March 15, 2020
The sixth installment of Riley's mammoth series about the adopted daughters of an enigmatic shipping magnate. This volume, weighing in at 500-plus pages, concerns Electra, the youngest of the six D'Apli�se sisters--each named for a star in the Pleiades constellation--who were rescued by seafaring entrepreneur "Pa Salt." As always, the prefatory cast of characters notes that a seventh sister, Merope, is "missing." Like her sisters before her, Electra was bequeathed clues by Pa (who died under mysterious circumstances) as to her birth origins. But Electra, a Manhattan supermodel who's addicted to vodka and cocaine, is blas� about her personal quest. When Stella Jackson, a prominent black attorney, claims to be Electra's biological grandmother, Riley begins the extended backstory common to all the books, this one about Electra's ancestor. Stella's reluctance to spill the beans all at once and Electra's own prodigious procrastination slow the narrative just enough to maintain suspense. The tale centers on Cecily Huntley-Morgan, a white New York socialite who, on the eve of World War II, finds herself living in Kenya in a marriage of convenience to Bill Forsythe, who spends most of his time away on cattle drives with Maasai tribesmen. This situation stems from Cecily's broken engagement in New York, which she followed with an unwanted pregnancy courtesy of a rebound rake. Rarely for this series, both storylines hold their own. Electra checks into rehab, vowing to forswear hedonism and use her fame and wealth to help addicted and underprivileged youth. The Kenyan setting, in seeming homage to Out of Africa, is colorfully atmospheric even as Cecily remains stolidly unhedonistic amid the Happy Valley set of hard-partying and dissolute British expats who surround her. The second half of the novel plumbs, with many detours and digressions and much descriptive minutiae, the mystery of how Cecily and Stella are connected and how Electra came to be abandoned. The long-anticipated seventh book may reveal what's still missing from this series, because it certainly isn't detail.
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March 23, 2020
In this stirring, if baggy, installment to the Seven Sisters series (after The Moon Sister), Riley follows Electra D’Apliese, a supermodel suffering from the burdens of wealth, fame, and addictions. The second-youngest of six sisters adopted by philanthropist Pa Salt, Electra, tall and gorgeous at 26, enjoys a luxurious New York City life complete with lots of alcohol, cocaine, and casual sex. After Pa’s death, her dangerous behaviors intensify to the point that her sister Maia suggests a rehab program. Electra is resistant until she finds a posthumous letter from Pa, which provides a clue about her origins, and though Electra has always been reluctant to learn about her blood relations, she finally meets her grandmother, Stella, who traces their story back to Kenya in 1939. Riley alternates between Electra’s and Stella’s stories, spending lots of time on Stella’s life in Kenya and beyond. After Electra checks into rehab and begins to recover from her addictions, her life is changed by her new connection to her past. The plot can sometimes be predictable, but the descriptions of Kenya are evocative (“the air hummed with insects dipping their heads into nectar-rich blooms”). Series fans will find inspiration and delight in Electra’s search for deeper family relationships.
April 15, 2020
The D'Apliese sisters were adopted as infants and raised on a luxurious Austrian estate. After the D'Apliese patriarch passes away, each now-grown sister receives a handwritten letter with clues to her personal history. Electra D'Apliese, a famous model with a swiftly worsening substance abuse issue, is wholly uninterested in the details of her biological family. When she receives a letter from a stranger claiming to be her biological grandmother, Electra realizes that she can't understand her past until she confronts the challenges of her globetrotting present. The sixth?and darkest?entry in Riley's Seven Sisters series explores the harsh realities of addiction and recovery and the pressures of chasing fame. A story-within-the-story follows a dear family friend, Cecily, as she adjusts to her unfamiliar Kenyan home after living a sheltered life in New York. Riley's meticulous research and attention to detail once again immerse readers, this time in 1940s Kenya with the complicated story of the ex-pat Happy Valley community, brought to life. Fans of Riley, Kate Atkinson, and the series will adore The Sun Sister.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)