The Sun Sister by Lucinda Riley is the sixth book in the Seven Sisters series (see my blogs on The Seven Sisters, The Storm Sister and The Shadow Sister) and since I was lucky enough to be invited to the bloggers launch of the series in 2014 I have very much enjoyed reading them, as a guilty pleasure. They are perfect escapism into a world of millionaire lifestyles on the shores of Lake Geneva, and into mysteries of the past, as each adopted sister finds out her story after the death of their adoptive father. Each book weaves the modern story together with one set much earlier, a technique I always enjoy as a reader. As it should be in good storytelling, each sister has challenges thrown in her way, overcomes them, and then begins a new and happier life.
The Sun Sister follows Electra, a supermodel with serious addictions to drugs and alcohol. Her life in New York begins to spiral out of control and with the help of her loyal PA and one of her sisters she checks into rehab to get clean. It is also time for her to learn about her black heritage, which involves meeting her biological grandmother for the first time, a famous civil rights activist, and discovering how her ancestors came to the United States from Kenya.
The Kenya chapters were very enjoyable as they interweave the real history of Happy Valley, which I have enjoyed reading about before in The Bolter by Francis Osborne (which explores the life of Idina Sackville), with the fictional characters of Electra’s past. It made me want to return to Kenya to explore the area around Lake Naivasha. Meanwhile, in the present, Electra makes some changes in her life and emerges in a much better place.
So, bring on the final instalment in the series please, where we get to find out who the mysterious seventh sister is, whom none of the other sisters have ever met. And is their father really dead? I suspect not.