This is a wonderful story! I was completely intrigued by both storylines, one set in 2007 and the other in the late 1920's. Maia lives in Switzerland, where she was raised with her five sisters, by her adoptive father ("Pa Salt") and her primary caregiver, Marina ("Ma"). She is the oldest sister, but the only one that still lives at their homestead, called Atlantis. She had fallen in love 14 years previously when she was away at school, but was basically "discarded" by her love and she returned home, afraid to venture out of her comfort zone again.
Pa Salt had adopted each of his daughters, but none of them knew anything about their birth parents or birthplace. Pa Salt's death brings the sisters back to Atlantis and in his will, he leaves each of the girls a clue about where they came from, should they choose to pursue their individual quests to discover the truth about their past. Maia chooses to do this and leaves Atlantis to travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is a translator and she had just translated a book for a Brazilian author into French. She decides that she could meet with the author while in Brazil trying to find information about her birth parents. Floriano ends up being very useful, as a tour guide, driver and research assistant. Of course it doesn't hurt that he is gorgeous and kind and falls in love with her. ;)
Maia's discoveries lead her to the story of her great grandmother, Izabela, who was the only daughter of a self-made millionaire who made his money (initially) with Brazilian coffee beans. Izabela's family has the money, but they were "outsiders". Izabela's father wanted his beautiful daughter to marry into the aristocracy. Enter Gustavo Aires Cabral. The Aires Cabral family had fallen on hard times financially, but Gustavo had the pedigree to introduce Izabela's family into high society. So, an arranged marriage was made, at least for Maia. Gustavo actually loved Maia. Maia was loyal to her parents and would do whatever she needed to do to support them. Thanks to her best friend Maria Elisa da Silva Costa however, she gets invited to join Maria Elisa's family when they travel to Europe. Gustavo wants Maia to fall in love with him and he suggests that she go to Europe with the da Silva Costa family and then when she returns, they will marry.
This trip to Europe, specifically Paris, changes Maia's life forever. She falls in love with a sculptor and has to choose to either stay in Paris with him (Laurent), who is a talented, but poor artist, or return to Rio de Janeiro and marry Gustavo and secure her family's place in Brazilian society.
This is a very brief summary of this story! There is a lot of depth in each character and many details about the art world, the financial world and of course personal emotions involved in the telling of the lives of these two women. I didn't want the book to end! Although some questions are answered about Maia's birth family, some were left unaddressed. The next book in this series is about one of the other sisters, but I hope somewhere in the next six books I get the answers to my remaining questions. It will be difficult for me to switch gears to read about another sister, but I have already ordered the next book.
Wendy's Rating: *****
No comments:
Post a Comment