Known for her individual novels “A Casa Das Orquídeas”, “A Luz Via Janela”, “A Garota do Penhasco”, “A Rosa da Meia Noite”, “Italian Girl” (not yet released in Brazil), Lucinda Riley embarks in his first saga “The Seven Sisters”.
The story of the book itself is based on the mythology of the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades, a cluster of stars existing in the constellation of Taurus, in which each character (sister) in the book was named after each star in its proper order. As in all Lucinda’s books, it portrays a story in the present and its certain relationships and connections with the past.
The present, in general, takes place in Geneva, portraying the character Pa Salt who is a sailor passionate about his profession who travels around the world. With time and his due reasons, he ends up adopting six girls (I say this because so far there has been no evidence of a seventh) taking his loved ones to his home baptized as Atlantis. Before he dies, he writes a letter to each of his daughters and leaves a clue engraved in a monument in the garden, a globe with seven rings as seen on the cover of the book, where each of these rings have their names and coordinates that reveal the exact places where each one was born, and it’s up to them whether or not they want to know about their origin. The seventh ring is blank, which makes any reader wonder whether or not there was a seventh sister.
In the case of this first book, the main focus is the eldest daughter Maia, a Portuguese and Russian translator, who discovers her Brazilian origin and leaves for Rio de Janeiro in order to learn about her past. She is the only one among the sisters Ally, Star, Cece, Tiggy and Electra who has never left her home.
The Seven Sisters” is a fascinating novel written by Lucinda Riley, which tells the story of six sisters adopted by a mysterious and wealthy man named Pa Salt. Each of the sisters was named after a star in the Pleiades constellation and after the death of Pa Salt, they receive a clue about their origins that leads them in search of their personal stories. The first book in the series, “The Seven Sisters – Book 1”, is focused on Maia, the oldest sister, who follows the clue to the Rio de Janeiro.
Maia is a 27-year-old Swiss woman who works as a fashion designer and lives a comfortable life with her adoptive family in Geneva. When her adoptive father dies, she receives her first clue about her origins and learns that she was born in Brazil. She then travels to Rio de Janeiro in search of answers and begins to investigate her story.
There, she finds an old mansion, which belonged to her biological family, and meets the charming Brazilian writer Floriano Quintelas. Together, they begin to unravel Maia’s past and discover the story of her great-grandmother, Izabela Bonifácio, who lived in Brazil at the end of the 19th century.
Izabela’s story is an emotional saga of love, loss and overcoming. She was the youngest daughter of a rich coffee farmer and fell in love with a young French painter, who was in Brazil to paint a picture of her father. Their relationship faced many obstacles, including opposition from Izabela’s father and the outbreak of the Guerra dos Canudos.
Throughout the narrative, Maia also faces her own challenges, including the conflict between her Swiss identity and her Brazilian roots, as well as dealing with her adoptive family’s financial problems and her attraction to Floriano. She discovers more about her biological family and becomes involved with the culture and history of Brazil.
Lucinda Riley is a master at weaving together past and present stories, creating deeply emotional and endearing characters. In “As Sete Irmãs – Livro 1”, she takes us on a journey through the streets of Rio de Janeiro, through coffee plantations in the interior of Brazil and across Europe, presenting a rich story of love and the discovery of identity.
Overall, “The Seven Sisters – Book 1” is an engaging and exciting read, with a complex and well-developed plot. It is a story of love and family, which explores themes such as identity, loss and the search for belonging. It’s a perfect introduction to the series and a book that is sure to make readers eager to find out more about the other sisters and their stories.
