Simona's Corner of Dreams: The Santiago Sisters

Wednesday, 3 August 2016

The Santiago Sisters - by Victoria Fox

Original Cover

My own copy

The blurb:

Bound by blood. Separated by scandal.

Growing up on a ranch in Patagonia, twins Calida and Terisita Santiago have never known a world without each other. Introverted Calida can’t imagine life anywhere else but feisty Terisita dreams of fame and fortune.

World-famous English actress Simone Geddes believes that her profile would benefit from a PR boost and has decided to adopt. A potential family has been identified in Argentina and Simone and her team are en route to a meeting when her driver takes a wrong turn and she ends up at the Santiago ranch. There she becomes enchanted by the beautiful 14 year old Terisita and makes an offer to Julia, the sisters’ mother who has struggled to cope since the death of her husband.

Without either twin knowing the truth, Terisita is whisked to a life of luxury in London with Simone. Soon her old life in Argentina is nothing but a distant memory and all she feels is hatred towards the sister who she believes abandoned her. Meanwhile Calida tries to understand how her beloved sister could have turned her back on them and left without a word.

As the years pass, where the sisters were once connected by love, now it is a shared hatred that fuels them as each one vows revenge…

The Santiago Sisters is a story of the love, loyalty and betrayal which run through the lives of the rich and famous.

My Opinion:

*Book provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

The book is split into four distinct parts and tells the story oft he Santiago sisters. It covers their childhood and the whole life after that. Calida and Terisita grow up on a ranch in Argentina. The twins couldn’t be more different, Calida is introverted and shy. Terisita is the opposite. The girls don’t have an easy childhood and especially Calida suffers a lot.

When Simone Geddes, a famous actress, comes and adopts Terisita live changes dramatically for both of them. They are both told lies as well, which makes the situation more complicated.

Terisita grows up in England and has a luxurious life, spends time in Cannes and later in the states. Calida’s mother leaves her when she is old enough to manage the farm herself. Daniel is there for her, but she soon wants to have more and leaves. Life takes her to New York eventually…

The sisters think about each other, but it’s always connected to betrayal or even hate. A lot of things happen in their lives, mostly connected to love, romance, work and friendship. There are a lot of characters in this story, too many for my taste. Sometimes the perspectives between the characters changed abruptly and you never knew whether it’s a character to remember or not. I really struggled with that. It’s kind of hard to focus on the story like that. I also felt like the story moved really fast at times, years passed and lots of things happened out of context, certain things were jumped. Some moments and scenes also didn’t make sense to me at all. They were part of the story, but not well integrated in the storyline. I had difficulties understanding some decisions the characters made as well.

I kind of had an idea about the outcome pretty soon, but was always told otherwise, which made the story more interesting. In the end I was right though ;).

I really like the idea and concept behind the story. I think it’s also a great idea to split the book into four parts. It’s an intriguing story about sisters, who clearly have a bond, but they have to find their way through jealousy, betrayal, drama, misunderstandings and more. Victoria Fox’s writing has sparks and excitement and I really liked that.

Rating: