The Shadow Sister (The Seven Sisters, 3)

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The kitchen is still to be fitted, but as soon as I’ve signed, you can have free rein to choose which cooker you’d like, which fridge, and so on. Now that you’re going to be a professional,” she said with a wink.

The Shadow Sister is book three The Seven Sisters series. I had wanted to read this series from the beginning and I was a bit unsure how it would go starting with book three. But, despite some mentionings from the previous book did I find this book to work as a stand-alone. Although now I really want to read the previous two books! At home, in an attempt to communicate with me, Ma had taught me the basics of French sign language. From the very moment Star finds her way to the bookstore, I could smell and feel the books as well as her excitement as making a step closer to the truth. The brothers – Orlando and ‘Mouse’ were such funny and vivid characters and I was as wrapped up in their story as I was in the fate of the shop. I do love a good brooding hero and these two were very distinct but equally fascinating. The past histories of two old country houses reveal a path of hidden secrets and brotherly spats. The ways families hang together, expectation and duty get in the way of free spirit and how a house can destroy as well as bring a family together – and what it means to love and be loved. There is such detail and warmth in this story, and it reads like a song. Star D’Aplièse is at a crossroads in her life after the sudden death of her beloved father – the elusive billionaire, named Pa Salt by his six daughters, all adopted by him from the four corners of the world. He has left each of them a clue to their true heritage, but Star – the most enigmatic of the sisters – is hesitant to step out of the safety of the close relationship she shares with her sister CeCe. In desperation, she decides to follow the first clue she has been left, which leads her to an antiquarian bookshop in London, and the start of a whole new world . . .The third book in Lucinda Riley's Seven Sisters series brings the reader Star D’Aplièse’s story. The title sums her up pretty well actually, as so far in the previous books she has really been The Shadow Sister. When I first had the idea of writing a series of books based on The Seven Sisters of the Pleiades, I had no idea where it would lead me. I was very attracted to the fact that each one of the mythological sisters was, according to their legends, a unique and strong female. Some say they were the Seven Mothers who seeded our earth – there is no doubt that, in their stories, they were all highly fertile! – and had many children with the various Gods who were fascinated by their strength, beauty and ethereal air of mysticism. Lucinda’s Seven sisters series just gets better and better. Star’s story is the most magical one yet -and the locations are stunningly evocative. A hundred years earlier, headstrong and independent Flora MacNichol vows she will never marry. She is happy in her home in England’s picturesque Lake District—just a stone’s throw away from her childhood idol, Beatrix Potter. But when circumstances carry her to London, and into the home of one of Edwardian England’s most notorious society hostesses, Alice Keppel, she finds herself a pawn in a larger game; forced to choose between passionate love and duty to her family. That is, until a meeting with a mysterious gentleman reveals answers Flora has been searching for… It goes without saying that I loved everything about this novel: the characters--ALL of them!!, the setting, the story, the feeling it gave me--happiness doesn't even cut it. I can honestly say that this is my favorite novel I've read, so far, this year.

As I travel round the world, following in the footsteps of my factual and fictional female characters to research their stories, I am constantly humbled and awed by the tenacity and courage of the generations of women who came before me. Whether fighting the sexual and racial prejudices of times gone by, losing their loved ones to the devastation of war or disease, or making a new life on the other side of the world, these women paved the way for us to have the freedom of thought and deed that we enjoy today. And so often take for granted. Another of your ‘real life’ characters in The Shadow Sister is the children’s author and illustrator, Beatrix Potter. Why do you think her work’s popularity has been so enduring – and did you read the tales to your children?

Come and help me choose some sofas,” she called from the sitting room as I filled our yellowing tub with lukewarm water.

As I said there is a certain amount of investment as a reader when dipping into a book from this series, the author weaves such elegant and complex story-lines that you need to be paying attention to what is happening whether it be with the characters from the past, or the story playing out in the current. I was interested to see what Star would get up to as she had up to this point very much let her sister CeCe, steer the ship that they were on. It was good to see her step out of the Shadow that CeCe cast over her, and see her come into her own, through the telling of Flora’s story and the discoveries about her own paternal family that came with it. Also, Star's story throughout the book just wasn't as eventful as I'd hoped. Most of it was cooking, babysitting and speaking to family members about logistics of who's at which house and who's driving whom to the station and who got whom pregnant in which year. Oh, and countless "I know I'm an asshole" soliloquies. And I wanted to celebrate the achievements of women, especially in the past, where so often, their contribution to making our world the place it is today has been overshadowed by the more frequently documented achievements of men. In legend, she is always accompanied by her sister Celaeno, who is stronger and louder than her. Their close relationship really fascinated me as, squashed into the middle of their six-sister family, Star and CeCe are forced into co-dependency and develop their own special relationship. I realized I had been seated exactly where I was now when CeCe had come into our miserable little sitting room to tell me that Pa Salt was dead.

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Sadly, I have to follow my client’s instructions. Your father insisted that any meetings I might have with his daughters be conducted individually.” Star D’Aplièse is at a crossroads in her life after the sudden death of her beloved father—the elusive billionaire, affectionately called Pa Salt by his six daughters, all adopted from across the four corners of the world. He has left each of them a clue to her true heritage, and Star nervously decides to follow hers, which leads her to an antiquarian bookshop in London, and the start of a whole new world. As Star learns more about Flora’s incredible journey, she too goes on a voyage of discovery, finally stepping out of her sister’s shadow and opening herself to the possibility of love. Riley’s engaging and mesmerizing story of self-discovery and love...can be perfectly read as a stand-alone. This book will appeal to readers of Edwardian novels and Jane Austen-style fiction.” — Library Journal (starred review)