Oh my goodness, what an ending to the series. I admit to be intimidated by the doorstep size of Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt, last in the Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley. This, the eighth and final book, was written by Lucinda and completed by her son Harry Whittaker after her death. I’ve spent the last week enthralled by the story of Atlas.Each of the seven books in the series concentrates on the birth story of one of Pa Salt’s daughters, each named after the seven star cluster the Pleiades. Each young woman is different, each book is immersive, unputdownable. Hovering around the edge of each book is Pa himself; an enigmatic figure, wise, wealthy, mysterious, talented, nurturing. He also has a lifelong enemy.
Atlas finally tells Pa’s own story throughout almost a century. As some questions are answered, more are posed. Where was he born. Is he an orphan too. Why is he called Atlas. Did he ever find love. And why is the mild-mannered, gentlemanly, thoughtful Pa Salt being pursued by a man who wants to kill him? One by one, we finally learn the circumstances in which Pa came to adopt each of his girls. The story criss-crosses the globe and the timeline goes back and forth between Pa’s story and 2008 as the sisters gather together to read their father’s diary after his death. There are a lot of character names recurring from the previous books – partners, children, relatives – but I stopped trying to remember who was who and went with the emotional flow. It’s also satisfying to see the early stories of Pa Salt’s staff including lawyer Georg, the girls’ nanny Ma, and cook Claudia.
A fitting end to a fab series and impossible to review without giving away key plot points. Though it is undeniably long, there are a lot of loose ends to be tied up in Atlas and missing decades to fill in. Once started, difficult to put down.

Read my reviews of some of the other novels in Lucinda Riley’s ‘Seven Sisters’ series:-
THE SEVEN SISTERS #1SEVENSISTERS
THE STORM SISTER #2SEVENSISTERS
THE SHADOW SISTER #3SEVENSISTERS
THE PEARL SISTER #4SEVENSISTERS
THE MOON SISTER #5SEVENSISTERS
THE SUN SISTER #6SEVENSISTERS
THE MISSING SISTER #7SEVENSISTERS

… plus my reviews of these standalone novels, also by Lucinda Riley:-
THE BUTTERFLY ROOM
THE GIRL ON THE CLIFF
THE HIDDEN GIRL 
THE LOVE LETTER

If you like this, try:-
‘Shadows in the Ashes’ by Christina Courtenay
‘The Marriage Plot’ by Jeffrey Eugenides
‘Our Souls at Night’ by Kent Haruf

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview ATLAS: THE STORY OF PA SALT by Lucinda Riley & Harry Whittaker https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8CT via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-