Initially I liked the family history story better than Ally’s present-day story, but I thought Ally’s story picked up as the book went on. The history of her family started in the 19th century, and included one generation living in Norway during the Nazi occupation during WWII. Initially, Ally, the second oldest sister, decides she’s in a good place in her new relationship and doesn’t need to look into her family history - until tragedy strikes, and she decides to follow her father’s clues to Norway and her musical family’s history. When six adopted sisters lose their father, he leaves with each of them a clue as to where they originally came from. Lucinda was diagnosed with cancer in 2017 and died on June 11th 2021, surrounded by her family. Though she brought up her four children mostly in Norfolk in England, in 2015 she fulfilled her dream of buying a remote farmhouse in West Cork, Ireland, which she always felt was her spiritual home, and indeed this was where her last five books were written. Harry then wrote the books, and they are now being published internationally.

In collaboration with her son Harry Whittaker, she also devised a series of books for children called the Guardian Angels series, based on stories told to her children whenever they were facing a challenging situation. In 2020 she received the Dutch Platinum award for sales over 300,000 copies for a single novel in one year – an award last won by J K Rowling for Harry Potter. Her books have been nominated for numerous awards, including the Italian Bancarella prize, The Lovely Books award in Germany, and the Romantic Novel of the Year award. The Seven Sisters series specifically has become a global phenomenon, creating its own genre, and there are plans to create a seven-season TV series. Her books have been translated into thirty-seven languages and continue to strike an emotional chord with all cultures around the world. Lucinda Riley was born in 1965 in Ireland, and after an early career as an actress in film, theatre and television, wrote her first book aged twenty-four.

The storm sister