Competition (now closed) – The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley

When I decided on my 2014 books of the year, I found it quite impossible to include just one book by Lucinda Riley. She’s one of my all-time favourite authors, and you might like to take a look at last year’s reviews of The Midnight Rose and The Italian Girl – so highly recommended.

Last year I was also delighted to read the hardback version of The Seven Sisters ahead of its hardback release – here’s a link to my review. And now absolutely everyone can read it – it was released as a Pan Paperback Original on 23rd April, at the price of £7.99. And I’m delighted to offer one lucky UK reader a chance to win a hardback special edition – more details below.

Here’s a little more information about the book – and the seven part series it will be part of – taken from the press release.

The Seven Sisters is the first in a unique series of seven books. Each book follows the story of an individual sister but can be read as a stand-alone novel. All are based loosely on the mythology surrounding the famous star constellation.

Each tale opens at a beautiful chateau on the shores of Lake Geneva – the sisters’ childhood home. They gather together when they are told that their beloved father, an elusive billionaire they knew as Pa Salt, has died. He adopted them from across the globe, and now they are left with an envelope, which holds a clue to their past, and a set of coordinates engraved on an armillary sphere showing where their father found them.

The first novel is Maia’s story, the eldest of the sisters, whose clue takes her across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Once there she begins to put together the pieces of where her story began.

Lucinda Riley has based this opening novel on the fascinating true story of how the statue of Christ the Redeemer was constructed, with the outer shell sculptured in Paris, a city which also becomes integral to Maia’s past. The moulds then travelled by boat to Rio de Janeiro and were used to clad the iconic monument being built on top of Corcovado Mountain.

When Lucinda was living in Rio researching The Seven Sisters, she met Bel Noronha, the great-granddaughter of the Brazilian architect who conceived and engineered the construction of Christ the Redeemer. Bel gave Lucinda access to some fascinating family archive documents and diaries. In August 2014 The Seven Sisters was launched at the Copacabana Palace Hotel – where part of the story is set in 1927, and it is no surprise that it is already a bestseller in Brazil.

The result is a moving and entrancing novel where Lucinda Riley showcases her storytelling talent like never before.

Competition

Competition is now closed and the winner is… Sam Robinson! I’ll be contacting Sam via Twitter – but if you see this Sam, please DM me your address, and I’ll ask Katie at Pan Mac to send your book. Congratulations – although when there are only six entries I wish you could all win… more giveaways soon, promise…

The author

Lucinda Riley was born in Ireland and wrote her first book aged 24 based on her experiences as an actress. Her novel Hothouse Flower was selected for the UK’s Richard and Judy Book Club in 2011 and went on to sell 2 million copies worldwide. Since then she has sold nearly 5 million copies worldwide and is translated into 28 languages. Lucinda is a multiple New York Times bestselling author and has topped the bestseller charts in four European countries. Her other bestselling novels include The Girl on the Cliff, The Light Behind the Window, The Midnight Rose and The Italian Girl.