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The Seven Sisters (Seven Sisters Book 1) Kindle Edition
The Seven Sisters is the story that began it all. An epic tale of love and loss, it tells the stories of the D’Aplièse sisters, all adopted as babies by the enigmatic billionaire they affectionately call Pa Salt.
This is Maia’s story. When Pa Salt dies suddenly, the bereaved sisters gather together at their childhood home, a spectacular secluded castle on the shores of Lake Geneva. Each of them is handed a tantalising clue to their heritage and Maia finds herself on a journey across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Eighty years earlier, Izabela Bonifacio’s father has aspirations for her to marry into the aristocracy. But Izabela longs for adventure, and convinces him to allow her to first travel to Paris. In the heady, vibrant streets of the city, Izabela meets an ambitious young sculptor, and knows at once that her life will never be the same again.
What links these two young women? In the beautiful city of Rio, will Maia find the answers she needs to understand who she truly is?
The Seven Sisters is the first book in the spellbinding Seven Sisters series, inspired by the mythology of the famous star constellation. It is followed by The Storm Sister.
'A brilliant page-turner just soaked in glamour and romance' - Daily Mail
Praise for the Seven Sisters:
'A masterclass in beautiful writing' – The Sun
'Heart-wrenching, uplifting and utterly enthralling' – Lucy Foley, author of The Hunting Party
'A breathtaking adventure' – Lancashire Evening Post
Five-Star Reader Reviews:
'Absolutely incredible'
'Totally addictive'
'Ideal for when you need to escape'
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPan
- Publication date6 Nov. 2014
- Reading age18 years and up
- File size4.5 MB
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See full series- Kindle Price:£16.97By clicking on the above button, you agree to Amazon's Kindle Store Terms of UseSold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
- Kindle Price:£46.92By clicking on the above button, you agree to Amazon's Kindle Store Terms of UseSold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
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This option includes 3 books.
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From the Publisher


Product description
Review
Riley is one of the strongest authors in this genre of historical fiction . . . excellent historical detail, heart-wrenching romance, and an engaging mystery -- Historical Novel Society
Like the famous statue that brought the lovers together and hovers over Rio today, the story is elegantly sculpted and rich with history -- Library Journal, USA
Review
A brilliant page-turner just soaked in glamour and romance ― Daily Mail
Like the famous statue that brought the lovers together and hovers over Rio today, the story is elegantly sculpted and rich with history -- Library Journal, USA
From the Inside Flap
From the Back Cover
About the Author
Lucinda Riley was born in 1965 in Ireland, and after an early career as an actress in film, theatre and television, wrote her first book aged twenty-four. Her books have been translated into thirty-seven languages and continue to strike an emotional chord with all cultures around the world. The Seven Sisters series specifically has become a global phenomenon, creating its own genre, and there are plans to create a seven-season TV series.
Her books have been nominated for numerous awards, including the Italian Bancarella prize, The Lovely Books award in Germany, and the Romantic Novel of the Year award. In 2020 she received the Dutch Platinum award for sales over 300,000 copies for a single novel in one year – an award last won by J K Rowling for Harry Potter.
In collaboration with her son Harry Whittaker, she also devised a series of books for children called The Guardian Angels series, based on stories told to her children whenever they were facing a challenging situation. Harry then wrote the books, and they are now being published internationally.
Though she brought up her four children mostly in Norfolk in England, in 2015 she fulfilled her dream of buying a remote farmhouse in West Cork, Ireland, which she always felt was her spiritual home, and indeed this was where her last five books were written.
Lucinda was diagnosed with cancer in 2017 and died on June 11th 2021, surrounded by her family.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1
I will always remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard that my father had died.
I was sitting in the pretty garden of my old school friend’s townhouse in London, a copy of The Penelopiad open but unread in my lap, enjoying the June sun while Jenny collected her little boy from kindergarten.
I felt calm and I appreciated what a good idea it had been to get away. When my cell phone rang and I glanced at the screen and saw it was Marina, I was studying the burgeoning clematis unfolding its fragile pink buds, giving birth to a riot of color, encouraged by its sunny midwife.
“Hello, Ma, how are you?” I said, hoping she could hear the sun’s warmth in my voice.
“Maia, I . . .”
Marina paused, and in that instant I knew something was dreadfully wrong. “What is it?”
“Maia, there’s no other way to tell you this, but your father had a heart attack here at home yesterday afternoon, and in the early hours of this morning, he . . . passed away.”
I remained silent as a million different and ridiculous thoughts passed through my mind. The first one being that Marina, for some unknown reason, had decided to play some form of a tasteless joke on me.
“You’re the first of the sisters I’ve told, Maia, as you’re the eldest. And I wanted to ask you whether you would prefer to tell the rest of your sisters yourself, or leave it to me.”
“I . . .”
Still no words would form coherently on my lips, as I began to realize that Marina, dear, beloved Marina, the woman who had been the closest thing to a mother I’d ever known, would never tell me this if it weren’t true. So it had to be. And at that moment, my entire world shifted on its axis.
“Maia, please, tell me you’re all right. This really is the most dreadful phone call I’ve ever had to make, but what else could I do? God only knows how the other girls are going to take it.”
It was then that I heard the suffering in her voice and understood she’d needed to tell me as much for her own sake as mine. So I switched into my normal comfort zone, which was to comfort others.
“Of course I’ll tell my sisters if you’d prefer, Ma, although I’m not positive where they all are. Isn’t Ally away training for a regatta?”
And, as we continued to discuss where each of my younger sisters was, as though we needed to get them together for a birthday party rather than to mourn the death of our father, the entire conversation took on a sense of the surreal.
“When should we plan on having the funeral, do you think? What with Electra being in Los Angeles and Ally somewhere on the high seas, surely we can’t think about it until next week at the earliest,” I said.
“Well”—I heard the hesitation in Marina’s voice—“perhaps the best thing is for you and I to discuss it when you arrive back home. There really is no rush now, Maia, so if you’d prefer to continue the last couple of days of your holiday in London, that would be fine. There’s nothing more to be done for him here . . .” Her voice trailed off miserably.
“Ma, of course I’ll be on the next flight that I can get to Geneva! I’ll call the airline immediately and let you know what time the flight is. And in the meantime, I’ll do my best to get in touch with everyone.”
“I’m so terribly sorry, chérie,” Marina sighed. “I know how you adored him.”
“Yes,” I said, the strange calm that I had felt while we discussed arrangements suddenly deserting me like the stillness before a violent thunderstorm. “I’ll call you later, when I know what time I’ll be arriving.”
“In the meantime, please take care of yourself, Maia. You’ve had a terrible shock.”
I pressed the button to end the call and before the storm clouds in my heart opened up and drowned me, I went upstairs to my bedroom to retrieve my flight documents and contact the airline. As I waited in the calling queue, I glanced at the bed where I’d woken up that morning to simply another day. And I thanked God that human beings don’t have the power to see into the future.
The officious woman who eventually answered wasn’t helpful and I knew, as she spoke of full flights, financial penalties, and credit card details, that my emotional dam was ready to burst. Finally, once I’d been grudgingly granted a seat on the four o’clock flight to Geneva, which would mean throwing everything into my luggage immediately and taking a taxi to Heathrow, I sat down on the bed and stared for so long at the sprigged wallpaper that the pattern began to dance in front of my eyes.
“He’s gone,” I whispered, “gone forever. I’ll never see him again.”
Expecting the spoken words to provoke a raging torrent of tears, I was surprised that nothing actually happened. Instead, I sat there numbly, my head still full of practicalities. The thought of telling my sisters—all five of them—was horrendous and I searched through my emotional filing system for the one I would call first. Inevitably, it was Tiggy, the second youngest of the six of us girls and the sibling to whom I’d always felt closest.
With trembling fingers, I scrolled down to find her number and dialed it. When her voice mail answered, I didn’t know what to say, other than a few garbled words asking her to call me back urgently. She was currently somewhere in the Scottish Highlands working at a center for orphaned and sick wild deer.
As for the other sisters . . . I knew their reactions would vary, outwardly at least, from indifference to a dramatic outpouring of emotion.
Given that I wasn’t currently sure quite which way I would go on the scale of grief when I did speak to any of them, I decided to take the coward’s way out and texted them all, asking them to call me as soon as they could. Then I hurriedly packed my luggage and walked down the narrow stairs to the kitchen to write a note for Jenny explaining why I’d had to leave in such a hurry.
Deciding to take my chances hailing a black cab on the London streets, I left the house, walking briskly around the leafy Chelsea crescent just as any normal person would do on any normal day. I believe I actually said hello to someone walking a dog when I passed him in the street and managed a smile.
No one would know what had just happened to me, I thought as I managed to find a taxi on the busy King’s Road and climbed inside it, directing the driver to Heathrow.
Nobody would know.
Five hours later, just as the sun was making its leisurely descent over Lake Geneva, I arrived at our private pontoon on the shore, from where I would make the last leg of my journey home.
Christian was already waiting for me in our sleek Riva motor launch. And from the look on his face, I could see he’d heard the news.
“How are you, Mademoiselle Maia?” he asked, sympathy in his blue eyes as he helped me aboard.
“I’m . . . glad I’m here,” I answered neutrally as I walked to the back of the boat and sat down on the cushioned cream leather seat that curved around the stern. Usually, I would sit with Christian in the passenger seat at the front as we sped across the calm waters on the twenty-minute journey home. But today, I felt a need for privacy. As Christian started the powerful engine, the sun glinted off the windows of the fabulous houses that lined Lake Geneva’s shores. I’d often felt when I made this journey that it was the entrance to an ethereal world disconnected from reality.
The world of Pa Salt.
I noticed the first vague evidence of tears pricking at my eyes as I thought of my father’s pet name, which I’d coined when I was young. He’d always loved sailing and often when he returned to me at our lakeside home, he had smelled of fresh air and the sea. Somehow, the name had stuck, and as my younger siblings had joined me, they’d called him that too.
As the launch picked up speed, the warm wind streaming through my hair, I thought of the hundreds of previous journeys I’d made to Atlantis, Pa Salt’s fairy-tale castle. Inaccessible by land, due to its position on a private promontory with a crescent of mountainous terrain rising up steeply behind it, the only method of reaching it was by boat. The nearest neighbors were miles away along the lake, so Atlantis was our own private kingdom, set apart from the rest of the world. Everything it contained within it was magical . . . as if Pa Salt and we, his daughters, had lived there under an enchantment.
Each one of us had been chosen by Pa Salt as a baby, adopted from one of the four corners of the globe, and brought home to live under his protection. And each one of us, as Pa always liked to say, was special, different . . . we were his girls. He’d named us all after the Seven Sisters, his favorite star cluster. I was Maia, being the first and eldest.
When I was young, he’d take me up to his glass-domed observatory perched on top of the house; lift me up with his big, strong hands; and have me look through his telescope at the night sky.
“There they are,” he’d say as he aligned the lens, “look, Maia, and see the beautiful shining star you’re named after.”
And I would see. As he explained the legends that were the source of my own and my sisters’ names, I’d hardly listen but simply enjoy his arms tight around me, fully aware of this rare, special moment when I had him all to myself.
Marina, whom I’d presumed as I grew up was my mother—I’d even shortened her name to “Ma”—I’d realized eventually was a glorified nursemaid, employed by Pa to take care of me, because he was away so much. But of course, Marina was so much more than that to all of us girls. She was the one who had wiped our tears, berated us for sloppy table manners, and steered us calmly through the difficult transition from childhood to womanhood.
She had always been there, and I could not have loved Ma any more if she had given birth to me.
During the first three years of my childhood, Marina and I had lived alone together in our magical castle on the shores of Lake Geneva as Pa Salt traveled the seven seas to conduct his business. And then, one by one, my sisters began to arrive.
Usually, Pa would bring me a present when he returned home. I’d hear the motor launch arriving, run across the sweeping lawns and through the trees to the jetty to greet him. Like any child, I’d want to see what he had hidden inside his magical pockets to delight me. On one particular occasion, however, after he’d presented me with an exquisitely carved wooden reindeer, which he assured me came from Saint Nicholas’s workshop at the North Pole itself, a uniformed woman had stepped out from behind him, and in her arms was a bundle wrapped in a shawl. And the bundle was moving.
“This time, Maia, I’ve brought you back the most special gift. You have a new sister.” He’d smiled at me as he lifted me into his arms. “Now you’ll no longer be lonely when I have to go away.”
After that, life had changed. The maternity nurse who Pa had brought with him disappeared after a few weeks and Marina took over the care of my baby sister. I couldn’t understand how the red, squalling thing which often smelled and diverted attention from me could possibly be a gift. Until one morning, when Alcyone—named after the second star of the Seven Sisters—smiled at me from her high chair over breakfast.
“She knows who I am,” I said in wonder to Marina, who was feeding her.
“Of course she does, Maia dear. You’re her big sister, the one she’ll look up to. It’ll be up to you to teach her lots of things that you know and she doesn’t.”
And as she grew, she became my shadow, following me everywhere, which pleased and irritated me in equal measure.
“Maia, wait me!” she’d demand loudly as she tottered along behind me.
Even though Ally—as I’d nicknamed her—had originally been an unwanted addition to my dreamlike existence at Atlantis, I could not have asked for a sweeter, more loveable companion. She rarely, if ever, cried and when she was a toddler there were none of the temper tantrums associated with children of her age. With her tumbling red-gold curls and her big blue eyes, Ally had a natural charm that drew people to her, including our father. On the occasions Pa Salt was home from one of his long trips abroad, I’d watch how his eyes lit up when he saw her, in a way I was sure they didn’t for me. And whereas I was shy and reticent with strangers, Ally had an openness and trust that endeared her to everyone.
She was also one of those children who seemed to excel at everything—particularly music, and any sport to do with water. I remember Pa teaching her to swim in our vast pool, and whereas I had struggled to master the technique to stay afloat and hated being underwater, my little sister took to it like a mermaid. And while I struggled to find my sea legs even on the Titan, Pa’s huge and beautiful oceangoing yacht, when we were at home, Ally would beg him to take her out in the small Laser dinghy he kept moored on our private lakeside jetty. I’d crouch in the cramped stern of the boat while Pa and Ally took control as we sped across the glassy waters. Their joint passion for sailing bonded them in a way I felt I could never replicate.
Although Ally had studied music at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève and was a highly talented flautist who could have pursued a career with a professional orchestra, since leaving music school she had chosen the life of a full-time sailor. She now competed regularly in regattas and had represented Switzerland on a number of occasions.
When Ally was almost three, Pa arrived home with our next sibling, whom he named Asterope, after the third of the Seven Sisters.
“But we will call her Star,” Pa had said, smiling at Marina, Ally, and me as we studied the newest addition to the family lying in the bassinet.
By now I was attending lessons every morning with a private tutor, so my newest sister’s arrival affected me less than Ally’s had. Then, only six months later, another baby girl joined us, a twelve-week-old named Celaeno, whose name Ally immediately shortened to CeCe.
There was only three months’ age difference between Star and CeCe, and from as far back as I can remember, the two of them forged a close bond. They were like twins, talking in their own private baby language, some of which the two of them still used to communicate. They inhabited their own private world, to the exclusion of us others, and even now, in their twenties, nothing had changed. CeCe, the younger of the two, was always the boss, her stocky body and nut-brown skin in direct contrast to the pale, whippet-thin Star.
The following year, another baby arrived, Taygete—whom I nicknamed “Tiggy” because her short, dark hair had sprouted out at strange angles on her tiny head and reminded me of the hedgehog in Beatrix Potter’s famous story.
I was by now seven years old, and I’d bonded with Tiggy from the first moment I set eyes on her. She was the most delicate of us all, suffering one childhood illness after another, but even as an infant, she was stoic and undemanding. When yet another baby girl, named Electra, was brought home by Pa a few months later, an exhausted Marina would often ask me if I would mind sitting with Tiggy, who was continually suffering with a fever or croup. Eventually diagnosed as asthmatic, she rarely left the nursery to be wheeled outside in the pram, in case the cold air and heavy fog of a Geneva winter affected her chest.
Electra was the youngest of my siblings and her name suited her perfectly. By now, I was used to little babies and their demands, but my youngest sister was without doubt the most challenging of them all. Everything about her was electric; her innate ability to switch in an instant from dark to light and vice versa meant that our previously calm home rang daily with high-pitched screams. Her temper tantrums resonated through my childhood consciousness and as she grew older, her fiery personality did not mellow.
Privately, Ally, Tiggy, and I had our own nickname for her and she was known between the three of us as “Tricky.” We all walked on eggshells around her, wishing to do nothing to set off a lightning change of mood. I can honestly say there were moments when I loathed her for the disruption she brought to Atlantis.
And yet, when Electra knew one of us was in trouble, she was the first to offer help and support. Just as she was capable of huge selfishness, her generosity on other occasions was equally pronounced.
After Electra, the entire household was expecting the arrival of the seventh sister. After all, we’d been named after Pa Salt’s favorite star cluster and we wouldn’t be complete without her. We even knew her name—Merope—and wondered who she would be. But a year went past, and then another, and another, and no more babies arrived home with Pa.
I remember vividly standing with my father once in his observatory. I was fourteen years old and just on the brink of womanhood. We were waiting for an eclipse, which he’d told me was a seminal moment for humankind and always brought change with it.
“Pa,” I said, “will you ever bring home our seventh sister?”
At this, his strong, protective bulk had seemed to freeze for a few seconds. He’d looked suddenly as though he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. Although he didn’t turn around, for he was still concentrating on training the telescope on the coming eclipse, I knew instinctively that what I’d said had distressed him.
“No, Maia, I won’t. Because I have never found her.”
As the familiar thick hedge of spruce trees, which shielded our waterside home from prying eyes, came into view, I saw Marina standing on the jetty and the dreadful truth of losing Pa finally began to sink in.
And I realized that the man who had created the kingdom in which we had all been his princesses was no longer present to hold the enchantment in place.
Product details
- ASIN : B00LB89UII
- Publisher : Pan
- Accessibility : Learn more
- Publication date : 6 Nov. 2014
- Edition : Main Market
- Language : English
- File size : 4.5 MB
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 641 pages
- ISBN-13 : 978-1447219101
- Page Flip : Enabled
- Book 1 of 8 : The Seven Sisters
- Reading age : 18 years and up
- Best Sellers Rank: 205 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer reviews:
About the author

Lucinda Riley was born in 1965 in Ireland, and after an early career as an actress in film, theatre and television, wrote her first book aged twenty-four. Her books have been translated into thirty-seven languages and continue to strike an emotional chord with all cultures around the world. The Seven Sisters series specifically has become a global phenomenon, creating its own genre, and there are plans to create a seven-season TV series.
Her books have been nominated for numerous awards, including the Italian Bancarella prize, The Lovely Books award in Germany, and the Romantic Novel of the Year award. In 2020 she received the Dutch Platinum award for sales over 300,000 copies for a single novel in one year – an award last won by J K Rowling for Harry Potter.
In collaboration with her son Harry Whittaker, she also devised and wrote a series of books for children called ‘The Guardian Angels’ series.
Though she brought up her four children mostly in Norfolk in England, in 2015 she fulfilled her dream of buying a remote farmhouse in West Cork, Ireland, which she always felt was her spiritual home, and indeed this was where her last five books were written.
Lucinda was diagnosed with cancer in 2017 and died on June 11th 2021, surrounded by her family.
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find this book to be a wonderfully absorbing read with engaging historical aspects and a love story set in difficult circumstances. Moreover, the writing is described as wonderfully written and filled with emotions, while the characters come to life and are easy to follow throughout the story. Additionally, the book is extensively researched with detailed descriptions of places, making it a great introduction to a new series.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book highly readable, describing it as brilliant and a beautiful tale, with one customer noting it's a great start to their reading year.
"This was a really good read . It was hard tro put down and thr historical facts bound around the fiction made it so readable...." Read more
"...Unputdownable is how I would describe it. Great story with interesting facts about Brazil." Read more
"...Downloaded the two already : great author to read if you haven’t discovered her yet" Read more
"Kept be interested to the last page. I’m keen to read her other books especially the ones in this series." Read more
Customers praise the writing style of the book, describing it as delightful, easy to read, and wonderfully descriptive, with one customer noting it can be read independently.
"...put down and thr historical facts bound around the fiction made it so readable...." Read more
"...I really enjoyed aspects of it and know it was well written, but it was just too long...." Read more
"...Riley's writing is comfortable and flowing...most of the time. There were just too many jarring details that made me pause and shake my head...." Read more
"I have only read a few chapters of book one , easy to readbenjoying it so far" Read more
Customers find the book enthralling, noting that it holds their interest throughout and becomes addictive. One customer mentions being immediately immersed in the story, while another describes being swept along on a magical journey.
"...I really enjoyed the author's storytelling which is really captivating...." Read more
"...Captivating, breathtaking and epic, The Seven Sisters is a very highly recommended read - it's well worth making time to read this stunning novel." Read more
"...Some parts of the story were easy to predict and some very good “teasing mysteries” also." Read more
"...the rains came and this book was like an oasis in the desert - totally refreshing and wonderful...." Read more
Customers enjoy the historical aspects of the book, describing it as an amazing journey over centuries that immerses readers in the story.
"This was a really good read . It was hard tro put down and thr historical facts bound around the fiction made it so readable...." Read more
"...I also very much liked the historical aspect of the stories, especially relating to the creation of the Monte Cristo Statue and to the Paris of the..." Read more
"An excellent novel. A mixture of fact and fiction." Read more
"...It is breathtaking! The Seven Sisters is inspired by Greek mythology and Pa Salt (Atlas) names his six adopted daughters after the..." Read more
Customers enjoy the romance in the book, describing it as a beautiful journey through love, sorrow, and hope in difficult circumstances.
"...really came to life and you could relate to each one and have empathy with them. Highly recommend this. So good for a holiday read." Read more
"...This is a love story in difficult circumstances and although I found what happens to Izabela to be very obvious and unoriginal I thought that the..." Read more
"...It is intriguing and haunting from the start and goes back and forth in time between Maia's great grandmother Izabela, beautiful like Maia and the..." Read more
"...all about disconnecting with the world around us, but this story just felt far too naïve without any grounding in reality to carry itself...." Read more
Customers praise the character development in the book, noting that the characters come to life and are easy to follow throughout the story.
"...The characters really came to life and you could relate to each one and have empathy with them. Highly recommend this. So good for a holiday read." Read more
"...So far, likeable characters & the story draws you in very quickly. Easy read." Read more
"...I cared for the characters, and liked the way the history of Maia’s family was told. Looking forward to finding out more of her sisters" Read more
"...The twists were weak. The character development was non-existent - you could have picked each off the shelf of the thousands of books like it...." Read more
Customers enjoy this book series, describing it as amazing and a great introduction to a new set of novels.
"Love all Lucinda Riley books but the Seven Sisters series is wonderful and worth another read." Read more
"This series is wonderful. Stories and research are magical and thorough. I couldn't put it down. Very easy to read writing style...." Read more
"...and the enigma that is Pa Salt, has left me intrigued and keen to read the other books. A great to start to the series!" Read more
"Brilliant series of books. This is the first of the sisters. Beautifully written." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's extensive research and factual details, particularly noting its wonderful descriptions of places and focus on Rio.
"...as well as Brazilian society to be fascinating and obviously showing excellent research - what makes the book a little different is the creation of..." Read more
"...however it was fantastic - very big book lots of pages and lots of interesting places - i do think the price is a bit much but have gone to the..." Read more
"...breadth and depth, the characters come alive and the history, so well researched, and the scale of love and romance are lovely...." Read more
"This series is wonderful. Stories and research are magical and thorough. I couldn't put it down. Very easy to read writing style...." Read more
Reviews with images

AMAZING
Top reviews from United Kingdom
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- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 December 2024This was a really good read . It was hard tro put down and thr historical facts bound around the fiction made it so readable. The characters really came to life and you could relate to each one and have empathy with them. Highly recommend this. So good for a holiday read.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 May 2025Cannot wait to start the second book. Unputdownable is how I would describe it. Great story with interesting facts about Brazil.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 March 2025I was frustrated by this book. The series was recommended to me but is slightly out of my usual type of read. I really enjoyed aspects of it and know it was well written, but it was just too long. I am left desperately wanting to know more about the story (I have guessed one answer, which is worse as I want to find out if I am right) but can't face reading six more long books as this one took me so long to read, partly because of the length and partly because of not being my preferred genre (I have to admit I kept falling asleep without the tension of my usual grittier detective stories). So a really good book that leaves me undecided about whether to read more.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 May 2025Great book can’t wait to read the whole series! Downloaded the two already : great author to read if you haven’t discovered her yet
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 April 2025Kept be interested to the last page. I’m keen to read her other books especially the ones in this series.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 April 2025Brilliant read have now read all eight highly recommend the last book Atlas brought the stories off each book together
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 April 2023I have seen this book series so much on French IG and read so many great reviews I wanted to try it out, despite its so many pages. I'm trying to read around 200-page books whilst I'm also doing the War and Peace 2023 readalong though The Seven Sisters does not fall in this category as it's about 640 pages!
I liked the 2 timelines of the book:
* Maia's story told in about 2017 who search for her roots and her birth family after the death of Pa Salt, her adoptive father.
* Bel's, Maia's great-grandmother, story in the late 1920s.
I really enjoyed the author's storytelling which is really captivating. Even though the whole story takes place over a period of over a month, so much happens.
I also very much liked the historical aspect of the stories, especially relating to the creation of the Monte Cristo Statue and to the Paris of the 1920s.
At the end, there are a few questions leaving us hanging but I'm guessing that's we'll get to know the answers (or some clues to them) through the stories of Maia's sisters in the following books.
It was a really enjoyable read and I'm looking forward to discover Ally's story in book 2.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 November 2023I was looking forward to a change of pace with a romantic quasi-historical fiction. And in that sense, I wasn't disappointed that it did keep moving and, but it did so in exactly the direction anyone might expect - you could forecast the next chapter before starting it. The twists were weak. The character development was non-existent - you could have picked each off the shelf of the thousands of books like it. And I knew how the book would conclude well before getting there.
Riley's writing is comfortable and flowing...most of the time. There were just too many jarring details that made me pause and shake my head. Fahrenheit just isn't used in Rio, Paris or Geneva. Authentic Mexican food doesn't use sour cream. Modern hotels don't have ordinary keys at the concierge. Overall, the book seemed forced to try to feel authentic, while failing to do so in any meaningful way. I was surprised to read that much of the book had been written in a fazenda above Rio - I would have guessed that Riley hadn't left her home office in this venture.
I finished the book disappointed at the whimsical and frivolous nature of it all. Reading can be all about disconnecting with the world around us, but this story just felt far too naïve without any grounding in reality to carry itself. Many big things happened that just didn't have any impact. In fact, the whole story of Izabela felt too far removed from Maia given the two generations between them. Just a manipulation to make the Cristo link to a modern day romance fitting in the necessary plotline to make it work - tail wagging the dog sort of moment. The mysterious introduction to the six/seven sisters and Pa Salt really engaged me to start with, but I fear I've embarked on a romantic series of highly intelligent yet dippy and flighty millionairesses "finding themselves".
Top reviews from other countries
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Maria Angeles Galvez FulgadoReviewed in Spain on 7 February 2025
5.0 out of 5 stars Gran Saga
Gran saga. Me encanta.
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Jessica BonatesReviewed in Brazil on 16 June 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente leitura!
Simplesmente AMEI! A leitura é muito envolvente, com um mix de romance, suspense, história. Maravilhoso! E o fato do primeiro livro se passar no Brasil, fez a história ser ainda mais interessante.
Estou encantada com a genialidade da ideia da autora e toda a sua criatividade e pesquisa. Já comprei e comecei o segundo.
Parece que estou lendo uma série. Vale muito a pena!
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laura perinReviewed in Italy on 14 September 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars Pre recensione
Promette bene. L' ho letto in italiano, bellissimo tra il resto, ora lo sto sperimentando in inglese. Arrivato nei tempi giusti. Libro intonso.
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Nanoo DoReviewed in France on 18 April 2025
5.0 out of 5 stars Direction le Brésil avec Maia
J'ai adoré l'histoire de Maia, un premier tome qui vous donnera envie de voyager au pays de la samba et de dévorer la série des sept soeurs.
- SubReviewed in India on 22 March 2021
5.0 out of 5 stars Must read!
I loved this book. I couldn’t put it down. The characters are well described and the storyline is excellent . Heartwarming and a tangled love story. Very intriguing book.