The Pearl Sister (The Seven Sisters, 4)

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CeCe D’Aplièse has never felt she fitted in anywhere. 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. Whatever happens to you in life, darling CeCe, the one thing that can never be taken away from you is your talent.

I understood then what loneliness really was. It felt like a gnawing inside me, yet at the same time, a great hole of emptiness. I blinked away tears—I’d never been a crier—but they kept coming, so that eventually my eyelids were forced to open with the pressure of what felt like a dam about to burst. Every corner of the world has become a thrilling new adventure with master storyteller Lucinda Riley . . . Told through a breath-taking panorama of captivating stories, their fates and fortunes are painted on a broad canvas and all created from a vast sweep of the imagination. -- Lancashire Evening Post She’d said nothing, just wept in my arms. I’d done everything I could to keep my own tears at bay. For her, for Star. I’d had to be strong because she’d needed me . . . 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.Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past. I wanted to celebrate the achievements of women,” said Riley, “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.” Okay,” I agreed, glad I could now blame fate for having to stay on longer. Then I booked a return flight from Bangkok to Krabi, leaving early the following morning.

Ah, Lucinda, Lucinda. We meet again, on another tech-free holiday. I tend to take Lucinda Riley books on holidays because they are long, not totally boring, and are devoid of anything intellectual. A hundred years earlier Kitty McBride, daughter of an Edinburgh clergyman, is given the opportunity to travel to Australia as the companion of the wealthy Mrs McCrombie. In Adelaide, her fate becomes entwined with Mrs McCrombie’s family, including the identical, yet very different, twin brothers: impetuous Drummond, and ambitious Andrew, the heir to a pearling fortune. I knew that Albert Namatjira was Australia’s most famous Aboriginal artist, but it was when I first saw one of his watercolours that I was intrigued. His style is completely different to the vibrant dot paintings that a lay person like me would expect of an Aboriginal painter. I found out more about his relationship with Rex Battarbee, his mentor and how his artwork confused and astounded critics who could not understand how an Aboriginal painter could paint in such a ‘Western’ way. They are truly beautiful landscapes, outwardly painted in the impressionist style that Rex Battarbee taught him, but within the trees and the mountains and skies are endless hidden forms and shapes pertaining to the spiritual side of Aboriginal culture. Das Hörbuch ist gut eingesprochen und die Sprechstimmen sind angenehm. Etwas anstrengend war zu Beginn die „deutsche“ Aussprache der Namen, welche für mich falsch klangen, nachdem ich Band 1-3 gelesen hatte und CeCe im Kopf z.B. englisch aussprach. Hier wird sie „ZeZe“ gesprochen, was mich immer wieder irritierte.CeCe and Star have always come as a pair. Star the quiet one great with literature and speaks very little, CeCe speaks for them both and virtually overwhelms Star and they even have their own form of sign language to communicate. 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. Every corner of the world has become a thrilling new adventure with master storyteller Lucinda Riley…Told through a breathtaking panorama of captivating stories, their fates and fortunes are painted on a broad canvas and all created from a vast sweep of the imagination.’ The driver dropped me at the Grand Palace and I followed the hordes of tourists, many of them bearing telltale red shoulders that spoke of a recent arrival from colder climates. Outside the temple, I removed my hiking boots and placed them with the variety of flip-flops and trainers other visitors had left by the steps, then walked inside. The Emerald Buddha was supposed to be over five hundred years old and was the most famous statue in Thailand. Yet he was small compared to the many other Buddhas I’d seen. The brightness of the jade and the way his body was shaped reminded me of a bright green lizard. His limbs were fluid and, to be honest, not very accurate. Not that it mattered—“he” was a beautiful thing. 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.

A cloud of musky perfume descended from above me. I looked up and saw the stewardess leaning over me. Hoover is one of the freshest voices in new-adult fiction, and her latest resonates with true emotion, unforgettable characters and just the right amount of sexual tension. In ‘The Pearl Sister’, many family members are reunited – Camira with her grandson Francis, and Kitty and her half-brother Ralph. Do you believe that kin recognises kin? Is there a special bond between blood relatives even if they have never met before? 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. The Missing Sister, the final book in the series, published in May this year, follows the sextet on a search for another daughter adopted by the wealthy Pa Salt, whose death and burial at sea sparked their quest to solve the mystery of why he adopted girls from all corners of the globe.

Summary

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 * Star has found her path now CeCe must stand on her own. How will she cope? Can she carve out a life for herself and finally find what and who she is as a person. Armed with clues Pa Salt her adopted father left her she heads to Australia although she is well travelled Australia is the country she has so far avoided due to its critters etc. I want to like this series, because it is SUCH a good idea. The way it is working out though is just awful. Two stars because it was okay enough that I wanted to find out what happened to the characters in the end. Will probably take the next one on holiday next year. *sigh*

The second storyline, the one set a century before with Kitty McBride traveling from Edinburgh to Adelaide, it was just as interesting, although the romantic part in this storyline was a much more expected. Still, I love getting a story set in Australia, learning more about the Aboriginal people and the unjust treatment they got. If there is one subject that always makes my blood boil is the white man's treatment of the natives in whatever land they set their eyes on. CeCe D'Apliese has never felt she fitted in anywhere. 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. I mentioned this before, but CeCe really annoyed me in the previous three books. However, as I'd hoped, getting her story made me fall in love with her and I might even go as far to say she is now my favourite sister! CeCe's journey was fantastic. There's a section in Thailand, before she heads to Australia to find out her family history. Wie immer bei der Sieben Schwestern Reihe mochte ich die Geschichte, die in der Vergangenheit spielt noch ein bisschen lieber als die aus der Gegenwart. Denn hier haben wir mit Kitty eine - vor allem für damalige Verhältnisse - sehr starke weibliche Protagonistin. Ich habe so mit ihr mitgefiebert und -gelitten. Auch wenn ich nicht all ihre Entscheidungen gutheißen konnte bzw. mir eine andere Entscheidung für den Fortgang der Geschichte gewünscht hätte. I have so far read all the books published in this series except the second one and it's such a wonderful series. I really love how reach book takes one of the sisters through a journey, not only to a faraway country, like Australia in this book, but also a journey into the past.The plane touched down so gently I hardly knew we were on the ground until they announced it over the PA system. I opened my eyes and felt a surge of triumph. I’d completed a long-haul flight alone and lived to tell the tale. Star would be proud of me . . . if she even cared any longer. I must have fallen asleep, because I had the spider nightmare and woke myself up screaming, automatically clapping a hand to my mouth to shut myself up in case someone along the corridor thought I was being murdered. I decided I just couldn’t stay in this soulless room any longer by myself, so I put on my boots, grabbed my camera, and took the lift down to reception. Lucinda was born in Lisburn, County Down, and spent her first few years in the nearby village of Drumbeg. Her mother, Jane (nee Cottham), and great-aunt had been professional actors, her grandmother was an opera singer and her great-uncle was chief lighting designer at the Royal Opera House. 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. From 1988 to 1998, she was married to actor Owen Whittaker, with whom she had two children, Harry and Bella. From 2000 until her death, she was married to Stephen Riley, with whom she also had two children, Leonora and Kit. Through her second marriage, she also had three stepchildren, Olivia, William and Max. [2] She took a break from writing, returning to it in 2010; her subsequent novels were published under her married name.