Two Minute Review: The Storm Sister by Lucinda Riley

Monday, April 3, 2017
Title: The Storm Sister
Author: Lucinda Riley
Genre: general fiction, historical fiction
Series: The Seven Sisters #2
Pages: 705
Published: November 2015
Source: purchased
Rating: 3/5

Ally D'Aplièse is about to compete in one of the world's most perilous yacht races, when she hears the news of her adoptive father's sudden, mysterious death. Rushing back to meet her five sisters at their family home, she discovers that her father - an elusive billionaire affectionately known to his daughters as Pa Salt - has left each of them a tantalising clue to their true heritage.

Ally has also recently embarked on a deeply passionate love affair that will change her destiny forever. But with her life now turned upside down, Ally decides to leave the open seas and follow the trail that her father left her, which leads her to the icy beauty of Norway...

There, Ally begins to discover her roots - and how her story is inextricably bound to that of a young unknown singer, Anna Landvik, who lived there over 100 years before, and sang in the first performance of Grieg's iconic music set to Ibsen's play 'Peer Gynt'. As Ally learns more about Anna, she also begins to question who her father, Pa Salt, really was. And why is the seventh sister missing?

Following the bestselling The Seven Sisters, The Storm Sister is the second book in Lucinda Riley's spellbinding series based loosely on the mythology surrounding the famous star constellation.

Veteran author Lucinda Riley's historical Seven Sisters trilogy returns with a new main character, a fresh mysterious history featuring dual narratives in separate times, combined with a convoluted romance, and a lot of detail and atmosphere. These are the hallmarks of a classic Lucinda Riley story: her books are definitely on the verbose side, twisty, and verge juuust a bit predictable in their plotting. I wouldn't go so far as to say there's a formula behind her novels, but they do tend to follow the same worn path. Still, despite the overextended length of the book and the familiarity of its progression, there's a good story to enjoy in those 700 pages.

A loose retelling/reinterpretation of the myth of the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades, each book centers a fresh but interconnected plot with a different daughter of the enigmatic Pa Salt. The books can be read as standalones or as a series, but the best experience would be to read each successive novel to piece together the whole picture being shown. The Storm Sister is ostensibly the story of Ally D'Apliese, adopted sister to Maia the first novel's main character, and second eldest of her all-female siblings. Despite this being "Ally's" book, Riley weaves much more than just her individual backstory into the narrative with the inclusion of a secondary story set 100 years before Ally's plotline.

The more historical, secondary story with Anna and Jens was far less compelling than Ally's more modern storyline. My total lack of involvement or entertainment with their plot is one of the reasons I could not rate this higher than a 3/5 stars.





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