TLC Book Tours Book Review: The Roanoke Girls

Author: Amy Engel
Title: The Roanoke Girls
Publisher: Crown
Publish Date: March 7, 2017
Buy: Amazon
Book Blurb: After her mother's suicide, fifteen year-old Lane Roanoke came to live with her grandparents and fireball cousin, Allegra, on their vast estate in rural Kansas. Lane knew little of her mother's mysterious family, but she quickly embraced life as one of the rich and beautiful Roanoke girls. But when she discovered the dark truth at the heart of the family, she ran…fast and far away.

Eleven years later, Lane is adrift in Los Angeles when her grandfather calls to tell her Allegra has gone missing. Did she run too? Or something worse? Unable to resist his pleas, Lane returns to help search, and to ease her guilt at having left Allegra behind. Her homecoming may mean a second chance with the boyfriend whose heart she broke that long ago summer. But it also means facing the devastating secret that made her flee, one she may not be strong enough to run from again.

As it weaves between Lane’s first Roanoke summer and her return, The Roanoke Girls shocks and tantalizes, twisting its way through revelation after mesmerizing revelation, exploring the secrets families keep and the fierce and terrible love that both binds them together and rips them apart.


Review: If you read Flowers in the Attic, you absolutely have to read The Roanoke Girls. This book is just....WOW...I mean, really, words can't even go there. Its twisted. REALLY REALLY TWISTED.

I read the Flowers series in the late 80s, when it was "THE" book to read.

This book is 100, no 1000 times better.

Oh and no cookies or children locked away.
(I think this is a clue to what the subject matter is in this book, without being a huge spoiler)

But as you get the stories from the past, you jaw will drop further and further to the floor.

From the start, you don't like Lane and Allegra isn't much better, but as the story begins to unfold, you can understand why both of them are so screwed up. WAY SCREWED UP! SCREWED UP TO INFINITY AND BEYOND! (Yeah, I know I'm yelling, but really this book will do that to you)

This isn't a novel that's going to be pretty. Its dark...its beyond disturbing and you can't help but keep reading.

Lane has returned to Kansas to her grandparents when her cousin Allegra has gone missing. As the mystery surrounding her disappearance deepens, you go through the past and see all the other Roanoke girls as well as the summer Lane first came to live with her grandparents.

The ending is totally not what I expected either.

This has to be a must read book for 2017, especially if your in the mood for something with a big "ewww" factor, this book is it.

Rating: 5 flowers