The Moon Sister

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​This is the fifth instalment in the Seven Sisters series and shows the inevitable problems for authors who take on epic projects, racing to produce sequel after sequel with diminishing skill and effectiveness. (I am aware that the author is no longer with us and wrote several of these during her final illness, which is highly commendable, but the fact remains they aren’t her best work.)
 
I enjoyed the first three books, but the fourth, The Pearl Sister, partly set in Thailand and Australia, and this one haven't worked as well as the others.
 
All the books have a similar plotline. A contemporary group of sisters, the adopted daughters of Pa Salt, a wealthy man who has just passed away, are given sketchy details about their true parentage. Each sister heads off to various places around the world in an effort to discover her origins. In tandem with the contemporary stories are those set in the past, each about an intriguing female ancestor, often inspired by real history.
 
In this case, I found the temperamental Lucia, the gitana flamenco-dancing grandmother of Sister #5, Tiggy, just plain exasperating and I grew bored with her drama queen behaviour early on. The setting in Granada and background history of Spanish gypsies was, however, more appealing. Tiggy has sensitivity and finer eco-qualities, but she failed to capture my sympathy as much as she could have.
 
Some of the other female characters, such as Lucia’s mother Maria, and the main male characters were better drawn, but the shallow and shady tycoon Zed who blatantly tries to seduce Tiggy is very unpleasant. That Tiggy, this supposedly most intuitive of all the Sisters, couldn’t see through him right away makes a mockery of her alleged psychic abilities inherited from her gypsy ancestors.
 
The book reveals that Zed has some unexplained link to all the Sisters, so we’re not done with him yet. Plus, there are various other threads which weren't followed through but presumably will be explained anon.
 
I am left with two more Sisters to discover, plus a concluding epic Atlas on the Sisters’ adoptive father, Pa Salt, which is almost the size of a bible.
 
From a sample chapter for the next Sister #6 Electra - apparently a famous international drug-addled model - I am seriously wondering if I am able to invest my time and deal with another rich, spoiled female through 700 or more pages.
 
Do I have the energy to continue?

More to the point, can I take more of the insufferable Zed?
 
Sadly, my star rating falls with each book. The Pearl Sister might have managed three, but this is down to two-and-a-half.

 
amazon.com
 
amazon.co.uk
 
Dymocks Australia

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