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The Pearl Sister - Lucinda Riley

Its unfailingly interesting how Lucinda Riley takes the main mythological characteristics of each star of the Seven Sisters of Pleiades and uses it to create complex and likable characters. Though, it must have been no mean feat to write about Celaeno (CeCe to us, dear readers) who is known as the 'swarthy' or 'melon' of the constellation. Yes, I'm sure there is a perfectly respectable mythological elaboration on these characteristics, but I think we can all agree its not as epic as Maia's beauty or  Alcyone's leadership. Like her closest sister Asterope (remember the previous book about Star?), Celaeno is also known as less luminous than the other brighter stars of the constellation. This pretty much reflects our CeCe's view of herself in comparison to her other sisters, particularly Star.
Which is probably why CeCe's story is the most exotic of the lot thus far. We've been to Brazil for Maia, Scandinavia for Ally and then to England for Star - but none were quite as culturally fascinating as CeCe's story which takes us way back into the Outback (see what I did there?!) and across the Never Never and other places of less equally cool names. CeCe's ancestry is part Aboriginal and along with it comes the rich influences of the people of the land Australia, ironically one of the few places that she did not want to visit as a traveler. True to her spontaneous nature, the book takes us on a journey that starts in Thailand after she dejectedly leaves Star in England to find a life of her own and its here that she meets the mysterious Ace. Thereafter off we go to Australia where she finally understands the clue that Pa Salt left her and more importantly, herself.
This author truly has a gift for story telling and her research must take her all over the world to truly assimilate different cultures into each characters past - tough work I'm sure..
We await Tiggy's story coming in autumn 2018 with bated breath.
*Book sponsored by Pan Macmillan

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The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett

An enticingly fat book (nerd alert), you know you're about to read something epic when the book in question has inspired not only a TV series, but also a video game. Written in the 1970's, to add to its illustrious accomplishments this book has been on various best seller lists for long stretches of time.
The writing itself reminded me of traditional male story writing - Terry Goodkind, Robert Jordan etc, though there is no sign of sci-fi or fantasy in this book. Part of the fiction genre, its the first installment of the Kingsbridge trilogy that narrates the building of a cathedral superimposed over the trials and tribulations in the lifetimes of several protagonists - Prior Philip; Aliena; Ellen and Jack; Tom Builder and the despicable William Hamleigh.
The central topic of the book is the building of the cathedral at the Kingsbridge Priory and the lives of many characters are indirectly impacted by its construction. I would imagine that Follett must have researched the architectural trends of that time (12th century) in great depth as the most poetic descriptions in the book are about the architecture of various buildings and most centrally, the cathedral itself.
This book deepened the dark rings around my eyes as I could not put it down, its reputation as one of Britains great reads well worth the honour. Its succeeded by World Without End, and most recently, A Column of Fire.
*Book sponsored by Pan Macmillan