Author: Lucinda Riley
Pages: 528
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: 19th May 2020
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance
Format: Kindle
The Sun Sister by Lucinda Riley is the sixth novel
in the The Seven Sisters series. It focuses on the story of Electra d’Apliese,
one of the six daughters adopted by Pa Salt.
At this point I’m so invested in this series, and
although I can see that the writing is not perfect and there are plenty of
shortcomings, the story is too captivating to stop reading. Alas, this was
about 100-200 pages too long.
There was much focus on Cecily’s story, which is
mostly set in Kenya, Africa, but not much is revealed about that culture,
except the bare minimum necessary to help the story make sense. Of course her
part is crucial, but I wish more were told about Stella or Rosa. The pattern of
every book in the series is that we learn more about the great-grandparents or
a great-relative, rather than the closer family members. And yet, in a novel
focused on a character of African descent, a lot of time is spent talking about
the world of the white people.
An aspect that was distracting was the brackets
used. This could have been better handled by the editor. The information put
between brackets was a natural part of the story and I don’t understand the
function of these brackets. Actually, I don’t understand brackets in novels,
period. The writing, as I said, is not much, the characters have little depth
and the romance between Electra and her new love interest is silly, added
almost as an afterthought to have that box ticked. Also, why do characters use
the addressed person’s name so much in dialogues? It just makes all the
dialogues even more unnatural. It’s also cute to keep hearing about how smart a
character is only to see them lacking common general knowledge. Good thing they
have a pretty face, huh?
There were important issues approached in this
novel, two biggest being racism and drug addiction. It is a relevant topic for
our time, and it fit with the main character’s lifestyle and background. I was
afraid it’ll be turned into a pathetic plea against drugs, which is usually
badly handled, but it was nicely addressed.
What irks me is why we’re repeatedly told that every
female interest in every romantic relationship in every book in the series has
to be skinny or voluptuous, and beautiful – so the focus is on the outward
appearance. This is the case both in the past and the present day stories.
Speaking of relationships, it’s curious that most? all? romantic relationships
have an older-by-at-least-ten-years male partner and a young
in-her-early-to-mid-twenties female. I’m so curious if this is a coincidence or
a thing the author has, or a nod to something in her life, or a simple
preference. I’ve been thinking about this since the second book!
I was worried for a second that the series would end
abruptly. I shouldn’t have feared because this novel ends with a reference to
the seventh unknown sister. There are also some mysteries at Atlantis that need
uncovering, I believe. I can’t wait for the seventh book in the series, but
only due to the entertainment it provides, not the depth of the novels.
I received a free e-book copy of the novel from the
publisher via Net Galley. All thoughts expressed here are my own.
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