Shortly before the publication of The Missing Sister , Lucinda announced an eighth and final book in The Seven Sisters series, promising to answer the question at the heart of the story: Who is Pa Salt? Before her death, Lucinda was able to write several important passages and detailed notes on the story. She expressed a clear wish that her eldest son, Harry, should complete the series if the worst were to happen. In the fourth of Riley’s Seven Sisters series, another of the D’Aplièse daughters discovers her true heritage.

The story the author told, took me to present day Thailand, Australia and the UK, as well as Scotland in the early 1900’s and on a boat voyage to Australia in those times as well, and as with every other book, interweaved two women’s lives perfectly together in its telling. Following the death of her father, the elusive billionaire Pa Salt – so-called by the six daughters he adopted from around the globe and named after the Seven Sisters star cluster – she finds herself at breaking point. Dropping out of art college, CeCe watches as Star, her beloved sister, distances herself to follow her new love, leaving her completely alone. She acted at the Little theatre with Leicester drama society before starting ballet and drama studies at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London, at 14. After being spotted in a ballet class there by a television director, she was cast as Dora, one of the Bastable children, in a 1982 BBC serialisation of E Nesbit’s children’s novel The Story of the Treasure Seekers. When CeCe finally reaches the searing heat and dusty plains of the Red Centre of Australia, she begins the search for her past. As something deep within her responds to the energy of the area and the ancient culture of the Aboriginal people, her creativity reawakens once more. With help from those she meets on her journey, CeCe begins to believe that this wild, vast continent could offer her something she never thought possible: a sense of belonging, and a home…The excitement and anticipation of a new novel from Riley for me must be comparable to how the fans of J K Rowling felt each time a new Harry Potter book was released ...this series is without the best thing Lucinda has written. * Shaz's Book Blog * I love stories set in the hot, dusty parts of Australia. It's a place I like to visit via books but have no desire to actually go in real life - I don't think I'd handle the heat, the dust or the flies. I really enjoyed following along as CeCe learned more about her heritage, especially the information I got about Aboriginal art. I Googled the artists mentioned and the work was incredible, though I'm sure even more impressive in person rather than a phone screen! From the breathtaking beaches of Thailand to the barely tamed wilds of colonial Australia, The Pearl Sister is the fourth “brilliantly written” ( Historical Novel Society) novel in New York Times bestselling author Lucinda Riley’s epic Seven Sisters series. “Fans of Kristin Hannah, Kate Morton, and Riley’s previous novels will adore” ( Booklist) this adventurous and moving story about two women searching for a place to call home. Then, as Lucinda Riley, her career as an author soared. Alongside the Seven Sisters series, she wrote novels such as Hothouse Flower (2010, also titled The Orchid House), The Girl on the Cliff (2011), The Midnight Rose (2013), The Angel Tree (2014) and The Butterfly Room (2019). Her total sales worldwide were 33m.

Being in nature made me feel alive, made my senses sharpen and soar, as if I was rising above the earth and becoming part of the universe. Here at Kinnaird, I knew that the inner part of me that I hid from the world could blossom and grow…'

The Seven Sisters books in order

He’d said that just before we’d gone to the University of Sussex together, and I’d been cross because I didn’t need anyone else, and neither did Star. Or at least, I hadn’t thought she did. Then . . . a b c d Stephanie Bell, How Ulster-born author Lucinda Riley, who vowed to shun Hollywood, became the toast of LA after signing huge deal to film her novels for TV, Belfast Telegraph, 14 July 2016 Gustafsson, Miia (29 May 2021). "8 vuotta sitten Lucinda Riley katseli taivaalle ja mietti, mitä kokkaisi perheelleen – silloin syntyi idea kirjasarjasta, josta tuli maailmanmenestys". Yle . Retrieved 1 May 2023. CeCe D’Aplièse is up this time, and having found her a little dislikeable in the previous book I was interested to read of the origins of this adopted woman’s blood lineage. This is a character who has already displayed quite a strong personality, so much so that she had pretty much took over the running of her closest sisters Skye’s life, but that changed in the previous book; The Shadow Sister as Skye discovered her past, and met her future, a future that didn’t solely revolve around doing what CeCe thought was best for them as a duo.

The Dreaming is the beginning of everything, the ‘time before time’. The Ancestor Beings (usually half-animal, half-human in appearance) emerged out of the earth, in darkness, onto a completely flat landscape. With them, the sun emerged and flooded everything in light, so the Ancestors could see where they travelled as they began to create all the rivers and mountains, trees, and valleys. Then they made all the people, animals and plants. They made Water, Air, Earth and Fire, and lastly, they made the Moon and the Stars. The Pearl Sister, the fourth instalment in the The Seven Sisters series, is predominantly set in the dusty Australian heat during both the early 1900s and twenty-first century as it delves into the life, ancestors, and heritage of CeCe, the struggling, awkward artist who seems adrift and in desperate need of some inspiration, companionship, and contentment.

Summary

Sometimes her writing is adequate, sometimes I just want to yell a bit at the nonsensicalness of it.