My Sweet Audrina

The Audrina Series

By: V. C. Andrews

Narrated by: Rebekkah Ross

Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's Summary

V. C. Andrews has enthralled millions with her suspenseful, gothic family sagas, including the best-selling Dollanganger series that began with Flowers in the Attic. Now, one of her strangest, most beloved classics, My Sweet Audrina - a haunting story of love and deceit, innocence and betrayal, and the suffocating power of parental love - is soon to be a major Lifetime movie event.

The idea of her sister hovered above them all.

Audrina fiercely desired to be as good as her sister. She knew her father could not love her as he loved that other girl, for her sister was so special, so perfect - and dead.

Upstairs in a locked room awaited her sister's clothes and dolls, her animals and games - and her sacred rocking chair. Now Audrina will rock and rock and rock to reclaim all of her gone sister's special gifts.

And then finally she'll learn the secrets everyone else knows but her.

©1982 Vandra Productions, Ltd. (P)2016 Simon & Schuster

Great Book! TERRIBLE NARRATOR!!!!

Update 1-26-18: I decided to give this narration another try. Maybe having prepared myself for Rebekkah Ross's lackluster performance makes it easier to bear. It's still not great and her mispronunciation of words still bothers me, but it's easier to handle this time around. I'm changing my one star rating of the performance to three stars. Still, my original review is below.

When I saw that "My Sweet Audrina" was finally available as an audiobook, my heart leapt! Such a fantastic book deserves to be on audio, as does the rest of V.C. Andrews early work! When I saw that Rebekkah Ross was the narrator, my leaping heart just about stopped...from disappointment. I've listened to her readings of other V.C. Andrews’s books (or should I say Andrew Neiderman books) and found myself irritated by her high-school student drone. She hardly does any voices to begin with, but she whines along as though it's okay for an audiobook narrator to read the book without the tiniest bit of performance in her voice. I began listening today, thinking perhaps a book actually written by Andrews (and not Neiderman-blah) might redeem Ross as a narrator in my ears. I'd only gone in about 30 minutes and I knew I would never be able to handle another 13 hours of it! Such a great novel, ruined! Never mind that she can pronounce "objets d'art" but not "cupola", I'm bothered more by the lazy way she says "Uh-dree-nuh" instead of "Odd-ree-nuh". Perhaps that's being too finicky, but if I have to listen to it for 13-plus hours, I deserve to have the name pronounced the way the introduction to the audiobook says it should be, let alone how anyone I've ever heard say the name has pronounced it. My final verdict is, read the book, it's great. DO NOT buy this on audio. The narration is terrible and will ruin the experience!!

Even better in audio!

My Sweet Audrina has always been my favorite, favorite book. I haven't read the book in a decade or so, so listening to it after so much time was a real treat. This is a dark story like all VC Andrews stories. Audrina is the second and less perfect Audrina. She lives with her parents, aunt and evil cousin Vera.

Vera is my absolute favorite character. She's evil yet I want to like her. She's been dealt the worst hand out of them all. Audrina is a niave goody two shoes with a swiss cheese memory. The first Audrina died before the second Audrina was born and she can do no wrong whereas Vera does everything wrong, everything.

The narrator does such an excellent job with the story. She's clear, great quality and inflection. She adds more to this already amazing story.

Loved it! Loved it! Loved it!

Loved it!

I couldn't put it down. I read it in all of 3 days!! I highly recommend this book.

VC Andrews nails it again

I didn't know about this novel until I saw the Lifetime movie. Book is better!

HIT ME MUCH HARDER AFTER 25+ YEARS!

If you could sum up My Sweet Audrina in three words, what would they be?

Haunting, Twisted, Sad

What was one of the most memorable moments of My Sweet Audrina?

When Audrina learns the truth..

Which scene was your favorite?

I cant choose...I liked it all...

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

They did, and I thought it was pretty good until now...I had forgotten this stories true line, I guess I had forgotten more of the book then I thought...but 25+ yrs is a long time to go with a re-read...and I remember reading this book multiple times in my late teens, early twenties...I just really remembered liking it a lot!!!

Any additional comments?

I loved this story years ago and still do, but my feelings have definitely changed...Papa was so mean, and being a female in that household was bad news, no matter who you were...I felt so bad for Audrina especially...her life was stolen from her...she was so mentally abused..made to be weak...and most certainly traumatized....But she got strong, I just wish she would have left...

GREAT GOTHIC FICTION AND A CLASSIC! VERY WELL NARRATED! I RECOMMEND!!

Well...it’s not the masterpiece I remembered it to be

This book was amazing...the other time I read it. But I was 12 way back then. This book is...different...in a way that kind of almost creeps me out for too many reasons to list. But I’m grown now. So..ick? I arrived at 2.5 stars by averaging 12 year old self’s stars and my 39 year old self’s stars, but I can’t seem to change that 3rd star to a half.

As for the narration. Ok yes, the word “cupola” was spoken SO MANY TIMES that SOMEBODY, out of everybody who worked on the production of this audio book, like. Just. Somebody. Should have caught the 83 mispronunciations on the first pass.
But aside from that, and honestly it’s an error any narrator could make, hence editors, she did, in my opinion, a very good job.
I’m pretty sure it’s not the narrator that gives you that hard to explain oogie feeling, I think it’s just the story. How in the hell did my parents let me read VC Andrews at age 12.

Meh

Story was so cheesy, twist ending wasn't exactly that hard to figure out shortly into the book.

The reader....she gave it her best. The male voicing though is so cringeworthy, it was hard to listen anytime a male character had lines.

The absolute WORST narration I've listed to yet!

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A different narration would have made all the difference. The narrator makes or breaks the listening experience. It was TERRIBLE!! The story was intriguing, but hard to get through because of the reading. If I wasn't listening for a book club, I wouldn't finished it.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Rebekkah Ross?

??

Horrible narration!

This was a painful "read" due to the narration. I never read VC Andrews as a teen and finally as an adult decided to check out what the fuss was about...it was awful. Strange story, ridiculous characters, and predictable ending.

great story...

I read this story many years ago (over 30) and realized I barely remembered this book. In audio book format, this book is wonderful. The narration is fantastic and flawless.

This is a fictional story about a girl who was ruined at the age of 9 and the length a family went to in attempts to hide the truth from her in order to save her. I really liked the story, though at times I thought it lacked a little luster, however I have been a VC Andrews fan since the release of Flowers in the Attic (about 35 years ago) and buy all the books and / or audio books. Vera, the wicked sister made a wonderful supporting character too!

The author, V C Andrews did a good job on this story. I loved the plot. The narrator, Rebekkah Ross delivered a flawless narration with tons of different voices and accents. Perfectly and smoothly spoken making it very believable. Great job ladies!

V C Andrews was my first author to read as a young adult and got me hooked on books!