4.5 stars!

Another wonderful story by Tatiana de Rosnay!

The book intertwines the story of Paris, in the midst of unimaginable flooding, and a medical crisis that develops while the Malegarde family comes together in the city for family celebrations. It starts off very simply, and gradually family secrets are revealed (and most subsequently addressed/resolved) while at the same time, the water in Paris is rising.
I found most of the family members so interesting, especially the focus on Linden (the son) and Tilia (the daughter) and their relationship. The author does a wonderful job of presenting characters who are flawed in real life ways, but also makes them realistic and capable of being likable. Some of the reveal of the secrets were a bit drawn out (ie Aunt Candy) which is why I didn't rate a full 5 stars. Also loved the role the music of David Bowie played!
Having the city of Paris as a character was also very interesting and makes me want to return (although not when there's flooding)!
Thank you to Netgalley and MacMillan for the opportunity to read The Rain Watcher in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Rain Watcher was a little slow in the beginning and took me a while to get into, The backdrop of Paris flooding was more compelling to me than some of the side emotions over the past and how each character was coping with the situation. The end felt very rushed and disjointed and while I liked the book, it definitely took concentration to read it.

I know I start a lot of these reviews saying I didn't know what to expect but with The Rain Watcher, I really didn't. The synopsis is pretty vague and with good reason. There are a lot of family secrets that come out throughout the book. Secrets about the past and secrets about the present. And all while the Malegarde family is trying to deal with these secrets and the failing health of the father, Paul, Paris is flooding, causing much of the city to be destroyed. Let's get to the review!

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
The Rain Watcher is a powerful family drama set in Paris as the Malegarde family gathers to celebrate the father's 70th birthday. Their hidden fears and secrets are slowly unraveled as the City of Light undergoes a stunning natural disaster. Seen through the eyes of charismatic photographer Linden Malegarde, the youngest son, all members of the family will have to fight to keep their unity against tragic circumstances.

Linden Malegarde is the main character and we follow him for most of the book. He is a famous photographer and is coming to Paris to have a family "vacation" of sorts. Linden makes his way to Paris, not really ecstatic about this family reunion but he figures it will just be a few days and then he can go back to work and back to his boyfriend, Sacha. But when Linden meets his family for dinner, he notices something is severely wrong with his father, Paul (Paul is famous for growing and saving trees). He looks pale and is nowhere near the commanding presence he normally is. His mother, Lauren, brushes it off as Paul just being tired, but as you can probably guess, that is not the case. #nospoilers

I say no spoilers because I want you to experience the book the way I did but it's hard to write a review for this one without spoiling it a little. So, I am going to dedicate this paragraph to a few spoilers. If you don't want to know them, skip ahead right now. Alright. One of biggest reveals is that Paul does not know Linden is gay or at least Linden doesn't think he does. He told his mother awhile ago and she did not have a good reaction, so he put off telling his father. Next spoiler: Yeah, Paul is not healthy. He has a stroke while they are having dinner and is rushed to the hospital, prolonging the family's stay in Paris. And remember...the city is flooding!! You can guess the kind of issues this brings up. During this time, with Paul health not improving Linden decides to come out to his dad while he is still lucid and conscious. You'll have to read the book to find out how it turns out.

Ok, spoilers done. Back to the rest of the story.

Linden also has a complicated relationship with Paris. He grew up there. He came out there. He had some awful experiences there and we are shown a lot of them as he goes through the city looking at the damage the flood is making. All of these scenes are very emotional and you really get sucked into this story because of how strong Linden's voice is throughout the story. Tatiana De Rosnay did a beautiful job creating his character. I had to remind myself that I didn't actually know him.

Linden is also dealing with his father's health and the flood alongside his sister, Tilia. She is a brash woman who has not had the life she dreamed of. She was in a car accident when she was younger where she was the only survivor, she is on her second husband who turned out to be a raging alcoholic, and now her father is in failing health. She is scared of going to the hospital when Paul falls ill so she spends most of the time with their mother, Lauren. Lauren comes down with pneumonia almost right after Paul goes into the hospital. So it's just Linden and Tilia trying to hold things together, all while the government is trying to figure out what the hell to do about the flooding.

Interspersed between the chapters about Linden's family and the flood are short bits of narrative about what seems to be an idyllic childhood that goes wrong. You might think these are Linden telling a story from his childhood. You might be wrong. #nospoilers

We, sadly, don't get much interaction between Linden and Sacha but we do get Linden's description of him. How much he misses him, how much he wishes he was there with him, how he immediately knew Sacha was special when they first met. Those pieces are my favorite happy bits in this book. I wish there were a few more.

The Rain Watcher by Tatiana De Rosnay is an emotional and, at times, suspenseful family drama that highlights the city of Paris and Vénozan where Linden's parents live. It's a brilliant juxtaposition to have the story set mainly in Paris, a city that is viewed by most of the world as an idyllic place and then to have such destruction and most of Linden's sad memories take place there. The same goes for Vénozan. It is described as this incredibly beautiful natural land with lime trees and gorgeous scenery but not all is what it seems there either.

I completely enjoyed this story. I did think it wrapped up a little too quickly. I wanted more but overall, I would read this book again just to go back to this world and live in Linden's past and present. I am giving The Rain Watcher 3.5 out of 5 stars. If any of what I've written sounds interesting to you, please check this book out.

The Rain Watcher by Tatian De Rosnay comes out October 23, 2018.

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a new author for me and I was pleasantly surprised and excited to find a new writer to follow ! If you like to read about family and all of the underlying issues that go along with most families, you’ll love this. Every time I said I will close the book after this chapter, I found myself staying up late to get to the next chapter I would definitely recommend this !

I was so excited to get this book as I loved her previous novels. Unfortunately this one was a DNF for me at 40% in. I just could not stay with the story. Too much detail about the flood and rain. I wanted more from the characters.

verall, I enjoyed this book! It was a bit slow to start for me, and I thought parts of it were a bit disjointed. But overall it was a solid read, with some wonderfully descriptive passages. There were some flaws - I would have liked to hear more about the trees and Linden's father. Using the flooding as the backdrop to the story had it's purpose, but it also felt like a bit of a distraction that at times overshadowed the family dynamic and their story. Multiple "sub-storylines" for each of the characters were scattered throughout the book, but they didn't ever quite connect into the main story like they could have. However, I really enjoyed Linden's character and his role as the narrator, and that basically saved the book for me. So, bottom line: decent read; not earth-shattering, but a good story with some great imagery and a wonderful character in Linden.

The Seine is flooding, and the rain continues. A family is gathered in Paris, when the continuous rain causes the Seine to rise to historic depths and threatens to derail the celebration of the father's 70th birthday..

I read this EARC courtesy of NetGalley and St.Martin's Press. pub date 10/23/18

de Rosnay writes beautiful sad and powerful stoires. You can feel the characters sadness and struggle.

Linden is a very unique character. I loved how he came to understand his father even if it wasn't for very long.

There was a lot of tradegy if in this story for all of the characters. I feel that the flooding of Paris was a metaphor for the flooding of emotions that Linden deals with in this week or so that the story takes place in.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press.

I thought this was a well written, well paced book. All the characters were multi-layered and through the story, their stories were revealed. I good read.

I teetered between 3 and 4 stars......the ending sealed it. It felt abrupt and unfinished. I felt the author tried to showcase her extensive vocabulary. I can only hope that the passages at the beginning of the long chapters will be translated to English. I felt I missed so much not being able to read them.

Sarah’s Key is one of my all time favorite books, so I wanted to love this book. I will still read this author.

Others have done the synopsis of the story so I won't bother you with that. I was really looking forward to this as I had enjoyed Sarah's Key so much. This book just didn't do it for me. Can't say I would recommend.

A sad tale of the Malegarde family and the flooding of Paris, France. The Malegarde family consist of father Paul, mother Lauren, daughter Tilia, son Linden.

Linden is a world famous photographer who has never told his world-renowned arborist father that he is gay. The family have gathered in Paris to celebrate a birthday and an anniversary when Paul suffers a stroke during an unprecedented rainfall that floods Paris.

The writing lets you picture the devastation of Paris, the wonder of Paul's estate trees, the photographs Linden has taken. You can feel the emotional impact of life and weather events.

It is not a happy story but it is so well written that it deserves the 5/5 rating.

From the author of the haunting book, Sarah’s Key, The Rain Watcher unfolds in Paris over days of unrelenting rain and flooding. The immediate members of the Malegarde family have converged to celebrate their father’s 70th birthday. The grown brother and sister have left their own loved ones for a short celebratory weekend that turns into days of surprising revelations, tragedy and finally love.

The characters are portrayed in their most fragile moments adding a unique poignancy to their individual narratives. This compelling story takes you into the Malegarde family’s deepest secrets and insecurities and I dare you to put it down.

I have liked some her other books but found this one a little tough to get into.. Love the setting and the writing but story left something to be desired.

This book attempts to do too much and ends up accomplishing little. There are numerous loose ends and many unanswered questions, but it didn't really matter because I was not at all concerned with the welfare or future of the cardboard cutout characters.

The setting, Paris during a historic flood, is an overly clunky metaphor - it would have been much more interesting if it was an anchor for the storytelling.

There are two things that also felt just plain 'icky' to me: the deliberate coyness regarding Sacha's gender in the beginning and the ultimate reveal of Paul's true tree origin story (so, so icky).

Having previously read Sarah‘s Key I was looking forward to this next novel set in Paris. The tone was different as the POV was the 37-year-old son who was coming to terms with the relationship he had with each of his parents. The backdrop of a Paris in crisis as the Seine reaches epic flood levels only heightened the ominous feeling of peril that the characters were facing with the patriarch’s health crisis.

Oh my goodness! I don’t know what to think! I want to write a review about this book while everything is sharp in my mind; while at the same time, I want to just go sit and think about it for a bit. This book is so very different from the author’s very popular novel “Sarah’s Key”. It’s as different as Elizabeth Gilbert’s first two novels—of which I also loved both. Or as different as JK Rowling’s HP series and “Casual Vacancy”. What is the same and obvious in both of de Rosnay’s novels is her command of words with the ability to enable the reader to feel the characters’ souls. Wow! I need to think for a bit.

I can’t stop thinking about this book. I’ve just raised my rating from 4 to 5 stars. It’s genius!

Thank you, Ms de Rosnay, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC free of charge.

The Rain Watcher by Tatiana de Rosnay
As I loved Sarah’s Key by the same author, I was excited to get this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately this book was a great disappointment for me. A family gathers in Paris for the father’s Paul’s 70 th birthday and Paul’s and his wife’s wedding anniversary. They live in France, about 6 hours away from Paris. Their son, Linden comes from San Francisco, their daughter, Tilia with her daughter from London. While in Paris, the Seine is rising to historically high proportions, causing flooding and a total disruption of life, without electricity, transportation, food availability, etc. Paul has a stroke during the birthday dinner and is hospitalized. This is the whole premise of the book, how the family copes with both the flood and illness, how they relate to each other, etc. There is also back flash’s giving the reader background information on the protagonists.
There is another totally different story line about Suzanne, which I couldn’t understand at all. I would love someone to explain it to me. The story is told from Linden’s point of view, and he is the only character I could sympathize with. Overall, disappointing, can’t give it more than 2 stars.
Thanks NetGalley, St Martin’s press, and Tatiana de Rosnay for the advanced copy.

Set in Paris during a stunning natural disaster “The Rain Watcher is a drama that slowly unfolds the Malegarde’s family secrets. Paul and Lauren Malegarde are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary and Paul 70th birthday with their two adult children but unfortunately the reunion doesn’t go as planned. The streets of Paris are waterlogged and the Seine is still rising at a rapid pace amongst the chaos sickness is at the family door…..

The atmosphere in Paris is dark: electricity is out, it is cold: no one has heat and everything is wet: water is still rising and flooding basements: one catastrophe after the other is at everyone’s door. While everything is going haywire in the city of lights, Linden, the Malegarde youngest son analyses and critics his relationships with each member of his family in a very moving tone. His narration is the heart of this story.

This is a story of love and redemption where everyone has withheld something. Secrets… sounds intriguing but what a letdown, as it moves along in an snail pace, the story soon goes in random directions and becomes repetitive. There are a lot of dots to connect but don’t try to do so, you will be questioning yourself wondering if you missed a point... Most of the book is about the flood but I failed to match this with the family saga. Was this story about the hardship of the flood or the family reunion gone badly?

Finally, this family with a dysfunctional background slowly reveals their secrets: memories trigger a deluge of emotions in its members….and bonds finally tightens but is it too late…..

More thoughts:

Although the writing is fluid and all the descriptions of Paris in the rain are wonderful, unfortunately, despite Ms. De Rosnay great writing skills and beautiful descriptions, I never really got into this book; I found it long and devoid of suspense. The story is bland, the characters without consistency, I was bored and had trouble finishing the book.... in short, a colorless novel, odorless and tasteless….Not Ms. De Rosnay best….

Really intense story. Family gathering in Paris.. many past stories come together with the story of a massive flood in Paris. Great read!