The Orphans series

The Orphans is a novelized miniseries credited to V. C. Andrews, but ghostwritten by Andrew Neiderman. It focuses on the lives of four teenage girls and their lives as "orphans." The first four novels each focus on one of the four main characters, and the fifth book unites them and concludes their stories. They were released from May to October 1998.^[1] The first four (shorter) books were bound together in a November omnibus, and the individual books slowly went out of print, except for the final Runaways one.

Butterfly

Butterfly just wants to be someone's little girl. But when handsome Sanford and his beautiful wheelchair-bound wife Celine choose her from the orphanage, her new life revolves around becoming the dancer Celine never could be. Now she is dancing on a fragile web of happiness, never knowing what might happen if one glittering strand should break.

Crystal

Crystal dreams of a home and family, and the Morrises seem perfect. Karl and Thelma make her feel wanted and secure for the first time in her short life. But in her new home, sadness is banished to the back of the closet...and no one is prepared when a shocking tragedy comes to the door.

Brooke

Brooke has always dreamed that one day her mother will return and take her away from the orphanage. Now Pamela and Peter Thompson have welcomed her into their huge, gleaming house, and she must learn the rules of their perfect world...or risk losing her golden chance for a name, a home, and freedom from the terrible secrets of her past.

Raven

Raven just wants an end to broken promises. But even after she is sent to live with her kindly aunt and domineering uncle, humiliating secrets lurk--and threaten to dash forever Raven's dream of a true home.

Runaways

"All for one and one for all" was the girls' motto. In the grim foster home for orphans run by Louise and Gordon Tooey, at least Brooke, Crystal, Raven, and Butterfly had each other. Calling themselves "sisters," together they could forget the past and dream of a new chance... a real home. Then they discovered a secret even more haunting than Gordon's heavy boots pounding on the wooden floors. Their fragile hopes of a better life shattered, they escaped the only way they could. Soon they were runaways in a borrowed car, desperately wishing to wake up one morning in a place of sunshine and love.

Raven hoped to be a singer, Butterfly wanted to be a dancer, Crystal planned for college, and Brooke privately hoped to find her mother in California. On the open road the chains of sadness that had bound them seemed to melt away, and the kindness of strangers made a secure future seem almost real. But the highway was a dangerous place, and soon they were penniless and more vulnerable than ever. Alone under the wide western sky, they had only each other to ask if they should give up their dreams... or if they were really halfway to a haven of safety and happiness....

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