Cutler Series
01/03/2020
BOOK ONE: DAWN
14 year old Dawn lives with her older brother, 16 year old Jimmy, their new born sister Fern & their parents Sally Jean & Ormand Longchamp. They are very poor & move around a lot. After the birth of Fern, Sally Jean becomes progressively ill. Their luck turns around when Ormand gets a position as a janitor at a prestigious private high school in Virginia. Or so it seemed.
Jimmy hates the school & all the wealthy spoiled rich brats. Dawn has a little bit of a better time. She gets a bully in fellow Freshman Clara Sue Cutler & a boy friend in Clara Sue's older brother Junior, Philip Cutler.
After a few weeks of attending the school Sally Jean dies. The night goes from bad to worse quickly when police show up to arrest Ormand for kidnapping. It turns out He & Sally Jean abducted Dawn when she was only a few days old 15 years ago. Dawn, in VC Andrews fashion, is in fact a Cutler. She is taken to Cutler's Cove where her real family owns a hotel of the same name.
First she meets her grandmother, Lillian, who is the most VC Andrews grandma. She's overly & unrealistically cruel. She tells Dawn her birth name is Eugenia which is a point of contention throughout the rest of the novel. She gives her a room in the servants quarters & makes her a chambermaid. Later that day she meets her real father, Randolph Cutler who is an nice but odd guy. Later see meets her real mother, Laura Sue, who acts like a frail spoiled woman.
So we have these unrealistically evil adults & little sister. This is a VC Andrews novel so we got to get the incest...
Jimmy, the boy she grew up thinking was her brother, runs away from his abusive foster family to see Dawn & hides out at the hotel with Philip's help until Clara Sue tattles on them & Grandmother has Jimmy taken away. Soon after Philip rapes Dawn. It's brutal.
Then we get our obligatory 'this person isn't related how we thought second twist': Dawn isn't Randolph's daughter, she's his sister! Laura Sue had Dawn with William Cutler, Randolph's father. William died before Dawn was born. Laura Sue was forced by Grandmother to set up the abduction by Ormand & Sally Jean Longchamp. Side note, Randolph really suffered! He was devastated the child he thought was his daughter was taken & went all over the country whenever anyone thought they sighted Dawn... he is the true victim in all this with Dawn but it gets worse for him.
BOOK TWO: SECRETS OF THE MORNING
Dawn is sent to a boarding school for the arts in New York... very stereotypical VC Andrews. Dawn is a very gifted singer. And as this is a VC Andrews novel she is dating her non-brother Jimmy but cheats on him with an older artist, Micheal Sutton. Of course he gets her pregnant.
So She is sent to The Meadows, the homestead of Grandmother Lillian. Grandmother's sisters (IRL her cousin) Emily, Charlotte (IRL her daughter) lives there with Luther who takes care of the farm. Of course she is treated horribly by Emily. She gives birth to a daughter Christie who is given up for adoption. Jimmy arrives during leave from the Army to save her. They leave The Meadows and return to Cutler Cove.
They arrive to find Grandmother has had a stroke, the visit her briefly before she dies. In the reading of her and William's will it is divulged to Clara Sue, Philip, Randolph and Dawn what we learned in the previous book that Dawn is William's daughter not Randolph's. On top of that he left her 60% ownership of the hotel. This pisses Clara Sue off. Randolph, with tears in his eyes, merely says: "I wish you really were my daughter".
BOOK THREE: TWILIGHT CHILD
This book picks up where the previous book left off. Jimmy and Dawn go to get Christie, the do have a bit of trouble but eventually get her back.
Randolph's mental state is deteriorating as rapidly as his physical health which is SO sad.
I should not that Ormand Longchamp got out of prison, remarried a woman Edwina and they have a son Gavin around the same time as Christie.
Jimmy and Dawn get married. During their honeymoon they get a call that Randolph has died.
Two months after Randolph's death, which no one seems to care about, Laura Sue marries the man she's had a decades long love affair with: Bronson Alcott. Bronson, as it turns out, is Laura Sue's real father... which Randolph most likely knew about. GAH his death is sad. Bronson is actually a really wonderful stand up guy which is a VC Andrews rarity.
Philip has never stopped loving Dawn in a way he shouldn't. He does marry his college sweet heart, Betty Ann. They have twins Richard & Melanie.
Clara Sue attacks Dawn causing her to have a miscarriage. Soon after that she is in a serious truck accident and dies. I think she is 19 or 20 at the time.
Micheal Sutton returns to try and blackmail Dawn but to no affect.
Jimmy and Dawn find Jimmy's sister Fern and adopt her. She is just as bad as Clara Sue was. She's smart and terribly manipulative. Like all VC Andrews antagonists she is loud... I would love a twist where the nice, quiet, friend is actually the antagonist.
The book ends with Dawn being pregnant again.
BOOK FOUR: MIDNIGHT WHISPERS
It is Christie's 16th birthday.
- Jefferson, her little brother, is 9
- Bronson Alcott & Grandmother Laura Sue
- Their twin cousins, Melanie & Richard are 12
- Gavin (Jimmy's little brother) is 15ish?
- Fern, her aunt is 20-21
- Jimmy (step father) and Philip (uncle) are 36
- Dawn (her mother) is 34
Jimmy and Dawn are killed in a fire that burns down Cutler Cove Hotel. Soon after Grandmother Laura Sue dies too. Philip and Betty Ann take in Jefferson and Christie with their twins. Philip vows to treat them as their own....
Philip rapes Christie. That night she takes Jefferson and runs away.
At first they go from Virginia to New York to find her real father who is a self centered d-bag so they leave. They have nothing. So, Christie calls Gavin and tells him what happened. He shows up in New York the next day to help them.
They go to the Meadows to stay with Charlotte & Luther who are married. They also meet their son, Homer who is Boo Radley. They are very happy there. Happy right up until Fern arrives with a boyfriend to blackmail them and be evil incarnate.
Jefferson gets sick and has to be taken to a hospital. He has tetanas which is very serious. The hospital calls Philip who comes to get them.
Back at Cutler Cove, Philip tries rape Christie again but she fights him off then runs away to Bronson's. She tells him everything that happened which almost exactly mirrors how Laura Sue came to him all those years ago when William Cutler raped her (which is how she got pregnant with Dawn). Bronson takes care of everything. He has Philip picked up by the police and discretely taken to a mental institution then adopts Christie and Jefferson.
In the direct male Cutler line William to Randolph to Philip, all suffered mental illness. Randolph was a sweet, kind soul. William and Philip, while they suffered, committed terrible acts.
In the end Christie and Jefferson are happy and it's implied that Christie will end up with Gavin.