet moments after Melody first laid eyes on dour, Bible-spouting Uncle Jacob, nervous Aunt Sara, and her cousins -- handsome Cary, whose twin, Laura, had been killed recently in a sailing accident, and sweet, deaf little May -- Haille announced that Melody was to live with them. Sleeping in Laura's old room, Melody was awash in a sea of grief and confusion, with only her beloved fiddle to comfort her. Then Cary revealed the truth he'd gleaned about her parents -- a sad shocking story that only puzzled her more. Melody knew nothing of the dark deceptions that would soon surface...the devastating betrayals she would face before she glimpsed the faint, beckoning lights of a safe harbor....
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Heart Song
by V.C. Andrews
From #1 bestselling author V.C. Andrews (Flowers in the Attic, My Sweet Audrina) comes the second book in the captivating Logan series... Melody Logan was as alone as a solitary gull, with only the wild Atlantic wind to lift her spirits... When Melody Logan's mother died in a car accident, Melody lost the last shred of family she had ever known. She was practically a stranger to the Logans, her wealthy relatives on Cape Cod, where she now drifted on a sea of dark secrets. In the eyes of gentle Aunt Sara, Melody was a replacement for her dead daughter, while for Uncle Jacob she was a reminder of the family's shameful past. Only good-hearted Cary seemed to care, and since it was revealed that she and Cary weren't truly cousins, the affection that had always surged between them now crested in thrilling waves. But Melody knew she could never truly echo Cary's loving promises until she discovered her own buried identity. Despite Grandma Olivia's dagger-like threats, Melody sought out Belinda, a mysterious, half-crazy woman who was her real grandmother. Belinda gave Melody hope—and a glimmer of the pearls of truth she knew were hidden in the shifting Cape Cod sands. Somehow, someday, the story of her past would be her hard-won treasure, to be savored in a world of sunshine and happiness...where she truly belonged.
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Unfinished Symphony
by V.C. Andrews
Melody Logan had only just found a safe harbor when a new storm set her adrift all over again... Melody had always believed her mother, Haille, and dear stepdaddy had died in tragic accidents—that's why she'd come to stay with her secretive Logan relatives on Cape Cod. But then a friend recognized Haille's picture in a catalog and kindled Melody's hopes. Maybe her mother hadn't perished in a fire in California after all, but was in some desperate trouble that kept her out of reach... Melody's dream of finding her mother seemed as flimsy as the scrap of paper that was her only clue. And despite the pampered life Melody was offered as a guest in a Beverly Hills mansion, nothing could soften the blow of the moment she stood face-to-face with her mother and saw her eyes turn dark and cold as stones. Melody knew there must be a reason why her mother pretended at first not to recognize her—and why she'd even faked her own death. Though Melody's beloved Cary beckoned from Cape Cod, she felt in her heart that her mother needed her now more than ever. And beneath her mother's unkept promises and tattered fantasies, Melody hoped to unearth the truth about her own past, and find her way to a safer, better place...where she could embrace a bright new future of her own.
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Music in the Night
by V.C. Andrews
A woman in Cape Cod dreams of a day when all her dark secrets are swept away in this unputdownable classic from the New York Times bestselling author of the Flowers in the Attic series turned into popular Lifetime movies. For Laura Logan, life on Cape Cod has been nearly perfect, full of magical days spent enjoying the sea with her beloved twin brother, Cary. But then, like the creeping of the tides, the vicious rumors at school begin—cruel voices saying unspeakable things about the Logans. Laura tries to ignore them, but not until handsome, gentle Robert Royce moves to their town does she feel truly carefree and happy again. While Robert’s smile drives the shadows from Laura’s heart, she still worries about Cary, whose gloomy moods drift in like the coastal fog. And then Grandma Olivia issues a chilling threat, forbidding Laura to see Robert ever again. Alone to suffer because of dark secrets no one will explain, Laura obeys...until the miracle of a glorious summer leads her back into Robert’s arms. But dark thunderclouds have been gathering on the horizon, and when they suddenly burst with tragedy, they howl a name from the Logans’ shameful past that plunges Laura into a silent, terrible agony. Now Laura can only dream of the warm, sun-filled life she so desperately desires…
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Olivia
by V.C. Andrews
Olivia always knew her younger sister would get into trouble, but she never realized the undercurrents of disaster would grow to a raging flood... Olivia was always the sensible one. The responsible sister. She took after their father, a man as cold and driven as the Cape Cod wind, a man possessed by an inner need to be respected and successful. She would be the one to take over his million-dollar businesses. She would become the unwavering compass and resilient caretaker of the Logan family—whether she wanted to or not. But Belinda belonged only to herself. Flighty, flirtatious, and possessed of a beauty that promised her a privileged life, Belinda was lavished with attention. Mother and Father, family friends, boys from school, they all adored Belinda. And as she matured into a young woman, her beauty became even more haunting. She vowed never to grow up, to remain forever an enchanting little girl to be worshiped and cared for. Then came that fateful night, when Olivia was awakened by the low whistle of the wind off the ocean...a whistle that became an unearthly wail coming from Belinda's bedroom. It was the tragic night that their father would forbid them to speak of ever again. The night they would never forget. The night that would send generations of Logans down an unavoidable path of lies, deceit, and heartbreak.
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Orphans
by V.C. Andrews
FOUR GIRLS CAUGHT IN THE SHADOWS OF THE PAST... FOUR EXTRAORDINARY NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING NOVELS -- TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME. V.C. ANDREWS® Orphans BUTTERFLY...She was a lonely orphan until a wealthy couple gave her a home -- and a chance to be a world-class ballerina. But her newfound happiness was as fragile as a spider's web. CRYSTAL...Bright and gifted with a flair for science, she found loving new parents, and a boyfriend in her new school. But a shocking tragedy could shatter her perfect world. BROOKE...Whisked away from the orphanage into a glamorous life, she was surrounded by every privilege a girl could want. But all she really wanted was to be loved -- just as she is. RAVEN...She put her painful past behind her when she was taken in by her aunt and uncle. But the torment she was about to endure was far worse than anything she had experienced before.
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Runaways
by V.C. Andrews
The spellbinding Orphans series concludes in this thrilling new novel from V.C. Andrews. "All for one and one for all" was the girls' motto. In the grim foster home for orphans run by Louise and Gordon Tooey, at least Brooke, Crystal, Raven, and Butterfly had each other. Calling themselves "sisters," together they could forget the past and dream of a new chance...a real home. Then they discovered a secret even more haunting than Gordon's heavy boots pounding on the wooden floors. Their fragile hopes of a better life shattered, they escaped the only way they could. Soon they were runaways in a borrowed car, desperately wishing to wake up one morning in a place of sunshine and love. Raven hoped to be a singer, Butterfly wanted to be a dancer, Crystal planned for college, and Brooke privately hoped to find her mother in California. On the open road the chains of sadness that had bound them seemed to melt away, and the kindness of strangers made a secure future seem almost real. But the highway was a dangerous place, and soon they were penniless and more vulnerable than ever. Alone under the wide western sky, they had only each other to ask if they should give up their dreams...or if they were really halfway to a haven of safety and happiness...
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Into the Garden
by V.C. Andrews
Four teenage girls with nothing in common but their miserable childhoods—but their secret pasts have bound them together forever... Misty, Star, Jade, and Cat first came together in Dr. Marlowe's group therapy sessions. They trusted no one but each other—and even that bond was fragile at best. One by one, each of the Wildflowers told her own story and bravely unveiled the inner wounds inflicted by years of lies, deceit, and untold family secrets; each revealed the shocking tales of how their parents hurt them, used them, or simply abandoned them. And as they shared their darkest feelings, they no longer felt like lost souls with nowhere to turn. Finally, years of loneliness and pain gave way to the realization that someone else in this world understood them. But then the sessions ended, and the girls didn't know if they would ever see each other again. Now they are coming together one more time. Jade has sent out invitations to her parents' mansion—the sprawling, opulent home that served as a battleground for much of her young life. There, the four will rekindle their bonds of friendship and trust. But this time, away from Dr. Marlowe's watchful eye, it will be different. Today, in the mansion's attic, Star, Jade, Cat, and Misty will take each other's hands and swear to tell the real truth—the shattering secrets that lie deep within them like smoldering coals. And once the darkest secret of all is spoken aloud, there will be no turning back. For there may be some things the Wildflowers should leave buried forever...