To the outside world, Electra D’Aplièse seems to be the woman with everything: as one of the world’s top models, she is beautiful, rich and famous.
Yet beneath the veneer, Electra’s already tenuous control over her state of mind has been rocked by the death of her father, Pa Salt, the elusive billionaire who adopted his six daughters from across the globe. Struggling to cope, she turns to alcohol and drugs. As those around her fear for her health, Electra receives a letter from a complete stranger who claims to be her grandmother . . .
In 1939, Cecily Huntley-Morgan arrives in Kenya from New York to nurse a broken heart. Staying with her godmother, a member of the infamous Happy Valley set, on the shores of beautiful Lake Naivasha, she meets Bill Forsythe, a notorious bachelor and cattle farmer with close connections to the proud Maasai tribe. But after a shocking discovery and with war looming, Cecily has few options. Moving up into the Wanjohi Valley, she is isolated and alone. Until she meets a young woman in the woods and makes her a promise that will change the course of her life for ever.
Many thanks to Pan MacMillan via NetGalley for the copy of The Sun Sister to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
We are edging ever closer to the conclusion of what has been an absolutely brilliant Seven Sisters series from Lucinda Riley with just one more book to follow after The Sun Sister. That will be a bitter-sweet moment when it arrives as I have loved the entire concept of the novels - the characters and the various storylines so much. But on the other hand the questions which just grow more numerous with each book at this stage really do need answers. I know we will get these and much more with the last book but for the time being the last of the sisters who Pa Salt gathered from all across the globe - Electra - finally gets to tell her story.
As to whether the missing sister will make an appearance in the future well that is yet to be determined but for now I read on keen to discover what thrills Lucinda Riley had in store for us. I could see even from the first few chapters that this story was very different from any of the other sisters as Electra is a very complicated character who is not easy to get to know. She is a young woman who appears as if she has it all but having everything only leads to many problems and issues which will come to a head sooner rather than later.
The Sun Sister was a very intense read which I hadn't expected at all and Lucinda touched on subject areas which must have needed a lot of in-depth research before any writing could be undertaken and then in turn careful thought as to how to portray them throughout Electra's story. She has said it was the biggest writing challenge of her career and I can see why especially as I am sure she did not want to get any aspect of it wrong whilst also wanting to do Electra's story justice which of course she did even if at times it was a difficult read due to Electra's downward spiral.
Again as is usual with the majority of Lucinda's books, we travel back to the past to see how Electra came to be one of Pa Salt's girls and as always this was fascinating especially as it took us to the hot and rugged plains of Africa during the times of the Happy Valley set. There was such a contrast between Electra's setting in New York and the various places she flies off to for work and that of Cecily's time in Africa. As you are delving deeper into the book as I have come to expect with Lucinda's writing you are constantly making assumptions and guesses as to how Cecily will eventually link with Electra and it's the manner in which Lucinda lets the layers unfold and the connections become apparent that is always stunning in its execution.
Electra is a very complicated person who deep down is very unhappy and struggling with life. She says she never knew who she was when living with Pa Salt and the sisters at Atlantis and she still doesn't know now. She has issues with both alcohol and drugs and the therapists she has seen just can't seem to make her sit back and take stock to get to the roots of her issues which she has buried so firmly. She keeps things hidden and is afraid to to confront the realities of her situation as she is so fearful of the consequences. She is ashamed of what she has become and is embarrassed to tell Pa Salt or any her sisters what is exactly going on with her. It's like she is alienating herself from all those that love and care for and if they knew the full truth they would do anything to help her get better in order to reach that happy place. After all, she is one of the most successful models in the world with her fame and fortune continuously growing so why should anyone who is successful not be happy?
Throughout the book Electra was on a downward spiral that was only inevitably going to lead to trauma, anger and heartache. She longs for anonymity but if this occurs her steady supply fuelling her addiction would surely disappear. She always feels under constant pressure to just be her, the Electra of the fashion campaigns, the one who graces many runaways and magazine covers when underneath it all she is desperately crying out for help and is lost, scared and riddled with anxiety. When Pa Salt passes away she is distraught and as usual she believes there is yet again another person abandoning her given that she was placed up for adoption and that is how Pa Salt came to find her. She is of the firm belief that looking to the past does no good that one should keep striving and looking forward to the future at all times.
Maybe now is the time that Electra should change that stance as what she seeks is quite possibly in the past. Electra throws herself into a life of continuous debauchery and destruction which made me think how very different she is to all the other sisters and deep down there had to be a definitive reason as to why she was like this. Again it all comes back to knowing ones roots and in this case Electra doesn't. But a letter left to each sister holds clues to the whereabouts of their origins but has Electra the strength and fortitude to look at it and begin the quest the journey for answers, the journey which five sisters before her have undertaken. I didn't think she had the resilience to do so because she was just so messed up and existed on a cocktail of her drug of choice and whatever happened to be lying in her fridge that contained alcohol.
Electra was so desperately lonely that she needed a pillar or a crutch in the form of human interaction to set her threading tentatively on the path to discover her heritage and why she is the person she is today. A new P.A Mariam was the complete opposite to Electra and I loved the bond which developed between the pair and it was interesting that Mariam almost stepped in in a sisterly capacity for Electra. As for the phone calls she keeps receiving from a woman named Stella that she keeps avoiding perhaps she should pick up the phone and answer as what she hears may set her thinking and on the path she has been destined to travel for so long whether she wants to or not.
In 1938, Cecily is living in New York and comes from a privileged background. She is dealing with a broken engagement and so jumps at the chance to visit with her godmother, Kiki Preston, who lives in the wilds of Africa. Kiki enjoys an indulgent lifestyle amongst the Happy Valley set, throwing parties that go on until all hours as her friends and acquaintances throw caution to the wind. At a stop over in England, an event changes the way Cecily feels about life and men and she decides she is better off on her own rather than seeking out a soul mate and that perhaps this time away from America will do her good.
Cecily when she arrives in Africa is like a fish out of water and takes some time to get used to a new climate, surroundings and a very much slower pace of life. The descriptions of life in Africa at the time were marvellous and really helped to being Cecily's story alive and jumping off the pages. The setting was stunning, exotic, warm and it became life changing as she certainly got an awful lot more than she bargained for. I could visualise everything so clearly in my mind and felt this was the place that Cecily was meant to be. Yet Cecily soon discovers life there is not all it is cracked up to be and for quite a lot of the time she is left to her own devices. Cecily's story was fascinating and she showed how resilient she was the further we delve into her story. How an opportunity presented to her by her godmother will change the direction of her life forever and shape the woman she is destined to become.
Again as when I was reading Electra's part of the story I kept wondering how can a woman going to Africa be anyway connected to this model in the present whose life is derailing at an epic pace? But I needn't have worried that I would be let down with the reveal as Lucinda weaves interesting and tangible connections and slowly everything begins to make sense. For me, I loved the chapters set in Africa as Cecily starts to understand who she is and why she is there, but as with Electra her journey is not without its difficulties, complications and emotional experiences. For me, it was brilliant to read of two such contrasting women who across the years will have lessons, feelings and lots more to share.
Lucinda Riley has never ever let me down with her books and she is certainly my favourite author and again I loved this book because it was so different to the others. I can't say that Electra has been my favourite sister to read about because I just found her so aloof and destructive that by the time a glimmer of change begins to emerge I had already made up my mind about her. Her personal journey both in the present and as she seeks answers in the past was fascinating and as always Lucinda does an incredible job of connecting the past and present. Dual time-line stories are certainly her forte and she always packs in plenty of twists and surprises that leave the reader guessing right until the very end. She takes you on such an incredible journey and given the length of The Sun Sister some people may have been daunted as they began said journey but I was secretly delighted because I knew for me it meant more time spent reading the wonderful, honest and compelling writing of an author who is on top form and thoroughly enjoying what at first must have been a very daunting series given it spanned seven books and had such a broad plot.
The Sun Sister is certainly a big fat, generous page turner with some important messages at its centre but it also really develops The Seven Sisters as a whole. That very last page leaves you sitting up in shock just when you think resolution and conclusion has been in Electra's story. You are kicking yourself and, yes I'll say annoyed with Lucinda, because you know you have to wait another year to find out what will happen next. Tantalising clues have been dropped on social media as to where Lucinda's research has taken her for the final book in the search for the missing sister. Despite seeing these photos, I have no clue as to where this final place may be but I will certainly be first in the queue to read and discover where that is when the final book will be published later in 2020. If you have never read anything by this author whose books I love more than anything than rectify that as soon as possible because you really don't know what you are missing out on.
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