Seeds of Yesterday (Dollanganger #4) by V.C. Andrews

Flowers may die, but secrets live forever...
Chris and Cathy have moved on from their days in the attic, but the sins and secrets of their past continue to catch up to them. Now their children are doomed to repeat their mistakes.
If There Be Thorns and Seeds of Yesterday continue the ominous saga of the Dollanganger family. Savor the thrilling conclusion.
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Just when I thought the Dollanganger family tree couldn't get any more twisted, Seeds of Yesterday comes around. When I realized Cathy wrote this book too, I was torn between groaning and falling asleep. I love Cathy, don't get me wrong, but jeez, it didn't seem right to give her another book, when the main focus was clearly her children, Bart and Jory. Okay, so here's where If There Be Thorns left off: Bart was a pain in the butt and went psycho, killing animals and pissing off John Amos, causing Foxworth Hall to finally burn down. Okay, so maybe it was asking too much of the author to expect Foxworth Hall to remain burned down, because this fourth book in the series opens with Cathy and CHris arriving at Foxworth Hall. That ticked me off a little; how much backtracking can you do, Andrews? Moving right along, I absolutely loved Jory in this novel; in the first he was a little too peppy for me, Bart's insanity-laced rants more my style. But in Seeds of Yesterday, he's married and, of course, pursued his mother's dream of him becoming a ballet dancer. He's married to Melodie, who was trouble, I just knew it. Bart was some sort of billionaire, though the author didn't really elaborate as to how he got his money. One of the main focuses was the conflict between Bart and Jory and CIndy, and I loved that aspect; Bart was a character who screwed everything up, in a great, interesting way. Another main focus of this novel was Bart's obsession with getting his grandmother's money, seeing as she burned to death in the book before. One thing that really, really bugged me about this book: at the end of the last book, Cathy screamed to their mother's grave that she forgave her; about five pages into this book, Cathy says how she could never forgive her. WTF? Anyways, this book was the second best in the series in my opinion. The main improvement had to be more of a shifted focus, to Bart and Jory. Their story was only slightly less disturbing than Cathy and Chris', but it was still lighter. While Bart was a man-ho, he slowly turned into my favorite character. While Jory remained static much like Chris and Cathy, Bart was constantly changing, morphing my view of him. He was evil, insane, and a genius at first; then he was a lost, child-like adult who just needed help. No matter what else was happening, you didn't really know what Bart was going to do. My final complaint: the ending was so dang happily-ever-after I wanted to scream. I got that after tragedy struck, everyone realized their mistakes and moved on with their lives. But, really, was it necessary to make Bart and Cindy sing hymns together? It just seemed like a cheesy wrap-up to a dark, despairing series. Maybe she was going for the whole Chris was an optimist, so let's end his story optimistically spin, but I was disappointed. In a non-sadistic way. (Sorry for the long review).
4 stars and a recommendation to fans of the series. I recommend the series to fans of dark tragedies. I'll admit to having cried at the end of this one, before the cheesiness set in.