The Delia Series Bk. 1:
Delia's Crossing
by V.C. Andrews

    DELIA'S CROSSING by V.C. Andrews
    Category:  Contemporary
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 9+
    Release Date:  9/30/08
    Publisher:  Pocket Star
    Reviewed by:  Jaglvr
    Rating:  5 Stars


    Delia Yebarra’s life is about to change.  

    Living a content life in her small Mexican village, Delia has just celebrated her fifteenth birthday.  She lives with her
    parents and her grandmother in a small house.  They don’t have a lot of money, but Delia knows she is loved and
    wouldn’t trade her life for anything.

    But Delia’s parents are killed in a freak accident and her grandmother is too old to provide for her.  Her
    grandmother tells her that she is going off to America to live with her aunt.  Delia doesn’t know her aunt.  Isabela left
    Mexico and married an older rich American.  Isabela refuses to acknowledge any reminders of her life in Mexico.

    Upon arrival in Palm Springs, Delia hopes for a new life.  She is homesick for her grandmother, but vows to make
    the best of things.  However, her aunt has other ideas.  After arriving at the house, Delia is sent off to a dingy room
    at the back of the grounds.  Because of her limited grasp of the English language, she is to be treated as an employee
    rather than as a long-lost relative.  No one besides Isabela and the English tutor knows her true identity.

    Delia struggles to do everything her aunt asks of her.  But things go from worse to tragic.  It’s only after her cousin,
    Edward, learns who Delia truly is, does life take a turn for the better.  Delia finally gets to attend school.  Rather than
    the private school that her cousins Edward and Sophia attend, Delia is stuck in the ESL class at the local high
    school.  

    But as with any V.C. Andrews story, life doesn’t remain rosy for long.  Sophia has plans of her own that may
    sabotage Delia’s tentative happiness.

    DELIA’S CROSSING started out a bit slow.  The background was being set for the hardships that Delia was
    about to encounter.  But once Edward is brought into the picture, the story unfolds at a brisk pace, pitting Delia
    against all the evil people she meets in America.  Delia is an innocent thrust into the den of lions.  

    There are redeeming characters in America, such as her cousin Edward and his friend, Jesse, but it’s the evil ones
    that Delia must endure that make the book so exciting.  

    Delia’s struggles in America continue in the next installment, DELIA’S HEART.

    (Note: There are situations that Delia is thrust into that are best left for the older reader.)