Finished: The Seven Sisters (Riley) Well, I have fallen down the rabbit hole of what appears to be an 8 book series! This is the first book in the series, and I really liked it. :-) Six sisters gather at their childhood home to morn the loss of their very wealthy father, who adopted them all as babies from different parts of the world. The oldest, thirty-three year old Maia D'Apliese, is the only sister who still lives on the fairy tale estate on an island in Lake Geneva. Her father, Pa Salt as they call him, is often away on business, but Marina, who has been their mother figure since childhood, is still there as well. As the sisters gather from all locations, Marina (or Ma as they call her), tells them that Pa Salt died a few days ago, and at his request, he didn't want them to know he was ailing. Nor, did he want them there for a funeral, so per his instructions, he'd already been buried at sea in the Aegean Sea. The sisters, of course, are devastated and wish they could have seen him one last time. He'd spent all the time he had at home teaching them about the things he loved, and encouraging them to follow their passions. From astronomy to violin to sailing to languages he filled their childhood with his loves. He even named them after the constellation known as the Seven Sisters in the Pleiades Cluster: Maia, Alcyone, Asterope, Celaeno, Taygete, Electra and Merope. Or, Maia, Ally, Star, CeCe, Tiggy and Electra, as they are otherwise known. Pa Salt had never been able to find a seventh baby girl to adopt, but considered Merope his lost daughter. As their father's attorney visits, he hands them each a letter and a clue from their father. Each clue is a hint as to where they come from in case they ever want to find their biological families. Pa Salt has also commissioned a sculpture for his garden that is a spherical astrolabe, with seven bands of gold encircling it...each with a set of coordinates engraved giving the specific location where he adopted them. So, book one is all about Maia and her adventure. Her clue takes her to Rio de Janeiro where she is soon thrown into a whirlwind of discovering her family origins through a series of letters written by her great-grandmother, Izabela Bonifacio. As she begins to read, we are taken back to Izabela's time in the 1920's and read the story of her life, her loves, her obligations, and just how, eventually, Maia is related to her...and how she was put up for adoption. And, we get an inkling as to what caused Pa Salt to seek her out and adopt her as an infant. I really enjoyed reading about Izabella's life, and about her true love (who was not the man who had been arranged for her to marry.) Of course, on her adventure, it is also possible that Maia finds true love after years of being the sister who'd stayed at home. There are also sprinklings of real historical characters throughout that was very clever. I thought I'd just read one of the books and be done, but I'm already well into the second book and enjoying it as well. :-)