Book Review – The Storm Sister

This is the second in a series where Pa Salt, reminiscent of GUM in Ballet Shoes, collects babies and sends them home – to his “palace” in Geneva.

Now Pa Salt is deceased (maybe), leaving each daughter clues about her real parentage. Ally is The Storm Sister, an accomplished sailor and musician. Her clues take her to Norway and we discover more about her passions and possible ancestry, including Edvard Grieg, and the conception of the music behind Peer Gynt.

The history is well researched and the story flips between 1894 and 2007 without missing a beat. However, the dialogue started jarring with me. Nothing was ringing true, and I found myself looking for errors, not reading for pleasure. The characters seemed trite, too many clichés and everything fitted too neatly into the predictable plot.

Perhaps churning out a book a year, each starting in the same point but told from a different perspective is too much for a busy author? I enjoyed The Seven Sisters, but these 700 pages were a significant time investment that showed a poor return in enjoyment value.