I picked this up at the Shawnee Book Barn Used Bookstore. I hope to find the books that I need to round out some of the series sets that I am collecting.

This book was in Oklahoma with me for a while and has now moved to Waldorf, Maryland.

From the back cover:

RAIN ALREADY KNOWS HOW HARD LIFE CAN BE. BUT SHE IS ABOUT TO DISCOVER A SHATTERING SECRET FROM THE PAST THAT WILL CHANGE HER FUTURE FOREVER....

Growing up in the ghettos of Washington, D.C., the cards are stacked against a hardworking dreamer like Rain Arnold. Rain has fought to be the best daughter she can: she studies hard and gets good grades; she helps her mother cook and clean. And unlike her defiant younger sister, she avoids the dangers of the city streets as if her life depends on it...and it does. But Rain can't suppress the feeling that she has never truly fit in, that she is a stranger in her own world.

Then one fateful night, Rain overhears something she shouldn't: a heartbreaking revelation from the past, a long buried secret that is about to change her life in ways she never could have imagined. In the blink of an eye, everything Rain has ever known - the family she has loved and the familiar place she has called home - is left behind, and Rain is sent to live with total strangers, the wealthy Hudson family. But just as she did not belong to the troubled world she was raised in, Rain is also out of place in this realm of luxury and privledge. With nowhere to turn, Rain finds an escape in the theater, inside the walls of an exclusive private school. But will it be enough to fulfill her heart's deepest wish - and give her a place to call home?

Although this book has all the tragedy and family secrets of a typical V. C. Andrews book I found that it wasn't so profoundly crazy as other books by this author. In fact, I was quite surptised that certain familial relationships did not develop.

I also rather liked Mrs. Hudson. Typically this character would be evil and hated by the title character and it was refreshing for her to have good qualities. I wouldn't characterize her as a fairy godmother but at least she was likable.

I look forward to the next novel in the series so that we can find out what happens to Rain as she pursues an acting career she never knew she wanted.

This is book one of four in a series. You can see my comments about the other books in this series by using the following links:

Lightning Strikes

Eye of the Storm

The End of the Rainbow

I plan to release these books packaged together as a series set.

RELEASE NOTES: