Little Paula by Andrew Neiderman and V.C. Andrews is a BHW pick #thriller #gothic #vcandrews

Title: LITTLE PAULA

Author: V.C. ANDREWS (written by long-time ghost writer Andrew Neiderman)

Genre: Thriller/suspense/gothic

Publisher: S&S / Gallery Books

Book Blurb:

Nothing can come between a mother and her child in this haunting sequel to Eden’s Children from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Flowers in the Attic and Landry series—now popular Lifetime movie events. Faith Eden’s brief foray into motherhood is marked by tragedy. Distraught that her baby was ripped away from her, she is determined to get little Paula back from the wealthy family who adopted her. Her brother, Trevor, is also anxious to get the baby back and will do anything necessary to do so. But when the dark truth comes to light, this twisted family will stop at nothing to keep outsiders out and secrets in—no matter the cost.

Excerpt:

Chapter One ONE

When Little Paula started her uncontrollable crying a week or so after she was born, I knew, even without the confirmation of a doctor, that she had colic. However, nothing I had read on the internet, no comments I saw from other new mothers, and not even medical journals I had read seemed to have a definitive cause for it or a perfect cure. Some thought it was simply acclimation to the world outside the womb, which could make babies irritable for some time. Others thought they might be reacting to gas, having something called acid reflux. Some suggested allergies. I tried all the remedies described, especially laying her on her tummy, carrying her constantly, and making sure to hold her upright after she fed. I massaged her, gave her a pacifier, and even sang and hummed to her for hours. Her crying even kept our cats, Moses and Becky, from coming upstairs. Maybe they thought she was another cat. They hadn’t been behaving like themselves since Mama died, anyway. They’d stay away for days sometimes. Trevor went looking for them when they didn’t return recently. If he had found them killed by some coyote or some other animal, he didn’t tell me. I didn’t want to look hard at him and see the truth. There was almost no other reason they wouldn’t have come home by now. Daddy certainly didn’t care or wonder. They were more Mama’s pets than his. Besides, Little Paula was taking up most of my time and concern. There was a great deal I didn’t think about, including my own appearance. Last night, Gabby came into my bedroom and said she would give me some hours of relief and take Little Paula into her and Daddy’s room for a while. “Get some sleep,” she said. “It doesn’t do the baby any good if you’re exhausted.” “Are you sure?” I had some trepidation, but I really was exhausted and had just finished breastfeeding her. “Your father told me to tell you that,” she said, which was a little surprising. Up until that moment, he rarely seemed to care about any difficulties I was having. He never came to look in on the baby and me and said almost nothing about her, about how beautiful and perfect she was. I thought maybe he didn’t like the thought of being a grandfather. If he had known Mama’s true plan for us from the start, he either ignored it or, after some small attempts, just gave up caring. Most of the time, he returned home too tired to argue or wanting to save his energy for partying. However, we knew that from the first day Trevor and I were brought from the Wexler foster home to Mama and Big John Eden’s home and were adopted, Big John was opposed to us sleeping in the same bed. Trevor was nearly six, and I was little more than four, but he still didn’t think it was right. Mama told him he was being ridiculous. There really wasn’t much choice when it came to where we would be, anyway: Mama already had turned the other available guest room into a classroom for us. She was determined to homeschool us.

Buy Links:

All buy links can be found via the S&S.com product page:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Little-Paula/V-C-Andrews/The-Eden-Series/9781982156404

Author Biography:

One of the most popular authors of all time, V.C. Andrews has been a bestselling phenomenon since the publication of Flowers in the Attic, first in the renowned Dollanganger family series, which includes Petals on the Wind, If There Be Thorns, Seeds of Yesterday, and Garden of Shadows. The family saga continues with Christopher’s Diary: Secrets of Foxworth, Christopher’s Diary: Echoes of Dollanganger, and Secret Brother, as well as Beneath the Attic, Out of the Attic, and Shadows of Foxworth as part of the fortieth anniversary celebration. There are more than ninety V.C. Andrews novels, which have sold over 107 million copies worldwide and have been translated into more than twenty-five foreign languages. Andrews’s life story is told in The Woman Beyond the Attic. Join the conversation about the world of V.C. Andrews at www.Facebook.com/OfficialVCAndrews