The Seven Sisters Series, Book One by Lucinda Riley

After hearing multiple friends rave about this series, I decided to give it a try. The premise of the novels is creative.... a wealthy man living in a mansion in Geneva, adopts 6 baby girls over a period of 10 years or so. He finds the babies around the world and brings them home to be raised with the help of a housekeeper. In the first pages of the first book, the man dies and the sisters return to their home. The father has left each of them hints as to their biological backgrounds, and each novel focuses on one of the sisters and her search for her past.

The eldest sister, Maia, learns she is from Brazil. As she uncovers her family history, we also learn more about Maia. Most of this first book tells the story of her great grandmother with very little information about her other relatives. And while her great grandmother led an interesting life, most of it focuses on her love life. This is when I realized this is a romance novel disguised as a historical fiction/mystery book. There were many predictable romantic elements in the book but it did hold my interest throughout. And even at the end, I felt there were many unanswered questions such as how did her father know so much about her past when it appears he found her in an orphanage? Plus, there are many unanswered questions about the father. 

I don't know if I'll read more books from the series. They are easy reading but I'm ready for something else. - June

Some Recommendations from BT!!

Always fun to hear what BT is reading. Here are her latest reviews:

Read "Bright Shiny Morning" by James Frey. Remember his "A Million Little Pieces" fiasco? Anyhoo, it's about LA and between each chapter, he writes a little factoid about it's formation. Fascinating for me. His style is ever evolving I guess you'd say, with a dearth of punctuation. But I do think he's a good writer and I'd recommend this one. Also, just finished "Found"--and "The Half-Life of Remorse" which is quirky.

Also, Mark Twain' "Roughing It" which I wish I'd read long ago. It features his time in the Tahoe area and Virginia City (among other interesting tidbits) I forgot how very funny his prose can be.

The Wild Road Home by Melissa Payne

Nope. Nope. Nope. Too sappy. Too predictable. Too repetitive.  I'm really in a reading funk. The past few books have not worked for me.

This one is about Mack whose wife has dementia. He loves her and goes on ad nauseum about how much he loves her - even though he happens to mention that she cuts her toenails on the living room couch and brushes them on the carpet. Ew. Deal breaker for me. Anyway, Mack decides to fake his death and live off the grid so his life insurance money will go to his wife's care. Oh, she also has cancer. Meanwhile, Brandi who is just 18 and has been living in a juvenile home, returns to her home to pick up her little brother so that he won't have to put up with their mother who is on drugs. She gets a flat tire on a deserted road, Mack comes to help her, and they end up driving all over Wyoming while everything that could possibly go wrong does. And they have no money. 

I just hate it when an author tells the reader the same things over and over. I'm not going to trust book reviews anymore. - June

Spectacular Things by Beck Dorey-Stein

You know how your don't want a good book to end? You just love the characters and you look forward to being able to sit down each time to read it? Well, that was NOT this book. I almost gave up on it several times but decided to instead just skim through the last half. It reminded my of Jodi Piccoult... it was well researched and takes on some controversial topics. But also the author maybe felt she had to show off her research by mentioning every detail she learned. And the story was a little predictable. 

It's all about two sisters whose mother was a soccer star until she became pregnant with the first sister. So she raised them to love the sport and instilled in them a passion for winning. She trained with them and they became obsessed with the game. The novel starts when one of the sisters needs a kidney, and the soccer super-star sister must choose between giving her one and quitting soccer, or continuing with her career. Then it jumps back in time with all of the background.

Way too much soccer information and way too much time spent on the training and name-dropping of famous female soccer players. Why did it get such good reviews on GoodReads? I'll never know. Just not my thing. - June