The Pearl Sister: CeCe's story (The Seven Sisters Book 4)

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Riley is survived by Stephen, their two children, Leonora and Kit, the two children of her first marriage, Harry and Bella, and three stepchildren, Olivia, William and Max, as well as her mother and her sister, Georgia. He was probably no more than eighteen, the traces of adolescent acne still visible on his chin and forehead. I opened my eyes, feeling groggy and disorientated, and stared up at the same stewardess who had visited me in the middle of the night.

I sat down cross-legged on one of the mats, enjoying my time out of the sun in this big, peaceful space with other human beings around me, probably contemplating their navels too. En-route to Sydney, CeCe heads to the one place she has ever felt close to being herself: the stunning beaches of Krabi, Thailand. HNS Awards have helped discover and launch the author careers of Michel Faber, Ruth Downie, Hilary Green, Martin Sutton, Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott, Nikki Marmery, Margaret Skea, Warwick Cairns, Katherine Mezzacappa and Elizabeth Macneal. The very best parts of this story though come from CeCe connecting with her family, that coming home and knowing that she was exactly where she needed to be for everything in her life to fall into place. Separated by nearly a century, the characters’ storylines and dialogue are captivating and hold our interest.

In Adelaide, her fate becomes entwined with Mrs McCrombie’s family, including the identical, yet very different, twin brothers: impetuous Drummond, and ambitious Andrew, the heir to a pearling fortune. She gained further theatre experience as Mary, the young orphan sent to live with her uncle, in a stage version of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel The Secret Garden, at the King’s Head, Islington (1987). Without a doubt, this series is going down as one of my favorites … I fall more in love not only with the D’Apliese family, but also with Lucinda’s writing.

Dyslexic, CeCe left art school in London and, after a brief stopover in Thailand where she encountered another mysterious billionaire, she arrives in Australia seeking her past. I do enjoy stories set in Broome during the pearling hey-days, so there was much to recommend these historical sections to me.The hardship, the love and loss; Lucinda’s characters work hard for their happy endings, but it’s worth every bend in the road she steers us around. A hundred years earlier Kitty McBride, daughter of an Edinburgh clergyman, is given the opportunity to travel to Australia as the companion of the wealthy Mrs McCrombie. Having bought a bottle of water from a street vendor, I wandered down to the Chao Phraya River and stood watching the heavy traffic chugging along it.