Jade: Jade got number one mainly because I enjoy emotional turmoil and Jade has plenty of emotional turmoil as the pawn in her parent’s vicious divorce where both are utterly focused on climbing the corporate ladders that they neglect her. So she turns to internet chat rooms which leads to a traumatic kidnapping that is so perverted that Jade may have even blocked out some of it. So yeah, lots of stuff happen that combine the cold, hardened shield that Jade forms aorund her heart and her cynical nature.

Cat: This is a perfect combination of Gothic with all the Andrews’ tropes of incest, sexual repression, evil matriarchs and trauma with all the building suspense of old Law and Order: SVU episodes as Cat reccounts her confusing relationship with her father that turns from her ally to worst abuser.

Star: Star’s story was interesting as she tells about her parent’s detoriating marriage and how her mother’s alcoholism forced her to become the parent for herself and her little brother which forces her to repress her needs and self-care. She only finds solace in the new boy but even that brief happiness is torn from her. Even so, I admire her hesistancy in sharing her story as well as her fears that they’ll see her as a stereotype before coming to feel the healing power of sharing with her fellow wildflowers.

Misty: Not much to say here as Misty’s story of her divorcing parents and realizing they weren’t the perfect people she idolized them to be could almost be a tv movie of the week but Andrews does a decent job in introducing the other Wildflowers, building the mystery around their stories and the important of the story.

Into the Garden: This big novel brings the Wildflowers together to cement their sisterhood in the most dramatic way possible when Cat’s guardian, Gereldine dies. they bury her in secret and not tell the police. What could go wrong? A lot as you can imagine. Unfortunately this big book ends up showing that they aren’t as stalwart friends as they said they’d be especially when it leads Cat to more isolation and danger. It also has so many things going on that the girls feel too different from their time in therapy. Which makes sense as how one acts in their personal life is probably different from group therapy but also felt like plot convenience at times.