"Die sieben Schwestern" ist ein sehr gelungener Reihenauftakt. Die Prämisse - der Adoptivvater von sechs Mädchen stirbt und hinterlässt ihnen Hinweise, mit denen sie ihre Herkunft untersuchen können - hat mir gut gefallen und die Umsetzung war wirklich toll. Maia, die älteste der Schwestern, war mir sehr sympathisch und es war schön zu sehen, wie sie trotz ihrer Trauer langsam aufgeblüht ist und ein neues Glück gefunden hat. Auch ihre Schwestern sind interessante Charaktere und ich bin schon gespannt, woher sie stammen und was sie erleben werden.

Die Handlung spielt in zwei verschiedenen Zeiten; zum einen geht es um Maia und ihre Suche nach ihren Wurzeln, zum anderen spielen ihre direkten Vorfahren und die tragischen Ereignisse in der Vergangenheit eine wichtige Rolle. Izabela war mir ebenfalls sympathisch, allerdings muss ich sagen, dass ihre Liebesgeschichte mich nicht wirklich berühren konnte. Vielleicht, weil mir von Anfang an klar war, wie es ausgehen würde? Dennoch war es interessant, über ihr Leben, Glück und Leid zu lesen und dann zu erfahren, wie es mit ihr weitergegangen ist. Besonders spannend war für mich der reale historische Hintergrund mit der Entstehung der berühmten Cristo-Statue in Rio. Ich habe mich noch nie genauer damit befasst, fand aber die Schilderungen der Autorin sehr interessant und werde bestimmt noch genauere Recherchen anstellen.

Zudem liefert das Buch noch einige Rätsel, die der Rest der Reihe hoffentlich aufklären wird. Wo ist die siebte Schwester? Wer war Pa Salt? Wonach hat er die Mädchen ausgewählt? Fragen über Fragen, deren Antworten mich sehr interessieren. Schade nur, dass wir sie vermutlich erst im siebten Band beantwortet bekommen werden...

4 1/2 stars. I really enjoyed this story and I'm looking forward to reading more books in the series.

I got this book as a gift from my mother, she told me it had very good reviews. Even though it’s said not to judge a book by its cover, I did. It has quite a few pages, but somehow it was a nice easy read. I like the connection with actual history, even though it’s fiction. Not many surprises, but done well.

I understand Maia’s hidden personality and I hope that I indeed “never let fear decide [my] destiny“.

I described this to a friend as a wish-fulfillment book. It's also a lie-on-the-beach book, and I'm not on the beach right now, which is why I didn't finish it. When I'm not on vacation, I'm too impatient for a book like this and it's more annoying than enjoyable.

What do I mean by all this? Well, the author has decided that she is going to write 7 books, each based loosely on the Pleiades nymphs/sisters- this is not a myth that I'm up on. The premise for the book is that seven girls were adopted by a mysterious, extremely wealthy man. This allows each girl to do pretty much whatever she wants. Each sister gets her own book- quite a project!

The first sister is Maia. She is a translator who lives with her mysterious father figure and his inscrutable servants in their castle-like home on Lake Geneva. Maia can afford whatever she wants, go wherever she wants. She is also beautiful- each sister gets a defining characteristic, and that's hers. Too bad it wasn't a personality. :)

In the first sixty pages or so, all seven sisters gather at the Lake Geneva manor/castle to hear their father's will. Each sister gets a description. I've got to say, the dialogue in the book leaves something to be desired. These don't sound like real people. They are all so privileged, so very restrained and British in not wanting to express any emotion, that they sound more like polite co-workers than relatives.

There is a mysterious new armillary sphere in one of their many gardens. It gives coordinates for where each sister was found on the globe (none of the sisters know where they come from) and a cryptic quote in Greek (I think) for each of them as a clue. Although Maia obligingly translates and gives each sister her translation, and the sailor sister Alcyone shares with each sister her own coordinates, none of the sisters talks with each other or in a group about either thing- they just each go on their own way! This is what I mean by perhaps being overly restrained. If you suddenly found out your place of origin as an adopted child, wouldn't you want to talk with your sisters about it? And it's not like these women don't like each other, they're all very kind to each other in a distant sort of way.

Maia apparently was born in Brazil. And that's about where I stopped.

It was just so sloooow. Maybe if I was blazing through this on a beach, the weird personalities that the author has bestowed upon each and every one of her characters and the Dynasty-style soap opera plot could be overlooked as I was plowing through the story, and it could just be a silly fun read. Reading it a bit at a time, the pace seemed glacial.

I do think I'm going to hold onto the book though, becuase I am interested in traveling to Rio one day and the history of the Christ the Redeemer statue, which I gather is reviewed in this book, could be interesting. Plus I could read it on a beach in Rio. Unless that's embarrassing and I should read it on any beach _except_ Rio?