Although the conceit of six sisters searching for their birth parents is certainly intriguing, one hopes the future books...
Launch of a projected series about six sisters who were adopted from all over the world by a mysterious Swiss tycoon.
When word comes of the death of the seafaring adoptive father they fondly called Pa Salt, his six daughters gather at Atlantis, the estate on Lake Geneva where they grew up. The eldest, Maia—each daughter is named for a star in the Seven Sisters cluster, though a seventh sister never arrived—is the only one who hasn't left the nest: she works from home as a translator. Pa Salt left a will providing all his daughters with the means to pursue their wildly divergent paths but with specific instructions that each investigate her origin. The clues provided by Pa Salt—a moonstone necklace, a set of coordinates, and a triangular stone tile—lead Maia to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro; the sole inhabitants, an old woman named Senhora Carvalho and her maid, Yara, are initially suspicious but relent when they note a family resemblance. A mammoth flashback comprises the bulk of the book. In 1927, Maia’s great-grandmother Izabela “Bel” Bonifacio, the daughter of a wealthy Italian coffee grower, is betrothed to Gustavo Cabral, scion of one of Rio’s most aristocratic Portuguese families. The Cabrals need the Bonifacio money, and the Bonifacios need the Cabrals’ social cachet. Against a backdrop of the Great Depression and the building of Rio’s giant statue of Christ, a tangled tale unspools of Bel’s affair with a Parisian sculptor, of Gustavo’s despair and forgiveness, and of Beatriz, the child of dubious parentage born to them. Maia’s interview with the dying Beatriz reveals additional startling clues about her lineage. The novel churns through a lot of exposition and logistics before racing to a satisfactory payoff. Maia’s frame story seems almost an afterthought, though—the Bonifacio-Cabral saga is clearly the main event.
Although the conceit of six sisters searching for their birth parents is certainly intriguing, one hopes the future books will achieve a better balance between past and present.Pub Date: May 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4767-5990-6
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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