ANNOUNCEMENTS BOX

Arden Lowe and Logan Stonewall remind me of each other and I don't like either one, they seemed like unfaithful, weak, little kissups. Like Momma's boys to the extreme. I mean I love it if they respect and love and take care of their mothers but it seemed like Arden went overboard with his momma's boy act. Just thought I'd comment on it.

[CASTEEL (FH) SPOILERS IN YELLOW]

Oh yeah thats me .. Can I join the club of Arden "dislikers"
Don't get me started on why I can't stand him .. selfish .. and it annoyed me how he acted like he was scared of those boys and just watched them mutalise Audrina ... and knowing all this ... he treated her like crap on their honeymoon .. he is a jerko!!!! Logan not so much .. but there are definitely things about him that bug me ... well fathering a child to Fanny .. but that didn't bug as much cos Heaven also had a baby to another man .. Plus Heaven was a bit mean to him .. so I empathise

[CASTEEL (Fallen Hearts) SPOILERS in yellow]

Logan cheated only once that we know of...Arden cheated constantly with Vera. He didn't intervene to save Audrina's life either...that happened TWICE. Logan wasn't perfect, but he wasn't THAT bad. Cal Dennison is actually a closer comparison to Arden Lowe. Both were weak and constantly wanted sex.

I don't think Arden's crime was running. Didn't he say he ran to get help? There was nothing he could have done at eleven to stop her from being gang-raped. What good would he be to her hurt or dead? Of course, this is assuming he had the intention of getting help when he ran. Arden's crimes were:

1. Cheating with Vera

2. The way he abused Audrina when they were married. Several times.

yeah we'll make a club, i call president! lol

[CASTEEL SPOILERS IN YELLOW (FALLEN HEARTS)]

lol I'd have to go back and read MSA again before I decide if I want to join. I remember mostly everything that happens but I seem to remember it a little more differently. I always thought that Arden was pretty loving towards Audrina besides on the honeymoon. I remember when he didn't want Vera to kill Audrina when she was in a coma or something. But I read it when I was 13 and I'm sure that I have much stronger opinions on things now so if I go back and read it I'm sure I'll change my mind. I'm the type who loves the "knight in shining armor" men so I think that I subconsciously try to make all the VC men like that.
However, with Logan, I liked him sometimes... other times I think he was just an ass to Heaven... Its that stupid toy factory and fanny... but when Troy came into the picture I could care less about Logan.

[FALLEN HEARTS SPOILERS IN YELLOW]

Arden and Logan have similarities in that they are both the boyfriends of a main character, a childhood sweetheart. And they both cheat with a sister.

[FALLEN HEARTS SPOILERS IN YELLOW]

When I first read, Heaven, I liked Logan until he did cheat on Heaven. After that, I lost total respect for the guy.

I mean, Arden was a natural born cheater. I didn't like him from the start. If these guys really cared about the two women of their lives, they wouldn't have been unfaithful. I don't care how rocky a marriage may be, they could've worked at it instead of running off with the first bimbo they saw. There are good guys out there, it's just that Heaven and Audrina were unfortunate with these wimps.

[FALLEN HEARTS SPOILERS IN YELLOW]

Heaven cheated too so I didn't feel sorry for her.

As for Audrina, she and Arden never should have gotten married in the first place. I wonder if she really did it to get away from home. From what I remember in the book, she went long stretches of periods where she'd just shut him out. She did this shortly after he'd lost his mother, shutting everyone out for close to a year. If it was hard for her, imagine how much harder it must have been for him. There was nothing he could have done to improve their marriage because she wasn't ready for it. Maybe he should have told her who she was, but I don't know what he was thinking.

He was wrong to cheat, but the problem wasn't just Arden. My guess is it could have been any guy. I'm not saying any guy would cheat with Vera, but any guy would have been as useless to her as Arden was because the problem went beyond his faults. They had to do a lot with her upbringing. It wasn't her fault she was so traumatized, but she was and I can only hope, at the end, she was able to take a step forward in her life, once she learned the truth, but I don't know.

[FALLEN HEARTS SPOILERS IN YELLOW]

Yeah same here. Thats why I don't hate Logan. Just don't like what he did .. because Heaven did the same So really she can't give Logan crap about Luke. At least she knew about him!

Yes about Arden and Audrina *nods* I think she was a bit traumatised after the wedding night too. That is what I hate him for the most! how long after that night did she find out the whole truth? Arden was a dickfor not telling her who she really was. Cause so much of her time was put in to trying to figure that out .. it really stressed her to the bone!!! At least then she would've had someone she could trust and they could've lived happily. If only he was man enough

I agree

I don't care if Arden loved her, it still doesn't make sleeping with her sister while she's in a coma right, and if he really loved her he would have told her the truth and not slept with Vera and saved her from the rape in the first place. The boy is more a coward than the cowardly lion, Arden has no balls

That's always what bothered me. That people blamed Arden for not "saving" her from the rape. It's not his fault the rape occurred---the blame belongs to the boys who did it and Vera. He was what, eleven, twelve when it happened? If he'd told them to stop, I can imagine how that would have gone down. He claimed he went to get help. This scene kind of reminds me of a scene from The Hotel New Hampshire in which the brother, instead of going straight to his sister to save her from the rape, spends about ten minutes getting help and getting to her after she's already been raped by three different guys, pretty much at the end. Arden's no different and if he'd tried to stop the rape himself, there's no guarantee he would have been able to do anything. They could have easily just beaten him up and still raped Audrina. If he'd tried to save her and been killed then maybe that would have made his death a hero's one, but the reason they call someone a hero is because they do something that the average person would not do.

I found this interesting, coming on this line after having read the entire book.

On page 93, Arden tells Audrina "I'm going to have to tell you something one day, and you're not going to like me after I do."

To which Audrina responds, "Don't ever tell me if that's what it will do. For I don't want to stop liking you, Arden."


[DARK ANGEL SPOILER IN YELLOW]

I mentioned that this seemed to be a theme in VCA novels before, like when Logan tells Heaven not to tell him anything that will make him stop loving her. And when Heaven doesn't want Troy to tell her anything that will ruin their relationship.


I wonder if Arden ever intended to tell Audrina. Either he was putting it off or he decided against it.

Did he even try to get help, or was it a pathetic lie?

What I really dislike about him is that he slept with Vera before and during Audrina's coma, and was very insensitive about the wedding night even though he knew what happened to his wife. He was also about to go off with Vera. If there's anything I despise, it's when someone cheats.

He was just weak through and through.

I don't know, it may have been a lie. I just gave him the benefit of the doubt since there's no way to know.

I agree with you, it was horrible that he cheated. I think what made it creepier was that he knew why Audrina was so cold and why she froze him out. You know, another man would not have known and would have thought she wanted nothing to do with him and probably would have divorced her fairly early on. Or would have stayed with her, but would have most likely sought outside companionship in some form or other.

Edit: I don't mean to be so cruel in regards to Audrina. I like to think there would have been someone out there for her who could have helped her. But if this took place in the seventies or earlier (and it must have, since it was published in 1982 and it spanned a long period of time), chances are she would not have had a successful marriage with anyone. Chances are slim, back then, that anyone would have tried to help her. And no matter how much a man loved her, you can't shut your husband out for a year and expect him to remain unfailingly supportive. I know that sounds cruel, but, unfortunately, that's how things work. And while Arden was horrible for not saying anything to her, he probably didn't think she wanted to know the truth. He probably figured she shut out the rape because it hurt too much to think about it. Back then, people probably weren't as informed about rape as they are today, and were probably much more likely to keep such things hidden. It was wrong, but I imagine lots of people were just like him back then, so it would be unrealistic to expect his character to be any different. That's just the reality V.C.A. was dealing with when she wrote this book.