Genre: Historical Fiction
Four and a half stars: * * * * 1/2
The Seven Sisters is the first in a series of seven books, based on the legends of the Seven Sisters star constellation. It's beautifully enticing right from the beginning. I listened to it on Audible and was immediately transported to 'Atlantis' and wondering how these six (yes, we're only introduced to six) adopted sisters all came to live there together. The dynamics between the different permutations and combinations of sisters is intriguing and there's incredible mystery surrounding their father, 'Pa Salt,' as well as the elusive seventh sister.
Synopsis
Their future is written in the stars...
The beautiful recluse who must learn to love again – set in La Belle Epoque of 1920’s Rio and Paris, and present-day Lake Geneva.
Maia D’Aplièse and her five sisters gather together at their childhood home, ‘Atlantis’ – a fabulous, secluded castle situated on the shores of Lake Geneva – having been told that their beloved father, the elusive billionaire they call Pa Salt, has died. Maia and her sisters were all adopted by him as babies and, discovering he has already been buried at sea, each of them is handed a tantalising clue to their true heritage – a clue which takes Maia across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Once there, she begins to put together the pieces of where her story began...
Eighty years earlier, in the Belle Epoque of Rio, 1927, Izabela Bonifacio’s father has aspirations for his daughter to marry into aristocracy. Meanwhile, architect Heitor da Silva Costa is working on a statue, to be called Christ the Redeemer, and will soon travel to Paris to find the right sculptor to complete his vision. Izabela – passionate and longing to see the world – convinces her father to allow her to accompany him and his family to Europe before she is married. There, at Paul Landowski’s studio and in the heady, vibrant cafés of Montparnasse, she meets ambitious young sculptor Laurent Brouilly, and knows at once that her life will never be the same again.
As taken from author's webpage.
My thoughts
There's so many angles to this book. While it's a story of discovery, it's also a story of love, romance, secrets, secrets within secrets and difficult decisions. Not to mention the consequences of these decisions, not only in the immediate term but those that span generations. Within all this, the author takes you on a historical journey. From Geneva to Rio de Janeiro and Paris. We travel with characters through time, as they stand in the same places decades apart, whether the bustling streets of Paris or on Corcovado mountain in Rio. The descriptions are rich and colourful so it was easy to feel like you were right there. The detail in the links, synergies and developments over time, particularly the immaculate weaving of historical facts, like the building of the 'Cristo', are clever and well thought-out, not to mention, the backbone of the very story being told.
I did feel the main character, Maia, to be very naïve and a little meek to start off with. She seemed to just be almost standing still in life and I found this hard as the reader when such a mystery was presented to us about these girls' lives. While Maia seemingly has everything, living in this castle on the shores of Lake Geneva, she knows nothing of her past. I wanted her to have more energy, more emotion and a deeper curiosity as she explored her past. As the story goes on however, we learn more about her immediate past as well as her ancestors which goes someway to explain her passivity. From what we know about her other sisters so far, it seems Maia is also dwarfed by strong characters in her life. The journey she goes on in this book certainly changes her, opens her up as she starts to confront her past but I think there's so much more to come from the next six books!
I've already downloaded part 2, 'The Storm Sister' and I'm excited to pick up from Ally where Maia left us. I can't wait to see how these seven sisters' lives are weaved together and how and why Pa Salt is the glue that binds them.
About the author
The author has written beautifully about herself and her life on her website here. A summary here wouldn't do it justice. The website also includes fascinating backgrounds to things mentioned in the book such as armillary spheres and the myths and legends of the Pleiades. Take a read!
Books in the Seven Sisters Series:
The Seven Sisters (this review)
The Pearl Sister
The Moon Sister
The Sun Sister
The Missing Sister (will be released in 2021)
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