Book Tour Review: The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley

Title: The Seven Sisters
Author: Lucinda Riley
Genre: historical fiction, general fiction
Series: Seven Sisters #1
Pages: 636
Published: May 5 2015
Source: Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours for review
Rating: 3.75/5

Maia D’Apliese and her five sisters gather together at their childhood home, “Atlantis”—a fabulous, secluded castle situated on the shores of Lake Geneva—having been told that their beloved father, who adopted them all as babies, has died. Each of them is handed a tantalizing clue to her true heritage—a clue which takes Maia across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Once there, she begins to put together the pieces of her story and its beginnings.

Eighty years earlier in Rio’s Belle Epoque of the 1920s, Izabela Bonifacio’s father has aspirations for his daughter to marry into the aristocracy. Meanwhile, architect Heitor da Silva Costa is devising plans for an enormous statue, to be called Christ the Redeemer, and will soon travel to Paris to find the right sculptor to complete his vision. Izabela—passionate and longing to see the world—convinces her father to allow her to accompany him and his family to Europe before she is married. There, at Paul Landowski’s studio and in the heady, vibrant cafes of Montparnasse, she meets ambitious young sculptor Laurent Brouilly, and knows at once that her life will never be the same again.

In this sweeping, epic tale of love and loss—the first in a unique, spellbinding series of seven novels—Lucinda Riley showcases her storytelling talent like never before. 

With the imaginative plot, charismatic characters, and dual-timeline structure, it's easy to see why fans of Kate Morton have discovered a new favorite option with Lucinda Riley's novels. My first foray into Riley's bibliography proved to be a success due to the smart writing, the even pacing, and my inability to put The Seven Sisters down once I had started reading. A loose retelling/reinterpretation of the myth of the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades, the first novel is centered around the oldest sister, Maia and takes readers from Geneva to Rio de Janeiro. 

There are a lot of mysterious characters and histories in Lucinda Riley's latest. Maia's five sisters were each adopted, like she was. None of them know much about their past or where they came from, nor even about the man who adopted them to create his family. As Maia searches for herself -- both in the past and in the present -- Riley fills the story with an excellent secondary cast. Her present family -- the Sisters, Marina, Pa Salt -- are vividly rendered, but still just not quite on the level of Maia, her great-grandmother Bel, and Bel's acquaintance Laurent. In fact, the historical timeline in 1920s Brazil was so vibrant and detailed, it almost overshadowed its more current counterpart of the plot.

The dual narrative timeline is tricky to pull off for some authors, especially if they do not have the characters necessary to make it worth. Happily, I liked this cast a lot. They were interesting, dynamic, and not stagnant or boring. The issue with fleshing out all these people was that sometimes Riley would tell rather than show in her dialogue. I've rarely found that a logical person will say "well I am a logical person, so I am logically talking about [x]" etc. By and large, the novel's characters and dialogue aren't bluntly rendered so it really stuck out in the times that it does happen throughout The Seven Sisters.

For such a long book, The Seven Sisters reads well and easily. There were a few times when the pacing felt slightly off or the narrative spent too long in one particular timeline, but for the most part, The Seven Sisters is a solidly enjoyable, detailed, and fun read.

The Seven Sisters Blog Tour Schedule

Monday, June 1
Review & Giveaway at Peeking Between the Pages
Spotlight & Giveaway at A Novel Review

Tuesday, June 2
Review at Just One More Chapter
Spotlight at Let them Read Books

Wednesday, June 3
Review at Always With a Book
Review & Giveaway at 100 Pages a Day

Thursday, June 4
Review at Book Nerd
Review at The Lit Bitch

Saturday, June 6
Interview & Giveaway at Bibliophilia, Please

Sunday, June 7
Spotlight & Giveaway at Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More

Monday, June 8
Review at Oh, for the Hook of a Book!

Tuesday, June 9
Review at CelticLady’s Reviews
Review at Ageless Pages Reviews

Wednesday, June 10
Spotlight & Giveaway at Passages to the Past

Thursday, June 11
Review at She is Too Fond of Books

Friday, June 12
Review at A Novel Review
Review at A Literary Vacation
Spotlight & Giveaway at To Read, or Not to Read

Book Tour Review: The Outer Banks House by Diann Ducharme

Title: The Outer Banks House
Author: Diann Ducharme
Genre: general fiction, historical fiction
Series: N/A
Pages: 304
Published: 2010
Source: Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours for review
Rating: 3.5/5

As the wounds of the Civil War are just beginning to heal, one fateful summer would forever alter the course of a young girl’s life.

In 1868, on the barren shores of post-war Outer Banks North Carolina, the once wealthy Sinclair family moves for the summer to one of the first cottages on the ocean side of the resort village of Nags Head. Seventeen-year-old Abigail is beautiful, book-smart, but sheltered by her plantation life and hemmed-in by her emotionally distant family. To make good use of time, she is encouraged by her family to teach her father’s fishing guide, the good-natured but penniless Benjamin Whimble, how to read and write. And in a twist of fate unforeseen by anyone around them, there on the porch of the cottage, the two come to love each other deeply, and to understand each other in a way that no one else does.

But when, against everything he claims to represent, Ben becomes entangled in Abby's father's Ku Klux Klan work, the terrible tragedy and surprising revelations that one hot Outer Banks night brings forth threaten to tear them apart forever.

With vivid historical detail and stunning emotional resonance, Diann Ducharme recounts a dramatic story of love, loss, and coming of age at a singular and rapidly changing time in one of America’s most beautiful and storied communities.

I was largely drawn to Diann Ducharme's The Outer Banks House due to the time (late 1860s America) and the setting (North Carolina) that were depicted. America after the Civil War is rife with interesting and terrible things happening and exploring Abby's personal growth against a backdrop of civil rights made for an absorbing read. Though only about three hundred pages, this story tells a familiar tale but does so with care and attention. With excellent place-as-character and detail, The Outer Banks House is a good fit for historical fiction fans looking for a story set during this time.

Diann Ducharme's novel has a lot of things going for it, and Abby is chief among them. Her characterization is well-handled in that she seems like a modern woman for her time without being anachronistic. She starts off the novel with certain ideas and beliefs that one might expect from a planter's daughter, but as those beliefs are challenged, she evolves as a character. She shares the POV with her counterpart of Ben Whimble, a man whose life has been the opposite of Abigail's prior to moving to the eponymous Outer Banks House. Ben was also a highlight for me. In a book that has the setting down, the characterization was a pleasant surprise. Ben is a complex man and much more than he appears. It's also refreshing to see a romance where the man has such respect for his love interest's intelligence. 

I also was intrigued by the relationship and parallels of Abby's life with that of her mother's. Their relationship was a convoluted one; made of resentment and anger and love and expectation. The issues that Abby faced with understanding her father are vastly different than those she had with her mother, and I found myself far more caught on the latter issue. It's not a major plotline in the novel but it did make for even more dimension for both Abby and Ingrid's characters. 

The Outer Banks House is a novel that flows well and is also paced wonderfully. A lot happens in three hundred pages but it doesn't feel rushed or unnatural. Abby's evolution takes place in an authentic and believable manner, and her growing romance with Ben is treated in the same way. Occasionally, Ducharme would hit a sentence that described life in the South perfectly ("Our first full day in Nags Head unfolded as thick and warm as honey from the hive.") and it's remarkably easy to get caught up in the story being told. Though the books wraps up pretty neatly, I'm also excited to see what happens in Ducharme's next novel, Return to the Outer Banks House. Check back for that review later this month!

The Outer Banks Series Blog Tour Schedule

Monday, May 25
Spotlight & Giveaway at Raven Haired Girl

Tuesday, May 26
Guest Post & Giveaway at Susan Heim on Writing

Wednesday, May 27
Review (Book One) at Back Porchervations

Thursday, May 28
Review (Book One) at In a Minute

Friday, May 29
Interview & Giveaway at Historical Fiction Obsession
Spotlight at The Never-Ending Book

Saturday, May 30
Spotlight at Becky on Books

Sunday, May 31
Review (Book One) at Book Nerd

Monday, June 1
Review (Book Two) at Let them Read Books
Spotlight at I’d So Rather Be Reading

Tuesday, June 2
Review (Book One) at Book Lovers Paradise

Wednesday, June 3
Review (Book Two) at Back Porchervations

Thursday, June 4
Spotlight & Giveaway (Book One) at View from the Birdhouse

Friday, June 5
Review (Both Books) at Bibliotica

Sunday, June 7
Review (Book One) at Carole’s Ramblings

Monday, June 8
Review (Book One) at Ageless Pages Reviews
Guest Post at Curling Up With A Good Book

Tuesday, June 9
Review & Giveaway (Book One) at A Literary Vacation

Wednesday, June 10
Review (Both Books) at Unshelfish
Spotlight at CelticLady’s Reviews

Thursday, June 11
Review (Book Two) at Book Lovers Paradise
Interview at Boom Baby Reviews

Friday, June 12
Spotlight at Caroline Wilson Writes

Sunday, June 14
Review (Book Two) at Carole’s Ramblings

Monday, June 15
Review & Giveaway (Both Books) at Genre Queen

Tuesday, June 16
Interview at Books and Benches
Spotlight at The Lit Bitch

Wednesday, June 17
Review (Both Books) at Luxury Reading

Thursday, June 18
Review (Book One) at Books and Benches
Interview at Layered Pages

Friday, June 19
Review (Book One) at Build a Bookshelf
Review (Book Two) at Ageless Pages Reviews

Two Minute Backlist Review: Quicksilver by R.J. Anderson

Title: Quicksilver
Author: R.J. Anderson
Genre: young adult, supernatural
Series: Ultraviolet #2
Pages: 384
Published: May 2013
Source: publishers for review
Rating: 5/5

Back in her hometown, Tori Beaugrand had everything a teenaged girl could want—popularity, money, beauty. But she also had a secret. A secret that could change her life in an instant, or destroy it.

Now she’s left everything from her old life behind, including her real name and Alison, the one friend who truly understood her. She can’t escape who and what she is. But if she wants to have anything like a normal life, she has to blend in and hide her unusual... talents.

Plans change when the enigmatic Sebastian Faraday reappears and gives Tori some bad news: she hasn’t escaped her past. In fact, she’s attracted new interest in the form of an obsessed ex-cop turned investigator for a genetics lab.

She has one last shot at getting her enemies off her trail and winning the security and independence she’s always longed for. But saving herself will take every ounce of Tori’s incredible electronics and engineering skills—and even then, she may need to sacrifice more than she could possibly imagine if she wants to be free.

I've been waiting for this book since the day I finished my first read of Ultraviolet - aka 2011.

So I was like:


 Because I mean, if you've read the first boolk, you know that R.J. Anderson takes no prisoners and shows no mercy. And  going into her books blind is the best way -- you're never prepared for the awesome and the emotions that come screaming at you. 

So I waited.

I finally bought it, and the day it arrived I was like this:



With a dash of this:



And then I met Milo and felt like this and realized our heroine was really asexual which DIVERSITY YAY:



Anytime anyone/anything needed/wanted my attention I felt like this:



 Because really, how can you tear yourself away from a book like this? It's so different and original it commands all your attention. It's not a madcap rush the entire time, but when the plot gets going, Tori rockets along. And this is a character you want to keep up with!


And then, close to the end, I was like this:



And I had to keep telling myself this:



And Tori was badass like this:



 
Seriously. That was one of the most memorable scenes I've read in YA. It was ballsy, it was awesome and it WORKED SO WELL for both the story, the plot, the charactrs. I looooved it and that Anderson WENT THERE.

And I responded by going like this:




and this:



And I thought that Anderson did this with her duology:



And in the end, I felt like this, about the whole thing:

 

Jessie's May Book Haul

Ok, so it's been a while since I've posted a book haul or more than once or twice a week. So you know this post long. Like... 20-pictures long. Note I didn't say 20 books -- pictures. Some of them have multiple books because I am terrible, with no self control. I'm doing my part to keep publishing afloat, building a library, etc, etc.

That said, there are a lot of really cool book in this. These three miiiight be my favorites:

Poison, Charm, Beauty by Sarah Pinborough. These are fairy tale retellings and as gorgeous as they are in pictures? Even  more in public. 

Okay, now that I've drooled... here are some more exciting books I was sent over the last few weeks:

The Tide Watchers by Lisa Chaplin

The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley

Love is Red by Sophie Jaff

Love May Fail by Matthew Quick

A Curious Tale of the In-Between by Lauren Destefano

Earth Flight by Janet Edwards (Earth Girl #3)

The Outer Banks House and Return to the Outer Banks House by Diann Ducharme

Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

Thank you TLC Book Tours, Bloomsbury Publishing, Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours, and HarperCollins!

Borrowed from the lovely Morgan at Gone with the Words: Rook by Sharon Cameron and The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker

Won: Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin

Gifted from Bonnie at For Love of Words: Prudence by Gail Carriger.
Gifted from Ashleigh Page of The YA Kitten: The Half-Life of Molly Pierce by Katrina Leno, and The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbaugh

Also traded for from Bonnie: an ARC of The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

Sent from the author: Medicis Daughter by Sophie Perinot

Bought:

Oberyn Punko Pop is the best and likes to hang out with Toothless and Drogon.

The Iron King by Maurice Druon (The Accursed Kings #1)

The She-Wolf by Maurice Druon (The Accursed Kings #5)

The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler

Daughter of Deep Silence by Carrie Ryan

The Isle of the Lost by Melissa De La Cruz (The Descendants #1)

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

Girl on a Wire by Gwenda Bond

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani

The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith

The Fill-In Boyfriend by Kasie West

and since you've stuck it out this far, another book that has been gorgeously outfitted:

The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey (The Girl at Midnight #1). I've already read and loved this but I had to have the UK cover. You can clearly see why.

TBR Planning for June

I'm feeling the summer laziness. I've been doing a lot of reading but my motivation comes and goes. I've been feeling more into the seing of thigns lately, but that could be because Dani and I have a really great June ahead, bookwise.

Maia D’Apliese and her five sisters gather together at their childhood home, “Atlantis”—a fabulous, secluded castle situated on the shores of Lake Geneva—having been told that their beloved father, who adopted them all as babies, has died. Each of them is handed a tantalizing clue to her true heritage—a clue which takes Maia across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Once there, she begins to put together the pieces of her story and its beginnings.

Eighty years earlier in Rio’s Belle Epoque of the 1920s, Izabela Bonifacio’s father has aspirations for his daughter to marry into the aristocracy. Meanwhile, architect Heitor da Silva Costa is devising plans for an enormous statue, to be called Christ the Redeemer, and will soon travel to Paris to find the right sculptor to complete his vision. Izabela—passionate and longing to see the world—convinces her father to allow her to accompany him and his family to Europe before she is married. There, at Paul Landowski’s studio and in the heady, vibrant cafes of Montparnasse, she meets ambitious young sculptor Laurent Brouilly, and knows at once that her life will never be the same again.

In this sweeping, epic tale of love and loss—the first in a unique, spellbinding series of seven novels—Lucinda Riley showcases her storytelling talent like never before.

The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley
I've been making myself wait for this read for months. I've had my eye on it since the author revealed that it's partially inspired by the story of the Pleiades. And also Lindsey loves the author so I have reasons to be hopeful.

I have two tour stops for Diann Ducharme's Outer Banks series! I've already finished the first and am starting the second. I don't read a lot of American historical fiction but these two books are really well done.

I also take a stab at the Disney Princess Tag and had a lot of fun with it.

Dumplin' by Julie Murphy is also up for a read this month and I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to it!

Danielle and Jessie's Spring Bookish Bingo Wrap-Up

It's (almost) summer! Again, that's probably far better news for the blogger in Ohio than the one in Phoenix. (Where, at the end of summer, your two beatific hosts will finally be sharing facespace!) If it feels like I was just telling you it was spring, well, Bookish Bingo has moved and we're putting up our wrap-up a bit early. The summer board will actually cover the summer months, starting today, June 1st,  so we're shortening the last card, just a bit. Jess still got 4 Bingos, but while I managed to read 11 squares, none of them lined up to more than 3 in any direction. I'm a disaster. :P

Did you do Spring Bingo? Planning on joining us at Pretty Deadly for summer? Do you try for certain rows, or read higgly-piggly like me and end up totally boned?

WWII: Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke by Anne Blankman 

Historical: The Serpent and the Pearl by Kate Quinn

April release: Queen of Bright and Shiny Things by Ann Aguirre 

Nonfiction or Memoir: Bossypants by Tina Fey

Part of a Trilogy: Lily of the Nile by Stephanie Dray

We Need Diverse Books: Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz

Reread: The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan

Plants on the cover: Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

Anthology or Collection: Zombies vs. Unicorns by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier

Illustrated Cover: The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan 

BINGO!

Dark Contemp: Black Iris by Leah Raeder

High Fantasy: Night of Knives by Ian C. Esslemont

BINGO x 2!

Parental Relationships: Making Pretty by Corey Ann Haydu
Yellow Cover: The Cost of All Things by Maggie Lehrman

Bullying: Made You Up by Francesca Zappia

BINGO x 3!

Murder Mystery: Love is Red by Sophie Jaff 

Green Cover: Blood and Bone by Ian C. Esslemont

BINGO x 4!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Murder Mystery: The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie (4/19)

Reread: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling (4/20)

Plants on Cover: Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge  (4/20)

Parental Relationships: Devoted by Jennifer Mathieu (4/25) 

We Need Diverse Books: Shadows on the Moon by Zoe Marriott (5/4)

High Fantasy: A Crown for Cold Silver by Alex Marshall (5/7)

April, May, June Release: Gabby Duran and the Unsittables by Elise Allen (5/14)

Part of a Trilogy: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (5/14)

Forgotten Fridays Pick: Coda by Emma Trevayne (5/19)

Illustrated Cover: Love Fortunes and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius (5/19)

Yellow Cover: The Truth by Terry Pratchett (5/27)

Review: A Crown for Cold Silver by Alex Marshall

Title: A Crown for Cold Silver
Author: Alex Marshall
Genre: fantasy
Series:
Pages: 656
Published: April 14, 2015
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

FIVE VILLAINS. ONE LEGENDARY GENERAL. A FINAL QUEST FOR VENGEANCE.

Twenty years ago, feared general Cobalt Zosia led her five villainous captains and mercenary army into battle, wrestling monsters and toppling an empire. When there were no more titles to win and no more worlds to conquer, she retired and gave up her legend to history.

Now the peace she carved for herself has been shattered by the unprovoked slaughter of her village. Seeking bloody vengeance, Zosia heads for battle once more, but to find justice she must confront grudge-bearing enemies, once-loyal allies, and an unknown army that marches under a familiar banner.

A Crown for Cold Silver is an outstanding epic fantasy debut featuring an unforgettable warrior.

I love epic fantasy that subverts poetic justice and similar tropes, a'la George Martin. I also love Joe Abercrombie, Marshall's obvious inspiration's, blending of fantasy and realism in war. So it's a shame that this book, with such a great, nontraditional main character, ended with such a whimper.

There's subverting tropes, and then there's refusing any pay off. If a character spends more than a year searching for their son and lives through an unwinnable battle, I can see the subversion in having him die from friendly fire before he finds his family. It doesn't make me happy as a reader, but I understand where the author is coming from. I can't see five similar things happening at the same battle. War is hell, yes, and it doesn't have a happy ending, but at some point it's just misery for the sake of misery.

Which, again, is a real shame, as the characters are top notch. There isn't a government force not led by a woman, including a ruthlessly murderous teenage pontiff. This is a book starring a 50+ year old, bisexual, woman. Older. Bisexual. Woman. I'm flailing. In Zosia's youth, she led an army to overthrow the king, along with her generals, the Five Villains. The villains are now two decades older and scattered across the land. Some have turned to drugs, peddling and using. Some are married with children., (including a gay couple whose kids call them First Father and Second Father ♥‿♥.) One is a completely batcrap crazy sorcerer who might be trying to end the world. The use. Zosia sets out to bring the Villains back together after she’s betrayed, but old friends and new may have different motivations.

There are a lot of narrators. Too many, frankly. Not only do Zosia and several of her generals get chapters, so does a barbarian from the Frozen Savannahs, far from the oncoming war; a war nun trapped between her vows to the Black Pope and an oath to the Crimson Queen; and the villain. The book is almost 700 pages; 7 POVs feels like overkill.

But despite all of that, I really like A Crown for Cold Silver. From the opening line, “It was all going so nicely, right up until the massacre.” to a religion that states “Everything happened. Not for reason, mind, … but everything happened”, the author is adept at setting the tone. There’s enough lightness to balance out the general despair, (until the end.) I laughed myself sick when the actual general advised her wanna-be apprentice to ditch the chainmail bikini for the sake of her pubes. The world building is consistent and if a few countries resemble real world ones a bit too much, it’s a relatively small flaw. Not much of the actual magic system was revealed, but instead of feeling like I didn’t know where the author was going, I felt like they were waiting to play their hand.

I think the cliffhanger end, the lack of magical reveal, and my other issues would be easier to swallow if I could find any information confirming a sequel being picked up. I think a series has promise, but with a penchant for spoiling payoffs, this may be one you wait for the author to finish writing all books before starting.