The Moon Sister by Lucinda Riley - Book Five of The Seven Sisters Series

Author: Riley, Lucinda
Title: The Moon Sister 

Publisher: Atria Books
Year: 2019
Pages:544
Price: $37.00 - currently on sale for $33.18, available here.

     Part of the Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley, "The Moon Sister" is the fifth book in what will eventually be a seven-book series. The series follows seven sisters, Maia, Ally, Star, Cece, Tiggy, Electra, and missing sister Merope, all of whom were adopted as infants by billionaire "Pa Salt". Growing up in scenic Geneva, Switzerland, the girls wanted for nothing and were surrounded by their loving mismatched family. But when the sisters are all grown women living in different corners of the earth, they are brought back together by the tragic and unexpected death of their adoptive father. Upon arriving home, they discover that he has left them all the coordinates to their birth places and clues to their history, so that they might discover for themselves where they truly came from. The first book, simply called "The Seven Sisters", followed Maia who discovered she hailed from Brazil and was connected to famous artists. The second book, "The Storm Sister" is about Ally (or Alcyone) who follows her path back to Norway where she finds her personal connection to musicians. "The Shadow Sister" gave Star (or Asterope) the chance to finally find her individuality in England where she finds meaning in the literary world. The fourth book, "The Pearl Sister", is where Cece (Celaeno) is given the opportunity to trace her roots to the Aboriginal population of Australia where she finds herself related to a famous painter and connected to the pearling industry. 

    The fifth book, "The Moon Sister", followed Taygete, nicknamed Tiggy, an animal-loving vegan biologist who works on a secluded estate in Scotland. Following Pa Salt's hints, Tiggy traces her lineage back to cave-inhabiting gypsies in Spain who make healing potions and dance the flamenco. I've attached a photo below of a real gypsy cave. Now I'd like to point out here that I have recently learned that the term "gypsy" is outdated and offensive. The proper term is "Romani", however I'm not sure if this refers to all nomads or just those from Romania, so I will refer to them as the author did in the book, which was by the Spanish translation of gypsy, "Gitano".


The story in Spain begins with María giving birth to her daughter during a full-moon, resulting in her naming the baby Lucía, derived from the Latin word for "light". We then jump forward to Lucía as a young girl dancing flamenco in the streets for money, accompanied by her guitar-playing, bar-hopping father. The family was, as all gitanos were, very poor and relied on this money to feed everyone in the household. After an impromptu appearance in a flamenco contest, Lucía finds herself adored by the community and thrown into the life of a performer at a young age. As she grows, she becomes entitled but hard-working, absolutely determined to become the most famous flamenco dancer in the world. 


Lucía travels with her father, performing wherever she might, from Barcelona to Lisbon, Portugal to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to New York. As she becomes more famous, the war in Spain becomes more hostile and her home community is left in shambles. Lucía eventually becomes a mother and returns to Grenada, Spain with her own mother, but then becomes bored of motherhood and takes off to New York once more to dance. She never returns. 

After traveling to Spain to find answers, Tiggy is connected with people who knew Lucía and her daughter, and she is taught about their ways, including how to brew herbal remedies and how to connect to her psychic abilities. Tiggy falls in love, builds friendships, mildly reconnects with her sisters, and spends some time at home in Geneva, all while finding out who she is.

Now, the bad bit: I didn't overly enjoy this book. This series is one in which I am always amped for the next book to come out but then feel slightly disappointed when I finish it. I continue to read because they are interesting and there are some mysteries that I want to find the answers to, but I find the stories repetitive and predictable: 

1. Sister doesn't want to find out about her past because she's scared and is "happy" with her current life.
2. Sister takes a leap of faith and goes back to her original country (of course money or work are never an issue, they can travel as much as they want *eye roll*)
3. Sister tentatively falls in love with man after overcoming her inner turmoil.
4. Sister is told story about someone in great detail who turns out to be only slightly connected to them, then they are told the story of their parents in all of five seconds. 
5. Sisters realize they've been living their whole lives wrong until that moment and their re-connection to their past shapes how they live their lives moving forward.
6. Oh, and they now have a boyfriend. (The only story that didn't follow this basic story line was the second book in which Ally's boyfriend dies).

Furthermore, while Riley's ability to create a scene in the reader's head is quite good, I find her dialogue building skills weak. Each sister is described as being different, but when it comes down to it they all act and speak exactly alike (perhaps with the exception of Cece). They are overly affectionate, calling everyone "darling", in a way that feels unnatural and forced. I mean, really, what twenty-something-year-old refers to an elderly lady as "Margaret, darling"? I find it strange. And what was really off-putting about this book was not only how frequently it jumped from year to year to year, from place to place to place, but how one of the main characters, Lucía, wasn't likeable at all. Almost from the start, she was a diva and it only became worse as the novel progressed. She gave up the love of her life basically because she was being prideful, and then didn't even tell him about his daughter's existence because of the same reason. She was a slob and became a spoiled brat rather quickly, something that was never resolved. I, like most people, like to see moral development in a character, but Lucía lacked that in all regards. Ultimately, her sole care and purpose in life, flamenco dance, took over everything, even her desire to parent her child.

So why do I keep reading these books? Well, despite the negatives, I still find them quite enjoyable. The Moon Sister may have been my least favorite to date, however reviewers are saying they enjoyed it much more than The Pearl Sister. I still find some things in these stories unpredictable enough to keep me interested. And I have questions that I need answered. Such as, who is Pa Salt really? How did he make his money? What was his connection to the Eszu family? Is he really dead? And who is the seventh sister "Merope"?

Like I said, Riley can create beautiful imagery with her words, and has managed to successfully intertwine five books (so far!) which cannot be easy. It was a pretty easy read and I flew through it quickly. Goodreads gave this a 4.2/5 but I'm going to be rather stingy and give it a 3/5. I didn't overly enjoy this one, and while I don't typically re-read books, I definitely won't be picking this one up again. I'm still committed to this series, so I'll be waiting for book number six where we will learn more about the most eccentric sister, Electra. I'm hoping it will be better than this one. 

I hope this review was helpful! Read on, my friends.