Lucinda Riley / Harry Whittaker
Several years ago I started reading the Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley. It starts with The Seven Sisters, which introduces us to Maia D’Apliése and her five sisters, all adopted under mysterious circumstances by a generous father figure. Pa Salt names each daughter after a star in the Pleiades- a cluster of seven stars historically (and quite romantically) used by sailors to navigate the oceans. Pa Salt raises the six girls in comfort, far removed and more comfortably than their birth situation. Each book in the series features the origin story of each sister, going back generations to explain the history of each girl’s family and the circumstances that precipitated their unusual adoptions. Tragically, Pa Salt dies at the beginning of the series, but he leaves behind clues that help guide each sister to their origin story.
A common theme throughout the series is that of the missing sister, Merope. The six sisters understand that there must be a seventh sister out in the wide world but they have to come to terms with their own histories before they track down the missing sister.
I started reading this series when it came out in 2008. I faithfully and dutifully waited for each next book in the series so I could continue to learn about the sisters and hopefully find out about the missing seventh sister.
In 2021, The Missing Sister, the seventh (and I assumed final) book in the series came out and I read it pretty quickly. No spoilers here, but I can tell you the book raised more questions than it answered. Imagine the disappointment I experienced when, on the last page, I read “To be continued in Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt, published Autumn 2022”. WHAT???? I had been waiting so long for this. Uff-da.
Today I turned on a Kindle I haven’t used in several months. And the very first book that appeared in the queue was Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt. I had completely forgotten about it. Which was probably for the best, because while the publication date was set for Autumn 2022, it actually came out in May of 2023.
Sadly, Lucinda Riley passed away in 2021, after the publication of The Missing Sister, but not before laying out her plans to finish up the story with Pa Salt. Her son, Harry Whittaker took up the pen and finished her work. I am over the moon that I get to finish this series (finally!) and grateful for whatever wheels that turned to bring this story to the world. I’m also a little nervous to start- probably nothing of consequence will get done while I’m reading. I’m going to enjoy this heady feeling for a bit, before I dive in.
I highly recommend these books. I hope you enjoy them!
Get this book! Buy Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt for Kindle!
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Book one introduces us to the five D’Apliese sisters, who come together at their fabulous Lake Geneva castle to mourn the loss of their adoptive father, Pa Salt. Pa leaves behind clues as to the origin of each sister, and the eldest, Maia, is the first to embark on upon discovering her birth family and their history.
Buy The Seven Sisters at Amazon.com
Buy The Seven Sisters at Barnes & Noble
Book two is Ally D’Apliese’s story. Having just discovered her father has died, Ally retreats to the Lake Geneva home she grew up in. There she finds the clues her adoptive father has left her to her birth family’s origins. Ally’s life has just been turned upside down and without a clear path forward, she decides to follow the clues to her beginnings that her father left behind.
Buy The Storm Sister at Amazon.com
Buy The Storm Sister at Barnes & Noble
Star D’Apliese has been comfortable living in her sister CeCe’s shadow, letting CeCe speak for her and handle all of their mutual situations. But the death of their adoptive father, Pa Salt, and the clues he left behind leading to Star’s birth family sets her on a course of independence and discovery.
Buy The Shadow Sister at Amazon.com
Buy The Shadow Sister at Barnes & Noble
CeCe D’APliese feels like she doesn’t belong amongst her adopted sisters – they are all beautiful, accomplished, and appear to have their lives under control. CeCe’s life is wrapped up in making decisions for her and her quieter sister, Star, but when Star leaves to find her birth family, CeCe is left rudderless. CeCe decides to follow the clues her father left, leading to her family’s story, and finds a sense of belonging and home.
Buy The Pearl Sister at Amazon.com
Buy The Pearl Sister at Barnes & Noble
Tiggy D’Apliese lives in the Scottish Highlands, working her dream job at a deer sanctuary. When she loses her job, she takes a new position at a private estate managing wildlife. There she meets an old Romani man who tells her that he will be the one to send her home.
Then Tiggy’s adoptive father, Pa Salt, dies and leaves clues to his six daughters to help them find their birth families. Tiggy traces her roots to Granada and follows her family’s story through the Spanish Civil War and beyond.
Buy The Moon Sister at Amazon.com
Buy The Moon Sister at Barnes & Noble
Electra D’Apliese is the most popular super model in the whole world. Despite the love, adoration, and demand for her beauty, Electra feels empty and directionless. When her adoptive father dies, she turns to drugs and alcohol to numb the pain. She then receives a letter from a mysterious woman claiming to be her grandmother. Electra resists the urge to pursue her origins with the help of her father’s clues, but with the help of some people who actually care for Electra as a person, and not a commodity, Electra begins to see there is more to life than what she currently knows.
Buy The Sun Sister at Amazon.com
Buy The Sun Sister at Branes & Noble
The six D’Apliese sisters have been adopted from every corner of the world, and named for six of the seven prominent stars in the Pleiades star cluster. Pa Salt, the adoptive father of the girls, surely has used the Pleiades for navigation as a sailor. But is there more to the story?
The six sisters – Maia, Electra, Taygete (Tiggy), Alcyone (Ally), Celaeno (CeCe), and Sterope (Star) have often wondered: where is the seventh sister? They have waited to see if a seventh sister – Merope – will appear. With Pa Salt’s death, it seems unlikely. But with the discovery of a clue – an emerald ring – the sisters come together to solve a mystery bigger than all of their mysteries put together.
Buy The Missing Sister at Amazon.com
Buy The Missing Sister at Barnes & Noble
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
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