Thursday, February 9, 2023

Friday Focus: The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings

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It's Friday . . . time to share book excerpts with:
  • Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.  
  • The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice, where you grab a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% of an eBook), find one or more interesting sentences (no spoilers), and post them.

Today I'm featuring The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley. The excerpts shared are from a trade paperback I purchased several years ago.

 The Seven Sisters (The Seven Sisters, #1)


Beginning:  I will always remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard that my father had died.

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Page 56:  Never let your fear decided your destiny

I knew then that the seven words Pa Salt had left me could not have described me and who I was any more accurately.

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My thoughts: This book, the first in a series of eight novels, is a sweeping family saga that I have been wanting to start for a few years now. I even bought a copy several years ago, but it has languished on a shelf for far too long. Fortunately, it was my book club's January choice, so I finally dusted it off and immersed myself in the first installment of the enthralling story of the D'Apliese family. All members of my book group loved it tooand have since gone on to read other books in the series. 

I'm also committed to reading the entire series—in fact, the release of the last book is imminent. It will take me longer to move along in the series than the other book club members, but I am happy to have a new series to savor.

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From GoodReads: Maia D’Apliese and her five sisters gather together at their childhood home, “Atlantis”—a fabulous, secluded castle situated on the shores of Lake Geneva—having been told that their beloved father, who adopted them all as babies, has died. Each of them is handed a tantalizing clue to her true heritage—a clue which takes Maia across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Once there, she begins to put together the pieces of her story and its beginnings.

Eighty years earlier in Rio’s Belle Epoque of the 1920s, Izabela Bonifacio’s father has aspirations for his daughter to marry into the aristocracy. Meanwhile, architect Heitor da Silva Costa is devising plans for an enormous statue, to be called Christ the Redeemer, and will soon travel to Paris to find the right sculptor to complete his vision. Izabela—passionate and longing to see the world—convinces her father to allow her to accompany him and his family to Europe before she is married. There, at Paul Landowski’s studio and in the heady, vibrant cafes of Montparnasse, she meets ambitious young sculptor Laurent Brouilly, and knows at once that her life will never be the same again.

In this sweeping, epic tale of love and loss—the first in a unique, spellbinding series of seven novels—Lucinda Riley showcases her storytelling talent like never before.




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This Friday Focus: The Friday 56 & Book Beginnings post was originally composed and/or compiled and published by Catherine for the blog, bookclublibrarian.com.  It cannot be republished without attribution.

 

16 comments:

  1. Book Clubs sure do spur us on to read books we might pass over otherwise. Hope it is a good discussion book.

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    1. The content provided lots for discussion...and for speculation about what might happen in the subsequent books.

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  2. I remember hearing about this book around the time it was released. I never did end up reading it. It does sound like a good story.

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  3. Those quotes are good. There is some wisdom in the Friday 56 quote, isn't there?

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  4. It's wonderful to be ready to start what you are pretty sure will be a great series.

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  5. I also remember hearing praise about various books in this series. It does appeal to me and I'll (again) make note of it. Aren't book groups great for getting us to reach out of usual area of reading?

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    1. You've got that right, Kay...and I wish I had a nickel for every book I only picked up because of a book club!

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  6. Sounds like the makings of a great saga! Happy weekend!

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    1. I think it is a great saga, Freda, based on feedback I'm getting about the other books in the series.

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  7. This sounds like a worthwhile read! Happy Friday!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, Lisa. This book helped me get my 2023 reading off to a good start.

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  8. I have heard great things about this series and have been wanting to read it. "Never let your fear decided your destiny" is good advice. Thank you for sharing, Catherine!

    Have a great weekend.

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