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* AbortedArc: The introduction of Heaven's mother's portrait doll is established in the prologue of the very first book, and it seems that it's going to play a major role in proving her identity to her Boston grandparents. [[spoiler: The doll's destroyed, but the grandparents accept Heaven anyway.]] In ''Dark Angel,'' it seems the doll is going to come back into play when Heaven asks Tony if a portrait doll was ever made for Leigh, and he lies to her. The reason ''why'' he lied is never revealed, and Heaven never even expresses any further curiosity about it after that scene. For the next two books, the doll goes unmentioned [[spoiler: and Heaven dies without ever learning the truth or indeed mentioning it again]]. It's only in the prequel that we find out the deal with the doll.
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Since the books were published, opinion has shifted toward Fanny, reinterpreting her not as an oversexed rival to Heaven but as an eleven-year-old child who uses her premature sexuality to gain the affection she isn't getting in her chaotic and abusive home. Some readers even interpret Fanny's sexual acting-out as a red flag that she might have been sexually abused, perhaps by her own father.
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: There's an uncomfortable moment in the first book where after he has sold all the other children, Luke sits beside a sleeping Heaven and starts ''stroking her hair and while going on about how beautiful she is''. Upon seeing this [[CoolOldGuy Toby Casteel]] demands that Luke give Heaven away too ''for her own safety''. Luke's response to this is to insist that: '''SHE IS MINE!'''. It's never stated what his intentions were but the [[WifeHusbandry implications]] are more than a little ''unsettling''. Heaven herself is momentarily [[{{Squick}} squicked]] out by this but the incident never gets a mention again and Luke is never shown as having... ''that'' kind of [[ParentalIncest interest]] in Heaven again, leaving many a reader wondering just WTF that was about? It also makes [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic Luke's]] supposed reform all the more harder to swallow and really calls his entire [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation character]] into question!
** This is arguable ''not'' a BigLippedAlligatorMoment, as it doesn't come out of nowhere. We know Luke pines for his Angel; we know that one of the reasons he avoids Heaven is because she so resembles her mother that it hurts him to look at her; we know that Heaven in this scene is about the same age Angel was when Luke met her; we know this is the first time these two characters have ever been alone together; and unlike Heaven, we know [[spoiler: that Luke knows she's not really his daughter.]] Basically the scene is Luke ''almost'' succumbing to the temptation of having an unrelated clone of his beloved dead wife, something that the book hinted at from the start.
* ContestedSequel: ''Heaven'' and ''Dark Angel'' are well loved by fans, but there's a split on whether or not the other three books are any good.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Troy is ''very'' popular with the fans due to his ByronicHero style character and his willingness to sacrifice his own happiness for Heaven's.
* FanPreferredCouple: Just try and find a Casteel series reader who ''doesn't'' think that Troy, not Logan, was the love of Heaven's life and that she should have married him instead. Troy might have been Heaven's uncle, but it's not like the [[Literature/DollangangerSeries previous series]] didn't have an incestuous couple working things out (in fact, she was ''still'' planning on marrying Troy even after the "uncle" reveal and it was just Troy's apparent death that put a stop to that), and he was much more sensitive and caring towards Heaven than Logan who had NoSympathy for Heaven's abuse at the hands of Kitty and Cal, said point-blank to her face that she was DefiledForever to him, and even [[spoiler:indirectly caused Heaven's death]]. Plus how Heaven and Logan's marriage resulted in ''both'' of them cheating on each other (Logan with Heaven's stepsister Fanny, Heaven with Troy whom she explicitly said she still loved)...
* HarsherInHindsight: [[spoiler:Kitty]] died of breast cancer, something that she greatly fears as it runs in her family. Andrews herself died of the same disease.
* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: Troy going to Heaven's high school graduation in ''Dark Angel'', along with several Tatterton Toys employees and their families acting like the Casteels since her actual family couldn't (or wouldn't) be there for her.
** From ''Fallen Hearts'', [[spoiler:Troy]] building a music box replica of the cottage at Farthy for Heaven, complete with figurines of them in a loving pose.
* HilariousInHindsight: In ''Dark Angel,'' Tom writes Heaven a sad letter saying that he's given up his dreams of going to college, mentioning that while as children they'd talked about him one day running for President, no one would ever vote for someone with such a strong hillbilly accent. Seven years after this book was published, UsefulNotes/BillClinton, who had a strong Arkansas accent, became President and served two terms.
* MagnumOpusDissonance: Many Creator/VCAndrews fans hold the first two books as her best, but her personal favorite story was the posthumously published and obscure ''Gods of Green Mountain'' (at least according to the letter by her brothers at the beginning of that book)
* MoralEventHorizon: Luke selling his children, which Heaven found to be unforgivable.
** Tony [[spoiler:repeatedly raping Leigh, who was not only his stepdaughter but either 13 or 14 at the time]].
** Jillian [[spoiler:knew what was going on between Tony and Leigh, but chose to ignore it so that she wouldn't be stressed.]] And in ''Web of Dreams'' [[spoiler: she even used Leigh as a distraction for Tony so that he wouldn't want to have sex with Jillian, and then got angry at ''Leigh'' when she became pregnant]].
* {{Narm}}: [[spoiler: Tom's heroic death is somewhat marred by the fact that he dies from being mauled by a lion while dressed as a literal clown.]]
** Heaven confronts Kitty with the fact that Kitty has been selling mass-market ceramics as one-of-a-kind creations and threatens that Kitty could be sued for fraud if anyone ever found out. This is played for high drama and Kitty's reaction is akin to a BerserkButton, but considering that Kitty's ''other'' crimes include physical abuse of a minor child and, oh, ''buying a teenager on the black market,'' it comes across as a little ridiculous.
* NightmareFuel: The stillbirth of [[spoiler: Sarah and Luke's fifth child. It's so awful that Sarah is DrivenToMadness and Annie is shocked into instant death]]. Luke's incredibly cold reaction is just as horrifying.
* ReplacementScrappy: For more than a few readers, Annie was this for her mother Heaven. The readers that did dislike her found her to be much more whiny than Heaven, to the point that even fans that liked ''Gates of Paradise'' found that she bogged the story down.
* TheScrappy: Logan Stonewall isn't too popular with fans due to his reactions to Heaven's traumas (including outright ignoring her when she tries to track him down in Boston). He, along with [[Literature/MySweetAudrina Arden Lowe]], are one of the more unpopular characters in the Andrews catalog.
* TaintedByThePreview: The announcement of the film version of ''Heaven'' had fans excited... until it was confirmed that Lifetime was producing. Fans, who were dismayed at their treatments of the ''Dollanganger'' series and especially ''My Sweet Audrina'', were not pleased.
* {{Tearjerker}}: [[spoiler:Tom's HeroicSacrifice]] in ''Dark Angel''. And unlike [[spoiler:Troy, he's dead for real]].
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Even at his worst, it seems that Andrews on some level wants you to sympathize with Luke, which at times is rather... difficult. He's supposedly the way he is because of losing Leigh (whom he cheated on), but he wasted no time finding another wife, whom he treats even worse and is all but nonexistent to his children (except when he's abusing them) and generally seems to be constantly self involved. Even when he's cleaned his act up, he does nothing for Fanny, even though she's at this point had her child taken away, is prostituting herself for money etc. His letting Tom live with him and his new wife is presented as heroic because otherwise Tom would have had to stay with his abusive foster family, except he made Tom give up his life long dream of pursuing an education so he could pursue [[ItsAllAboutMe his dream of opening a circus]] which results in [[spoiler: Tom getting ''mauled to death by a lion'']] and lets not forget that he sent Heaven to ''two'' families that he knew contained at least one abusive adult i.e. Kitty Dennison and [[spoiler:Tony Tatterton, Leigh's ''rapist'']]. [[SarcasmMode So, yeah poor guy]]...
** Except he gave Heaven the choice to go to two families both times (the first time with a stuffy older couple alongside the Dennisons, the second time with either her Boston grandmother or with the family he was making with his new wife and Tom). ''She'' made the choice to go with the Dennisons because Kitty reminded her of Sarah and decided to go to Jillian and Tony to know more about her mother and why she left.
** This also might depend on whether you consider the ghostwritten books canon. There's no way to tell if Andrews herself ever intended for Luke to know that [[spoiler:Tony raped Leigh]] or if this was something the ghostwriter retconned when he took over the series.
** Yes she chose to live both families, but Heaven didn't ''know'' how bad they were until it was too late. Luke knew though and if he had any decency he would have told her or at least given her an idea of what she was in for!
* {{The Woobie}}: Let's face it all of the Casteel children fit this trope to a T. Things lighten up a lot for Our Jane and Keith. Tom, Heaven and Fanny... not so much.
** Troy's story is enough to make anyone tear up. His parents had him very late in life to the point that Tony was already practically an adult so by the time Troy was about three years old, both his parents were dead and Tony was the closest he had to a father. Then Jillian and Leigh came into the picture with the former being a WickedStepmother of a sister-in-law because she doesn't know how to handle boys (or children in general) and the latter being the perfect big sister [[spoiler: who leaves after she's raped by Tony.]] For several years until Heaven shows up, Troy is sick and melancholic with the fear that he'll die young except [[spoiler: despite two instances of FakingTheDead, he outlives Leigh, Jillian, his true love Heaven, and his brother Tony before dying of natural causes after becoming a grandfather.]]
** Though she later becomes a JerkassWoobie, Sarah definitely deserves a hug. Besides the aforementioned NightmareFuel she endures, she's really led quite a crappy existence: living in abject poverty with a cheating, abusive husband who has made it plain that she's the consolation prize to his first true love, scratching to feed and clothe five children and two invalid adults, and all the while still holding out hope that one day her husband will love her. Added to the nasty postnatal depression she is left with and complete lack of emotional support she receives (and certainly no medical attention) [[spoiler: after her final child is born dead and severely deformed]], is it any wonder the poor woman loses it?
** Let's not forget Leigh: her mother suddenly divorces her father [[spoiler:who isn't actually her father]], and then her stepfather [[spoiler:raped her, resulting in pregnancy barely into her teens]], and then she dies in childbirth.
** Time has changed general opinion of Fanny to that of a JerkassWoobie, who, while she is often awful to those around her, is at heart only acting out of limited understanding, frustration, and genuine need born from a life of deprivation, while her hurtful promiscuity stems from a desperate need to be loved. She's never ''had'' anything, and doesn't know how to seek better, and now she's so toxic that no one can risk getting close enough to teach her how to change. That at several points in the books, she breaks down and reveals a deep capacity to care for her family tends to bear out that there's a Woobie under the Jerkass somewhere.
* YoYoPlotPoint: At some point, you just gotta ask yourself [[spoiler:how many generations of Jillian's descendants is Tony going to rape?]]

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* AbortedArc: The introduction of Heaven's mother's portrait doll is established in the prologue of the very first book, and it seems that it's going to play a major role in proving her identity to her Boston grandparents. [[spoiler: The doll's destroyed, but the grandparents accept Heaven anyway.]] In ''Dark Angel,'' it seems the doll is going to come back into play when Heaven asks Tony if a portrait doll was ever made for Leigh, and he lies to her. The reason ''why'' he lied is never revealed, and Heaven never even expresses any further curiosity about it after that scene. For the next two books, the doll goes unmentioned [[spoiler: and Heaven dies without ever learning the truth or indeed mentioning it again]]. It's only in the prequel that we find out the deal with the doll.
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Since the books were published, opinion has shifted toward Fanny, reinterpreting her not as an oversexed rival to Heaven but as an eleven-year-old child who uses her premature sexuality to gain the affection she isn't getting in her chaotic and abusive home. Some readers even interpret Fanny's sexual acting-out as a red flag that she might have been sexually abused, perhaps by her own father.
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: There's an uncomfortable moment in the first book where after he has sold all the other children, Luke sits beside a sleeping Heaven and starts ''stroking her hair and while going on about how beautiful she is''. Upon seeing this [[CoolOldGuy Toby Casteel]] demands that Luke give Heaven away too ''for her own safety''. Luke's response to this is to insist that: '''SHE IS MINE!'''. It's never stated what his intentions were but the [[WifeHusbandry implications]] are more than a little ''unsettling''. Heaven herself is momentarily [[{{Squick}} squicked]] out by this but the incident never gets a mention again and Luke is never shown as having... ''that'' kind of [[ParentalIncest interest]] in Heaven again, leaving many a reader wondering just WTF that was about? It also makes [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic Luke's]] supposed reform all the more harder to swallow and really calls his entire [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation character]] into question!
** This is arguable ''not'' a BigLippedAlligatorMoment, as it doesn't come out of nowhere. We know Luke pines for his Angel; we know that one of the reasons he avoids Heaven is because she so resembles her mother that it hurts him to look at her; we know that Heaven in this scene is about the same age Angel was when Luke met her; we know this is the first time these two characters have ever been alone together; and unlike Heaven, we know [[spoiler: that Luke knows she's not really his daughter.]] Basically the scene is Luke ''almost'' succumbing to the temptation of having an unrelated clone of his beloved dead wife, something that the book hinted at from the start.
* ContestedSequel: ''Heaven'' and ''Dark Angel'' are well loved by fans, but there's a split on whether or not the other three books are any good.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Troy is ''very'' popular with the fans due to his ByronicHero style character and his willingness to sacrifice his own happiness for Heaven's.
* FanPreferredCouple: Just try and find a Casteel series reader who ''doesn't'' think that Troy, not Logan, was the love of Heaven's life and that she should have married him instead. Troy might have been Heaven's uncle, but it's not like the [[Literature/DollangangerSeries previous series]] didn't have an incestuous couple working things out (in fact, she was ''still'' planning on marrying Troy even after the "uncle" reveal and it was just Troy's apparent death that put a stop to that), and he was much more sensitive and caring towards Heaven than Logan who had NoSympathy for Heaven's abuse at the hands of Kitty and Cal, said point-blank to her face that she was DefiledForever to him, and even [[spoiler:indirectly caused Heaven's death]]. Plus how Heaven and Logan's marriage resulted in ''both'' of them cheating on each other (Logan with Heaven's stepsister Fanny, Heaven with Troy whom she explicitly said she still loved)...
* HarsherInHindsight: [[spoiler:Kitty]] died of breast cancer, something that she greatly fears as it runs in her family. Andrews herself died of the same disease.
* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: Troy going to Heaven's high school graduation in ''Dark Angel'', along with several Tatterton Toys employees and their families acting like the Casteels since her actual family couldn't (or wouldn't) be there for her.
** From ''Fallen Hearts'', [[spoiler:Troy]] building a music box replica of the cottage at Farthy for Heaven, complete with figurines of them in a loving pose.
* HilariousInHindsight: In ''Dark Angel,'' Tom writes Heaven a sad letter saying that he's given up his dreams of going to college, mentioning that while as children they'd talked about him one day running for President, no one would ever vote for someone with such a strong hillbilly accent. Seven years after this book was published, UsefulNotes/BillClinton, who had a strong Arkansas accent, became President and served two terms.
* MagnumOpusDissonance: Many Creator/VCAndrews fans hold the first two books as her best, but her personal favorite story was the posthumously published and obscure ''Gods of Green Mountain'' (at least according to the letter by her brothers at the beginning of that book)
* MoralEventHorizon: Luke selling his children, which Heaven found to be unforgivable.
** Tony [[spoiler:repeatedly raping Leigh, who was not only his stepdaughter but either 13 or 14 at the time]].
** Jillian [[spoiler:knew what was going on between Tony and Leigh, but chose to ignore it so that she wouldn't be stressed.]] And in ''Web of Dreams'' [[spoiler: she even used Leigh as a distraction for Tony so that he wouldn't want to have sex with Jillian, and then got angry at ''Leigh'' when she became pregnant]].
* {{Narm}}: [[spoiler: Tom's heroic death is somewhat marred by the fact that he dies from being mauled by a lion while dressed as a literal clown.]]
** Heaven confronts Kitty with the fact that Kitty has been selling mass-market ceramics as one-of-a-kind creations and threatens that Kitty could be sued for fraud if anyone ever found out. This is played for high drama and Kitty's reaction is akin to a BerserkButton, but considering that Kitty's ''other'' crimes include physical abuse of a minor child and, oh, ''buying a teenager on the black market,'' it comes across as a little ridiculous.
* NightmareFuel: The stillbirth of [[spoiler: Sarah and Luke's fifth child. It's so awful that Sarah is DrivenToMadness and Annie is shocked into instant death]]. Luke's incredibly cold reaction is just as horrifying.
* ReplacementScrappy: For more than a few readers, Annie was this for her mother Heaven. The readers that did dislike her found her to be much more whiny than Heaven, to the point that even fans that liked ''Gates of Paradise'' found that she bogged the story down.
* TheScrappy: Logan Stonewall isn't too popular with fans due to his reactions to Heaven's traumas (including outright ignoring her when she tries to track him down in Boston). He, along with [[Literature/MySweetAudrina Arden Lowe]], are one of the more unpopular characters in the Andrews catalog.
* TaintedByThePreview: The announcement of the film version of ''Heaven'' had fans excited... until it was confirmed that Lifetime was producing. Fans, who were dismayed at their treatments of the ''Dollanganger'' series and especially ''My Sweet Audrina'', were not pleased.
* {{Tearjerker}}: [[spoiler:Tom's HeroicSacrifice]] in ''Dark Angel''. And unlike [[spoiler:Troy, he's dead for real]].
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Even at his worst, it seems that Andrews on some level wants you to sympathize with Luke, which at times is rather... difficult. He's supposedly the way he is because of losing Leigh (whom he cheated on), but he wasted no time finding another wife, whom he treats even worse and is all but nonexistent to his children (except when he's abusing them) and generally seems to be constantly self involved. Even when he's cleaned his act up, he does nothing for Fanny, even though she's at this point had her child taken away, is prostituting herself for money etc. His letting Tom live with him and his new wife is presented as heroic because otherwise Tom would have had to stay with his abusive foster family, except he made Tom give up his life long dream of pursuing an education so he could pursue [[ItsAllAboutMe his dream of opening a circus]] which results in [[spoiler: Tom getting ''mauled to death by a lion'']] and lets not forget that he sent Heaven to ''two'' families that he knew contained at least one abusive adult i.e. Kitty Dennison and [[spoiler:Tony Tatterton, Leigh's ''rapist'']]. [[SarcasmMode So, yeah poor guy]]...
** Except he gave Heaven the choice to go to two families both times (the first time with a stuffy older couple alongside the Dennisons, the second time with either her Boston grandmother or with the family he was making with his new wife and Tom). ''She'' made the choice to go with the Dennisons because Kitty reminded her of Sarah and decided to go to Jillian and Tony to know more about her mother and why she left.
** This also might depend on whether you consider the ghostwritten books canon. There's no way to tell if Andrews herself ever intended for Luke to know that [[spoiler:Tony raped Leigh]] or if this was something the ghostwriter retconned when he took over the series.
** Yes she chose to live both families, but Heaven didn't ''know'' how bad they were until it was too late. Luke knew though and if he had any decency he would have told her or at least given her an idea of what she was in for!
* {{The Woobie}}: Let's face it all of the Casteel children fit this trope to a T. Things lighten up a lot for Our Jane and Keith. Tom, Heaven and Fanny... not so much.
** Troy's story is enough to make anyone tear up. His parents had him very late in life to the point that Tony was already practically an adult so by the time Troy was about three years old, both his parents were dead and Tony was the closest he had to a father. Then Jillian and Leigh came into the picture with the former being a WickedStepmother of a sister-in-law because she doesn't know how to handle boys (or children in general) and the latter being the perfect big sister [[spoiler: who leaves after she's raped by Tony.]] For several years until Heaven shows up, Troy is sick and melancholic with the fear that he'll die young except [[spoiler: despite two instances of FakingTheDead, he outlives Leigh, Jillian, his true love Heaven, and his brother Tony before dying of natural causes after becoming a grandfather.]]
** Though she later becomes a JerkassWoobie, Sarah definitely deserves a hug. Besides the aforementioned NightmareFuel she endures, she's really led quite a crappy existence: living in abject poverty with a cheating, abusive husband who has made it plain that she's the consolation prize to his first true love, scratching to feed and clothe five children and two invalid adults, and all the while still holding out hope that one day her husband will love her. Added to the nasty postnatal depression she is left with and complete lack of emotional support she receives (and certainly no medical attention) [[spoiler: after her final child is born dead and severely deformed]], is it any wonder the poor woman loses it?
** Let's not forget Leigh: her mother suddenly divorces her father [[spoiler:who isn't actually her father]], and then her stepfather [[spoiler:raped her, resulting in pregnancy barely into her teens]], and then she dies in childbirth.
** Time has changed general opinion of Fanny to that of a JerkassWoobie, who, while she is often awful to those around her, is at heart only acting out of limited understanding, frustration, and genuine need born from a life of deprivation, while her hurtful promiscuity stems from a desperate need to be loved. She's never ''had'' anything, and doesn't know how to seek better, and now she's so toxic that no one can risk getting close enough to teach her how to change. That at several points in the books, she breaks down and reveals a deep capacity to care for her family tends to bear out that there's a Woobie under the Jerkass somewhere.
* YoYoPlotPoint: At some point, you just gotta ask yourself [[spoiler:how many generations of Jillian's descendants is Tony going to rape?]]
[[redirect:YMMV/CasteelSeries]]
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* MoralDissonance: Heaven berates her Boston relatives several times as immoral and selfish while holding up as an example the poor-but-honest hillfolk who always take care of their own. She seems to have forgotten that these same hillfolk knew the Casteel children were constantly on the brink of starvation but never offered to help them.
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Speculative and also possibly misuse


* AbortedArc: The introduction of Heaven's mother's portrait doll is established in the prologue of the very first book, and it seems that it's going to play a major role in proving her identity to her Boston grandparents. [[spoiler: The doll's destroyed, but the grandparents accept Heaven anyway.]] In ''Dark Angel,'' it seems the doll is going to come back into play when Heaven asks Tony if a portrait doll was ever made for Leigh, and he lies to her. The reason ''why'' he lied is never revealed, and Heaven never even expresses any further curiosity about it after that scene. For the next two books, the doll goes unmentioned [[spoiler: and Heaven dies without ever learning the truth or indeed mentioning it again]]. It's only in the prequel that we find out the deal with the doll. (It's entirely possible that this aborted arc was simply due to AuthorExistenceFailure.)

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* AbortedArc: The introduction of Heaven's mother's portrait doll is established in the prologue of the very first book, and it seems that it's going to play a major role in proving her identity to her Boston grandparents. [[spoiler: The doll's destroyed, but the grandparents accept Heaven anyway.]] In ''Dark Angel,'' it seems the doll is going to come back into play when Heaven asks Tony if a portrait doll was ever made for Leigh, and he lies to her. The reason ''why'' he lied is never revealed, and Heaven never even expresses any further curiosity about it after that scene. For the next two books, the doll goes unmentioned [[spoiler: and Heaven dies without ever learning the truth or indeed mentioning it again]]. It's only in the prequel that we find out the deal with the doll. (It's entirely possible that this aborted arc was simply due to AuthorExistenceFailure.)
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* HilariousInHindsight: In ''Dark Angel,'' Tom writes Heaven a sad letter saying that he's given up his dreams of going to college, mentioning that while as children they'd talked about him one day running for President, no one would ever vote for someone with such a strong hillbilly accent. Seven years after this book was published, UsefulNotes/BillClinton, who had a strong Arkansas accent, became President and served two terms.
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** This also might depend on whether you consider the ghostwritten books canon. There's no way to tell if Andrews herself ever intended for Luke to know that [[spoiler:Tony raped Leigh]] or if this was something the ghostwriter retconned when he took over the series.
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** Yes she chose to live both families, but Heaven didn't ''know''how bad they were until it was too late. Luke knew though and if he had any decency he would have told her or at least given her an idea of what she was in for!

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** Yes she chose to live both families, but Heaven didn't ''know''how ''know'' how bad they were until it was too late. Luke knew though and if he had any decency he would have told her or at least given her an idea of what she was in for!
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* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Even at his worst, it seems that Andrews on some level wants you to sympathize with Luke, which at times is rather... difficult. He's supposedly the way he is because of losing Leigh (whom he cheated on), but he wasted no time finding another wife, whom he treats even worse and is all but nonexistent to his children (except when he's abusing them) and generally seems to be constantly self involved. Even when he's cleaned his act up, he does nothing for Fanny, even though she's at this point had her child taken away, is prostituting herself for money etc. His letting Tom live with him and his new wife is presented as heroic because otherwise Tom would have had to stay with his abusive foster family, except he made Tom give up his life long dream of pursuing an education so he could pursue [[ItsAllAboutMe his dream of opening a circus]]which results in [[spoiler: Tom getting ''mauled to death by a lion'']] and lets not forget that he sent Heaven to ''two'' families that he knew contained at least one abusive adult i.e. Kitty Dennison and [[spoiler:Tony Tatterton, Leigh's ''rapist'']]. [[SarcasmMode So, yeah poor guy]]...

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* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Even at his worst, it seems that Andrews on some level wants you to sympathize with Luke, which at times is rather... difficult. He's supposedly the way he is because of losing Leigh (whom he cheated on), but he wasted no time finding another wife, whom he treats even worse and is all but nonexistent to his children (except when he's abusing them) and generally seems to be constantly self involved. Even when he's cleaned his act up, he does nothing for Fanny, even though she's at this point had her child taken away, is prostituting herself for money etc. His letting Tom live with him and his new wife is presented as heroic because otherwise Tom would have had to stay with his abusive foster family, except he made Tom give up his life long dream of pursuing an education so he could pursue [[ItsAllAboutMe his dream of opening a circus]]which circus]] which results in [[spoiler: Tom getting ''mauled to death by a lion'']] and lets not forget that he sent Heaven to ''two'' families that he knew contained at least one abusive adult i.e. Kitty Dennison and [[spoiler:Tony Tatterton, Leigh's ''rapist'']]. [[SarcasmMode So, yeah poor guy]]...

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* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Even at his worst, it seems that Andrews on some level wants you to sympathize with Luke, which at times is rather... difficult. He's supposedly the way he is because of losing Leigh (whom he cheated on), but he wasted no time finding another wife, whom he treats even worse and is all but nonexistent to his children (except when he's abusing them) and generally seems to be constantly self involved. Even when he's cleaned his act up, he does nothing for Fanny, even though she's at this point had her child taken away, is prostituting herself for money etc. and lets not forget that he sent Heaven to ''two'' families that he knew contained at least one abusive adult i.e. Kitty Dennison and [[spoiler:Tony Tatterton, Leigh's ''rapist'']]. [[SarcasmMode So, yeah poor guy]]...

to:

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Even at his worst, it seems that Andrews on some level wants you to sympathize with Luke, which at times is rather... difficult. He's supposedly the way he is because of losing Leigh (whom he cheated on), but he wasted no time finding another wife, whom he treats even worse and is all but nonexistent to his children (except when he's abusing them) and generally seems to be constantly self involved. Even when he's cleaned his act up, he does nothing for Fanny, even though she's at this point had her child taken away, is prostituting herself for money etc. His letting Tom live with him and his new wife is presented as heroic because otherwise Tom would have had to stay with his abusive foster family, except he made Tom give up his life long dream of pursuing an education so he could pursue [[ItsAllAboutMe his dream of opening a circus]]which results in [[spoiler: Tom getting ''mauled to death by a lion'']] and lets not forget that he sent Heaven to ''two'' families that he knew contained at least one abusive adult i.e. Kitty Dennison and [[spoiler:Tony Tatterton, Leigh's ''rapist'']]. [[SarcasmMode So, yeah poor guy]]...


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** Yes she chose to live both families, but Heaven didn't ''know''how bad they were until it was too late. Luke knew though and if he had any decency he would have told her or at least given her an idea of what she was in for!
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** Except he gave Heaven the choice to go to two families both times (the first time with a stuffy older couple alongside the Dennisons, the second time with either her Boston grandmother or with the family he was making with his new wife and Tom). ''She'' made the choice to go with the Dennisons because Kitty reminded her of Sarah and decided to go to Jillian and Tony to know more about her mother and why she left.



** Troy's story is enough to make anyone tear up.

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** Troy's story is enough to make anyone tear up. His parents had him very late in life to the point that Tony was already practically an adult so by the time Troy was about three years old, both his parents were dead and Tony was the closest he had to a father. Then Jillian and Leigh came into the picture with the former being a WickedStepmother of a sister-in-law because she doesn't know how to handle boys (or children in general) and the latter being the perfect big sister [[spoiler: who leaves after she's raped by Tony.]] For several years until Heaven shows up, Troy is sick and melancholic with the fear that he'll die young except [[spoiler: despite two instances of FakingTheDead, he outlives Leigh, Jillian, his true love Heaven, and his brother Tony before dying of natural causes after becoming a grandfather.]]

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* AbortedArc: The introduction of Heaven's mother's portrait doll is established in the prologue of the very first book, and it seems that it's going to play a major role in proving her identity to her Boston grandparents. [[spoiler: The doll's destroyed, but the grandparents accept Heaven anyway.]] In ''Dark Angel,'' it seems the doll is going to come back into play when Heaven asks Tony if a portrait doll was ever made for Leigh, and he lies to her. The reason ''why'' he lied is never revealed, and Heaven never even expresses any further curiosity about it after that scene. For the next two books, the doll goes unmentioned [[spoiler: and Heaven dies without ever learning the truth or indeed mentioning it again]]. It's only in the prequel that we find out the deal with the doll. (It's entirely possible that this aborted arc was simply due to WriterExistenceFailure.)

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* AbortedArc: The introduction of Heaven's mother's portrait doll is established in the prologue of the very first book, and it seems that it's going to play a major role in proving her identity to her Boston grandparents. [[spoiler: The doll's destroyed, but the grandparents accept Heaven anyway.]] In ''Dark Angel,'' it seems the doll is going to come back into play when Heaven asks Tony if a portrait doll was ever made for Leigh, and he lies to her. The reason ''why'' he lied is never revealed, and Heaven never even expresses any further curiosity about it after that scene. For the next two books, the doll goes unmentioned [[spoiler: and Heaven dies without ever learning the truth or indeed mentioning it again]]. It's only in the prequel that we find out the deal with the doll. (It's entirely possible that this aborted arc was simply due to WriterExistenceFailure.AuthorExistenceFailure.)


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** Time has changed general opinion of Fanny to that of a JerkassWoobie, who, while she is often awful to those around her, is at heart only acting out of limited understanding, frustration, and genuine need born from a life of deprivation, while her hurtful promiscuity stems from a desperate need to be loved. She's never ''had'' anything, and doesn't know how to seek better, and now she's so toxic that no one can risk getting close enough to teach her how to change. That at several points in the books, she breaks down and reveals a deep capacity to care for her family tends to bear out that there's a Woobie under the Jerkass somewhere.

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* AbortedArc: The introduction of Heaven's mother's portrait doll is established in the prologue of the very first book, and it seems that it's going to play a major role in proving her identity to her Boston grandparents. [[spoiler: The doll's destroyed, but the grandparents accept Heaven anyway.]] In ''Dark Angel,'' it seems the doll is going to come back into play when Heaven asks Tony if a portrait doll was ever made for Leigh, and he lies to her. The reason ''why'' he lied is never revealed, and Heaven never even expresses any further curiosity about it after that scene. For the next two books, the doll goes unmentioned. It's only in the prequel that we find out the deal with the doll. (It's entirely possible that this aborted arc was simply due to WriterExistenceFailure.)

to:

* AbortedArc: The introduction of Heaven's mother's portrait doll is established in the prologue of the very first book, and it seems that it's going to play a major role in proving her identity to her Boston grandparents. [[spoiler: The doll's destroyed, but the grandparents accept Heaven anyway.]] In ''Dark Angel,'' it seems the doll is going to come back into play when Heaven asks Tony if a portrait doll was ever made for Leigh, and he lies to her. The reason ''why'' he lied is never revealed, and Heaven never even expresses any further curiosity about it after that scene. For the next two books, the doll goes unmentioned.unmentioned [[spoiler: and Heaven dies without ever learning the truth or indeed mentioning it again]]. It's only in the prequel that we find out the deal with the doll. (It's entirely possible that this aborted arc was simply due to WriterExistenceFailure.)



* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: There's an uncomfortable moment in the first book where after he has sold all the other children, Luke sits beside a sleeping Heaven and starts ''stroking her hair and while going on about how beautiful she is''. Upon seeing this [[CoolOldGuy Toby Casteel]] demands that Luke give Heaven away too ''for her own safety''. Luke's response to this is to insist that: '''SHE IS MINE!'''. Its never stated what his intentions were but the [[WifeHusbandry implications]] are more than a little ''unsettling''. Heaven herself is momentarily [[{{Squick}} squicked]] out by this but the incident never gets a mention again and Luke is never shown as having... ''that'' kind of [[ParentalIncest interest]] in Heaven again, leaving many a reader wondering just WTF that was about? It also makes [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic Luke's]] supposed reform all the more harder to swallow and really calls his entire [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation character]] into question!

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* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: There's an uncomfortable moment in the first book where after he has sold all the other children, Luke sits beside a sleeping Heaven and starts ''stroking her hair and while going on about how beautiful she is''. Upon seeing this [[CoolOldGuy Toby Casteel]] demands that Luke give Heaven away too ''for her own safety''. Luke's response to this is to insist that: '''SHE IS MINE!'''. Its It's never stated what his intentions were but the [[WifeHusbandry implications]] are more than a little ''unsettling''. Heaven herself is momentarily [[{{Squick}} squicked]] out by this but the incident never gets a mention again and Luke is never shown as having... ''that'' kind of [[ParentalIncest interest]] in Heaven again, leaving many a reader wondering just WTF that was about? It also makes [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic Luke's]] supposed reform all the more harder to swallow and really calls his entire [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation character]] into question!question!
** This is arguable ''not'' a BigLippedAlligatorMoment, as it doesn't come out of nowhere. We know Luke pines for his Angel; we know that one of the reasons he avoids Heaven is because she so resembles her mother that it hurts him to look at her; we know that Heaven in this scene is about the same age Angel was when Luke met her; we know this is the first time these two characters have ever been alone together; and unlike Heaven, we know [[spoiler: that Luke knows she's not really his daughter.]] Basically the scene is Luke ''almost'' succumbing to the temptation of having an unrelated clone of his beloved dead wife, something that the book hinted at from the start.
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* AbortedArc: The introduction of Heaven's mother's portrait doll is established in the prologue of the very first book, and it seems that it's going to play a major role in proving her identity to her Boston grandparents. [[Spoiler: The doll's destroyed, but the grandparents accept Heaven anyway.]] In ''Dark Angel,'' it seems the doll is going to come back into play when Heaven asks Tony if a portrait doll was ever made for Leigh, and he lies to her. The reason ''why'' he lied is never revealed, and Heaven never even expresses any further curiosity about it after that scene. For the next two books, the doll goes unmentioned. It's only in the prequel that we find out the deal with the doll. (It's entirely possible that this aborted arc was simply due to WriterExistenceFailure.)

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* AbortedArc: The introduction of Heaven's mother's portrait doll is established in the prologue of the very first book, and it seems that it's going to play a major role in proving her identity to her Boston grandparents. [[Spoiler: [[spoiler: The doll's destroyed, but the grandparents accept Heaven anyway.]] In ''Dark Angel,'' it seems the doll is going to come back into play when Heaven asks Tony if a portrait doll was ever made for Leigh, and he lies to her. The reason ''why'' he lied is never revealed, and Heaven never even expresses any further curiosity about it after that scene. For the next two books, the doll goes unmentioned. It's only in the prequel that we find out the deal with the doll. (It's entirely possible that this aborted arc was simply due to WriterExistenceFailure.)

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* AbortedArc: The introduction of Heaven's mother's portrait doll is established in the prologue of the very first book, and it seems that it's going to play a major role in proving her identity to her Boston grandparents. [[Spoiler: The doll's destroyed, but the grandparents accept Heaven anyway.]] In ''Dark Angel,'' it seems the doll is going to come back into play when Heaven asks Tony if a portrait doll was ever made for Leigh, and he lies to her. The reason ''why'' he lied is never revealed, and Heaven never even expresses any further curiosity about it after that scene. For the next two books, the doll goes unmentioned. It's only in the prequel that we find out the deal with the doll. (It's entirely possible that this aborted arc was simply due to WriterExistenceFailure.)



* MoralDissonance: Heaven berates her Boston relatives several times as immoral and selfish while holding up as an example the poor-but-honest hillfolk who always take care of their own. She seems to have forgotten that these same hillfolk knew the Casteel children were constantly cold and malnourished but never offered to help them.

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* MoralDissonance: Heaven berates her Boston relatives several times as immoral and selfish while holding up as an example the poor-but-honest hillfolk who always take care of their own. She seems to have forgotten that these same hillfolk knew the Casteel children were constantly cold and malnourished on the brink of starvation but never offered to help them.
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* HeartwarmingMoments: Troy going to Heaven's high school graduation in ''Dark Angel'', along with several Tatterton Toys employees and their families acting like the Casteels since her actual family couldn't (or wouldn't) be there for her.

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* HeartwarmingMoments: SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: Troy going to Heaven's high school graduation in ''Dark Angel'', along with several Tatterton Toys employees and their families acting like the Casteels since her actual family couldn't (or wouldn't) be there for her.

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* ShoutOut: Heaven's name may be a reference to the 1945 FilmNoir thriller ''Film/LeaveHerToHeaven'', and her dark wavy hair, delicate features, and cornflower-blue eyes strongly resemble those of the film's star, Creator/GeneTierney.



* {{Unintentionally Unsympathetic}}: Even at his worst, it seems that Andrews on some level wants you to sympathize with Luke, which at times is rather... difficult. He's supposedly the way he is because of losing Leigh (whom he cheated on), but he wasted no time finding another wife, whom he treats even worse and is all but nonexistent to his children (except when he's abusing them) and generally seems to be constantly self involved. Even when he's cleaned his act up, he does nothing for Fanny, even though she's at this point had her child taken away, is prostituting herself for money etc. and lets not forget that he sent Heaven to ''two'' families that he knew contained at least one abusive adult i.e. Kitty Dennison and [[spoiler:Tony Tatterton, Leigh's ''rapist'']]. [[SarcasmMode So, yeah poor guy]]...

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* {{Unintentionally Unsympathetic}}: UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Even at his worst, it seems that Andrews on some level wants you to sympathize with Luke, which at times is rather... difficult. He's supposedly the way he is because of losing Leigh (whom he cheated on), but he wasted no time finding another wife, whom he treats even worse and is all but nonexistent to his children (except when he's abusing them) and generally seems to be constantly self involved. Even when he's cleaned his act up, he does nothing for Fanny, even though she's at this point had her child taken away, is prostituting herself for money etc. and lets not forget that he sent Heaven to ''two'' families that he knew contained at least one abusive adult i.e. Kitty Dennison and [[spoiler:Tony Tatterton, Leigh's ''rapist'']]. [[SarcasmMode So, yeah poor guy]]...
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* AdaptationalNameChange: In the made-for-tv movie, Jane Casteel's nickname is Janey, not Our Jane.
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* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Since the books were published, opinion has shifted toward Fanny, reinterpreting her not as an oversexed rival to Heaven but as an eleven-year-old child who uses her premature sexuality to gain the affection she isn't getting in her chaotic and abusive home. Some readers even interpret Fanny's sexual acting-out as a red flag that she might have been sexually abused, perhaps by her own father.
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* AdaptationalNameChange: In the made-for-tv movie, Jane Casteel's nickname is Janey, not Our Jane.

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** Let's not forget Leigh: her mother suddenly divorces her father [[spoiler:who isn't actually her father]], and then her stepfather [[spoiler:raped her, resulting in pregnancy barely into her teens]], and then she dies in childbirth.

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** Let's not forget Leigh: her mother suddenly divorces her father [[spoiler:who isn't actually her father]], and then her stepfather [[spoiler:raped her, resulting in pregnancy barely into her teens]], and then she dies in childbirth.
* YoYoPlotPoint: At some point, you just gotta ask yourself [[spoiler:how many generations of Jillian's descendants is Tony going to rape?]]
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** Heaven confronts Kitty with the fact that Kitty has been selling mass-market ceramics as one-of-a-kind creations and threatens that Kitty could be sued for fraud if anyone ever found out. This is played for high drama and Kitty's reaction is akin to a BerserkButton, but considering that Kitty's ''other'' crimes include physical abuse of a minor child and, oh, ''buying a teenager on the black market,'' it comes across as a little ridiculous.
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* ShoutOut: Heaven's name may be a reference to the 1945 FilmNoir thriller ''Film/LeaveHerToHeaven'', and her dark wavy hair, delicate features, and cornflower-blue eyes strongly resemble those of the film's star, Creator/GeneTierney.
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* MagnumOpusDissonance: Many Creator/VCAndrews fans hold the first two books as her best, but her personal favorite story was the posthumously published and obscure ''Gods of Green Mountain'' (at least according to the letter by her brothers at the beginning of that book)
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* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: There's an uncomfortable moment in the first book where after he has sold all the other children, Luke sits beside a sleeping Heaven and starts ''stroking her hair and while going on about how beautiful she is''. Upon seeing this [[CoolOldGuy Toby Casteel]] demands that Luke give Heaven away too ''for her own safety''. Luke's response to this is to insist that: '''SHE IS MINE!'''. Its never stated what his intentions were but the [[WifeHusbandry implications]] are more than a little ''unsettling''. Heaven herself is momentarily [[{{Squick}} squicked]] out by this but the incident never gets a mention again and Luke is never shown as having... ''that'' kind of [[ParentalIncest interest]] in Heaven again, leaving many a reader wondering just WTF that was about. It also makes [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic Luke's]] supposed reform all the more harder to swallow and really calls his entire [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation character]] into question!

to:

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: There's an uncomfortable moment in the first book where after he has sold all the other children, Luke sits beside a sleeping Heaven and starts ''stroking her hair and while going on about how beautiful she is''. Upon seeing this [[CoolOldGuy Toby Casteel]] demands that Luke give Heaven away too ''for her own safety''. Luke's response to this is to insist that: '''SHE IS MINE!'''. Its never stated what his intentions were but the [[WifeHusbandry implications]] are more than a little ''unsettling''. Heaven herself is momentarily [[{{Squick}} squicked]] out by this but the incident never gets a mention again and Luke is never shown as having... ''that'' kind of [[ParentalIncest interest]] in Heaven again, leaving many a reader wondering just WTF that was about. about? It also makes [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic Luke's]] supposed reform all the more harder to swallow and really calls his entire [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation character]] into question!
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* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: There's an uncomfortable moment in the first book where after he has sold all the other children, Luke sits beside a sleeping Heaven and starts ''stroking her hair and while going on about how beautiful she is''. Upon seeing this [[CoolOldGuy Toby Casteel]] demands that Luke give Heaven away too. Luke's response to this is to insist that '''She is mine'''. Its never stated what his intentions were but the [[WifeHusbandry implications]] are more than a little ''unsettling''. Heaven herself is momentarily [[{{Squick}} squicked]] out by this but the incident never gets a mention again and Luke is never shown as having... ''that'' kind of [[ParentalIncest interest]] in Heaven again, leaving many a reader wondering just WTF that was about. It also makes [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic Luke's]] supposed reform all the more harder to swallow and really calls his entire [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation character]] into question!

to:

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: There's an uncomfortable moment in the first book where after he has sold all the other children, Luke sits beside a sleeping Heaven and starts ''stroking her hair and while going on about how beautiful she is''. Upon seeing this [[CoolOldGuy Toby Casteel]] demands that Luke give Heaven away too. too ''for her own safety''. Luke's response to this is to insist that '''She is mine'''.that: '''SHE IS MINE!'''. Its never stated what his intentions were but the [[WifeHusbandry implications]] are more than a little ''unsettling''. Heaven herself is momentarily [[{{Squick}} squicked]] out by this but the incident never gets a mention again and Luke is never shown as having... ''that'' kind of [[ParentalIncest interest]] in Heaven again, leaving many a reader wondering just WTF that was about. It also makes [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic Luke's]] supposed reform all the more harder to swallow and really calls his entire [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation character]] into question!
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* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: There's an uncomfortable moment in the first book where after he has sold all the other children, Luke sits beside a sleeping Heaven and starts ''stroking her hair and while going on about how beautiful she is''. Upon seeing this [[CoolOldGuy Toby Casteel]] demands that Luke give Heaven away too. Luke's response to this is to insist that '''She is mine'''. Its never stated what his intentions were but the [[WifeHusbandry implications]] are more than a little ''unsettling''. Heaven herself is momentarily [[{{Squick}} squicked]] out by this but the incident never gets a mention again and Luke is never shown as having... ''that'' kind of [[ParentalIncest interest]] in Heaven again, leaving many a reader wondering just WTF that was about. It also makes [[UnintentionallyUnsypathetic Luke's]] supposed reform all the more harder to swallow and really calls his entire [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation character]] into question!

to:

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: There's an uncomfortable moment in the first book where after he has sold all the other children, Luke sits beside a sleeping Heaven and starts ''stroking her hair and while going on about how beautiful she is''. Upon seeing this [[CoolOldGuy Toby Casteel]] demands that Luke give Heaven away too. Luke's response to this is to insist that '''She is mine'''. Its never stated what his intentions were but the [[WifeHusbandry implications]] are more than a little ''unsettling''. Heaven herself is momentarily [[{{Squick}} squicked]] out by this but the incident never gets a mention again and Luke is never shown as having... ''that'' kind of [[ParentalIncest interest]] in Heaven again, leaving many a reader wondering just WTF that was about. It also makes [[UnintentionallyUnsypathetic [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic Luke's]] supposed reform all the more harder to swallow and really calls his entire [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation character]] into question!
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Added DiffLines:

*BigLippedAlligatorMoment: There's an uncomfortable moment in the first book where after he has sold all the other children, Luke sits beside a sleeping Heaven and starts ''stroking her hair and while going on about how beautiful she is''. Upon seeing this [[CoolOldGuy Toby Casteel]] demands that Luke give Heaven away too. Luke's response to this is to insist that '''She is mine'''. Its never stated what his intentions were but the [[WifeHusbandry implications]] are more than a little ''unsettling''. Heaven herself is momentarily [[{{Squick}} squicked]] out by this but the incident never gets a mention again and Luke is never shown as having... ''that'' kind of [[ParentalIncest interest]] in Heaven again, leaving many a reader wondering just WTF that was about. It also makes [[UnintentionallyUnsypathetic Luke's]] supposed reform all the more harder to swallow and really calls his entire [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation character]] into question!
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* FanPreferredCouple: Just try and find a Casteel series reader who ''doesn't'' think that Troy, not Logan, was the love of Heaven's life and that she should have married him instead. Troy might have been Heaven's uncle, but it's not like the previous series didn't have an incestuous couple working things out (in fact, she was ''still'' planning on marrying Troy even after the "uncle" reveal and it was just Troy's apparent death that put a stop to that), and he was much more sensitive and caring towards Heaven than Logan who had NoSympathy for Heaven's abuse at the hands of Kitty and Cal, said point-blank to her face that she was DefiledForever to him, and even [[spoiler:indirectly caused Heaven's death]]. Plus how Heaven and Logan's marriage resulted in ''both'' of them cheating on each other (Logan with Heaven's stepsister Fanny, Heaven with Troy whom she explicitly said she still loved)...

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* FanPreferredCouple: Just try and find a Casteel series reader who ''doesn't'' think that Troy, not Logan, was the love of Heaven's life and that she should have married him instead. Troy might have been Heaven's uncle, but it's not like the [[Literature/DollangangerSeries previous series series]] didn't have an incestuous couple working things out (in fact, she was ''still'' planning on marrying Troy even after the "uncle" reveal and it was just Troy's apparent death that put a stop to that), and he was much more sensitive and caring towards Heaven than Logan who had NoSympathy for Heaven's abuse at the hands of Kitty and Cal, said point-blank to her face that she was DefiledForever to him, and even [[spoiler:indirectly caused Heaven's death]]. Plus how Heaven and Logan's marriage resulted in ''both'' of them cheating on each other (Logan with Heaven's stepsister Fanny, Heaven with Troy whom she explicitly said she still loved)...

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*MoralDissonance: Heaven berates her Boston relatives several times as immoral and selfish while holding up as an example the poor-but-honest hillfolk who always take care of their own. She seems to have forgotten that these same hillfolk knew the Casteel children were constantly cold and malnourished but never offered to help them.



* {{Narm}}: [[spoiler: Tom's heroic death is somewhat marred by the fact that he dies from being mauled by atiger while dressed as a literal clown.]]

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* {{Narm}}: [[spoiler: Tom's heroic death is somewhat marred by the fact that he dies from being mauled by atiger a lion while dressed as a literal clown.]]
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* Let's not forget Leigh: her mother suddenly divorces her father [[spoiler:who isn't actually her father]], and then her stepfather [[spoiler:raped her, resulting in pregnancy barely into her teens]], and then she dies in childbirth.

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* ** Let's not forget Leigh: her mother suddenly divorces her father [[spoiler:who isn't actually her father]], and then her stepfather [[spoiler:raped her, resulting in pregnancy barely into her teens]], and then she dies in childbirth.
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** Though she later becomes a JerkassWoobie, Sarah definitely deserves a hug. Besides the aforementioned NightmareFuel she endures, she's really led quite a crappy existence: living in abject poverty with a cheating, abusive husband who has made it plain that she's the consolation prize to his first true love, scratching to feed and clothe five children and two invalid adults, and all the while still holding out hope that one day her husband will love her. Added to the nasty postnatal depression she is left with and complete lack of emotional support she receives (and certainly no medical attention) [[spoiler: after her final child is born dead and severely deformed]], is it any wonder the poor woman loses it?

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** Though she later becomes a JerkassWoobie, Sarah definitely deserves a hug. Besides the aforementioned NightmareFuel she endures, she's really led quite a crappy existence: living in abject poverty with a cheating, abusive husband who has made it plain that she's the consolation prize to his first true love, scratching to feed and clothe five children and two invalid adults, and all the while still holding out hope that one day her husband will love her. Added to the nasty postnatal depression she is left with and complete lack of emotional support she receives (and certainly no medical attention) [[spoiler: after her final child is born dead and severely deformed]], is it any wonder the poor woman loses it?it?
* Let's not forget Leigh: her mother suddenly divorces her father [[spoiler:who isn't actually her father]], and then her stepfather [[spoiler:raped her, resulting in pregnancy barely into her teens]], and then she dies in childbirth.

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