Review ~ The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley

November 2014
McMillan

Their Future Is Written In The Stars

When Maia D'Apliése and her five sisters gather at their fabulous home, Atlantis, situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, they mourn the loss of their beloved father, the enigmatic billionaire, Pa Salt. The six girls all adopted by Pa Salt as babies have no idea where they originally came from, but their final gift from their father is a set of tantalising clues, which if they feel able to pursue, will lead them to the place where they came from and to their true heritage.

Maia, the eldest of the sisters, follows her clues to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro, where her story combines with that of Izabela Bonifacio, a young socialite, whose story, some eighty years before, entwines with that of Heitor da Silva Costa, the architect responsible for the construction of the statue of Christ the Redeemer and of an ambitious young sculptor, called Laurent Brouilly.

Maia’s story is beautifully intertwined with memories of the past and as the layers of the story are peeled away the connection between Maia and Izabela is revealed in a story which is rich in wonderful storytelling and faultless in the way both the past and present are allowed to evolve at their own pace. The Belle Epoque of Rio, in 1927 is gloriously described, from the fashions, to the constraints placed upon young women in society, all combine to give a heady description of an era lost forever.

When I first saw the size of the book, coming in at over 620 pages, I must admit to feeling concerned and more than a little daunted as committing to a seven book series is a real undertaking, however, as the pages flashed by and I became engrossed in Maia and Izabela’s story, I truly didn't want the story to end. Finishing the first book is a tantalising snippet of what is to come in the second book and its dramatic cliff hanger, of course, makes me want to read on.

Creating the series based on the legends of the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades star constellation is inspired and without doubt, Lucinda Riley combines the best of mythology with wonderful storytelling. Maia’s story gets the series off to a fantastic start and I am sure that the other sisters’ stories will be equally as enthralling.

 I really can’t wait for book two...and Ally's Story..