A boy is found, moments from death, and taken in by a kindly family. Gentle, precocious, talented, he flourishes in his new home, and the family show him a life he hadn’t dreamed possible. But he refuses to speak a word about who is really is. Now that most people have had at least a week (or 5, depending on your language) to read the seventh book, it seems like a great time to start to theorise a bit more on what comes next. In South Africa, it was the fastest-selling fiction title in the last five years. In New Zealand it became the biggest launch for a book since the release of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol in September 2009. In Australia, it shot to No.1 in the overall market. There are now 150,000 copies in print across all markets. If nothing else, the seventh book has set some very high expectations in terms of answers that readers will be expecting in the next book. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that the eighth book will make or break the whole series. If it can’t answer key questions, it takes so much away from the intrigue and suspense created earlier in the series. Or worse still, Lucinda realises that she’s left so many questions to answer that her only solution is to go down the Lost path:

He is talented carver, a skill he would have learned from his time working with Landowski - he carves Pip a piano stool from wood Ir dar pagalvokim logiškai. Ateina random žmogus į vaikų namus ir sako, aš turiu jau penkias mergaites, noriu šitos, šią nakt galiu pasiimti ją ir išskristi? O taip žinoma. Paplekšnojam per petį ir atiduodam vaiką. Tiesiog skamba idaeliai. Tikrai jokio įtarimo negali sukelti. Ir čia ne viduramžiai, o 1982metai.However, following the trend from the previous two books, we would expect Pa Salt to feel some sort of affection towards Flora - from what we’ve seen, she neither rescued nor had a relationship with him beyond being his employer. Perhaps he was just impressed by her drive to get the best for her children, no matter what? Es cierto que a veces da la sensación de que se dan demasiadas casualidades, que las cosas ocurren muy oportunamente en determinados momentos y que algunas pueden estar cogidas con pinzas, pero la verdad es que me ha dado lo mismo. He disfrutado muchísimo a lo largo de una década con estas novelas y me encanta ser parte de ese gran número de lectoras y lectores que han viajado literariamente por todo el mundo detrás del origen de todas estas hermanas y su padre adoptivo. The last time we see Pa Salt in The Seven Sisters is in December 1929, where he is still living with Landowski and Laurent in Paris.

As he grows into a young man, falling in love and taking classes at the prestigious Conservatoire de Paris, he can almost forget the terrors of his past, or the promise he has vowed to keep. But across Europe an evil is rising, and no-one's safety is certain. In his heart, he knows the time will come when he must flee once more. Sure it’s fiction. It’s a modern fairytale. But oh, boy is it badly written. Shallow characters, unrealistic dialogue, an often ridiculous storyline. Looking forward to rereading the entire series again and enjoying all of the things I know now to look out for.

Vaya despedida y vaya regalo para los lectores. Pensé que nunca conoceríamos el final y lo hemos tenido, así que gracias a Harry Whittaker por hacerlo posible, pero sobre todo a su madre, a Lucinda. Gracias por habernos regalado estas historias, por habernos hecho viajar y por haberme regalado momentos tan especiales con tus libros. This book spans roughly 80+ years and many continents, so as expected it is full of drama. I love the premise of this series and although it requires the reader to throw plausibility out the window, overall it is an entertaining series and this final installment concluded with all of my questions being answered. That being said, I struggled a bit with a few of the plot points, but even more so with the dialogue which was unrealistic and felt robotic especially in the current timeline particularly the conversations between the sisters, but I also had this issue with the dialogue in “The Missing Sister”.