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A review by helen_t_reads
The Storm Sister by Lucinda Riley
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Having read The Seven Sisters, the first instalment of Lucinda Riley's epic saga of love and loss, inspired by the mythology of the Seven Sisters constellat moved on to book 2 in the series, The Storm Sister.
The novel focuses on the second Sister, Ally D'Aplièse, a talented yachtswoman in her early thirties, who is about to compete in one of the world's most perilous yacht races, The Fastnet.
When she hears the news of Pa Salt's sudden, mysterious death, she rushes back to meet her five sisters at their family home in Geneva, where they discover that their adoptive father has left each of them a tantalizing clue to their true heritage.
Ally had recently embarked on a deeply passionate life-changing love affair, and with fate continuing to turn everything completely upside down, she decides to follow the trail that her father left her, leading her to Norway.
There, she 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 a hundred 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 and her own roots, she also begins to question who her father, Pa Salt, really was, why their seventh sister is missing?
As with The first book in the series, Lucinda Riley has woven another compelling and emotionally charged story, which quickly hooked me in.
The story, and the over-arching series structure continues to intrigue, and once again Riley uses the dual timeline/story-within-a-story technique to provide the back story, which adds further interest.
I really enjoyed the historical and musical elements which underpin the storyline, and the Norwegian setting too.
The prose felt less plodding and verbose than in book one, and the characterisation, whilst still a little one-dimensional sometimes, was less wooden - it's as though these authorial skills are being developed with each new instalment. What unites both books though, is the lightening speed at which characters meet, and fall in love for a lifetime! That's still very much a thing!
Overall a good story that entertains and intrigues.
The novel focuses on the second Sister, Ally D'Aplièse, a talented yachtswoman in her early thirties, who is about to compete in one of the world's most perilous yacht races, The Fastnet.
When she hears the news of Pa Salt's sudden, mysterious death, she rushes back to meet her five sisters at their family home in Geneva, where they discover that their adoptive father has left each of them a tantalizing clue to their true heritage.
Ally had recently embarked on a deeply passionate life-changing love affair, and with fate continuing to turn everything completely upside down, she decides to follow the trail that her father left her, leading her to Norway.
There, she 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 a hundred 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 and her own roots, she also begins to question who her father, Pa Salt, really was, why their seventh sister is missing?
As with The first book in the series, Lucinda Riley has woven another compelling and emotionally charged story, which quickly hooked me in.
The story, and the over-arching series structure continues to intrigue, and once again Riley uses the dual timeline/story-within-a-story technique to provide the back story, which adds further interest.
I really enjoyed the historical and musical elements which underpin the storyline, and the Norwegian setting too.
The prose felt less plodding and verbose than in book one, and the characterisation, whilst still a little one-dimensional sometimes, was less wooden - it's as though these authorial skills are being developed with each new instalment. What unites both books though, is the lightening speed at which characters meet, and fall in love for a lifetime! That's still very much a thing!
Overall a good story that entertains and intrigues.