Heaven finds herself sold to a dangerously abusive woman named Kitty and her weak-willed husband Cal, who emotionally manipulates Heaven and ultimately takes her virginity. Desperate for money, Luke returns with a plan to sell his children. But when the heart of the family, Granny Casteel, dies, Luke Casteel-never the greatest provider to begin with- completely abandons the family, while stepmother Sarah, fed up with his philandering, leaves the children to fend for themselves in the depths of a harsh mountain winter.

Heaven's fortune seems to change for the better with the arrival of newly arrived City Slicker Logan Stonewall, who becomes Heaven's first love. Heaven and Tom dream of making a better life for themselves and their family by completing school and getting a college education. In the first book Heaven, the Casteel family-Heaven, her half-siblings Tom, Fanny, little Keith and Our Jane, her stepmother Sarah, her pa Luke Casteel, and his parents Annie and Toby-are known as 'the scum of the hills,' the poorest of the poor even among the poverty-stricken West Virginia village of Winnerrow. Heaven receives her late mother's few belongings, the most precious being a one-of-a-kind doll that is identical to Heaven's mother (and, aside from the hair color, to Heaven herself). When she is ten years old, Heaven Leigh Casteel, a girl living with her extremely poor family in a mountain range called the Willies, learns from her grandmother of her father's first wife Leigh, a Boston socialite and teenage runaway who married Heaven's father Luke and died giving birth to Heaven. Among Andrews' fans, this series (or at least the first two books) is held in particularly high regards, with some saying that they're Andrews' best work.

The series was completed by her officially appointed ghostwriter, Andrew Neiderman. Andrews completed the first two books in the series shortly before her death from breast cancer in 1986. Andrews, published after Seeds of Yesterday. The Casteel Series is the second Generational Saga from V.

Dark angel andrews novel