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!

The Rain Watcher by Tatiana de Rosnay is anything but dreary despite the never ending rain and flooding that descend upon Paris just as the Malegarde family arrives for a family celebration. Disaster strikes the family not only with the weather conditions and flooding but also with the health of the parents.
There were some endless details about the rain and flooding, but these descriptions weren’t as distracting as the constant references to Paris landmarks, streets, and neighborhoods—all in French. I might have had a bit more patience with these details if I had a bit more familiarity with the setting; sadly, I do not. I got to where I did a bit of skimming when places (in French) were included.
The tense story that develops between Linden (the narrator), his sister Tilia, and their parents Lauren and Paul kept me turning the pages and slogging through the flooded Paris setting to see if/how these alienated characters would reconcile.
Some unfinished or unnecessary plot lines kept me from giving The Rain Watcher more stars: the mother’s alleged affair with a former lover and Suzette, Linden’s childhood caretaker. In fact, the reason for Linden’s trip to his parents’ home from Paris at his father’s request left me with more questions than closure. I’m still not sure of the meaning as Linden’s discovery doesn’t seem to be fully revealed.
Thank you to NetGallt for the digital ARC.

I wanted to love this book because I love de Rosnay but I wasn't satisfied in the end. Linden the main character who is telling the story, I felt was so bottled up in his own life that he didn't take the time to talk with him father or really be involved with his family.
The ending I didn't really understand. I felt we didn't get enough information as to what was in the box, what had happened. I believe it is part of his father Paul's story of why he loved trees so much but I may need to read it through again to know for sure.
A good story line, but it took a long time to get where it was going.

Thank you for the free ARC. I always like de Rosnay's books and this one did not disappoint. In short, a family reunion leads to new revelations in flooded Paris.

Like so many others, I loved Sarah’s Key and have read all of the subsequent Tatiana de Rosnay books in hopes that they would measure up to that amazing novel. None have, including this one. I was so disappointed with The Rain Watcher that it might well be the last of hers that I read. I hardly know where to begin. The descriptions of the flood in Paris gave an atmosphere of the world closing in on the characters and was really well done except that it went into far too much detail, and with far too much repetition, of the streets, buildings and areas of Paris that for those of us not familiar with the city, just seemed to be LOT of white noise and I ended up skimming those pieces. The characters themselves seemed to trudge through their lives, going over and over the same themes. By the time any of them opened up about their secrets, I had lost interest. I kept on, however, knowing that a surprising resolution might be lurking around the next page. When I got to the end, however, I felt totally let down. Neither of the story lines (there are two) felt fully resolved.

I want to thank NetGallery, the publisher and the author for allowing me to have this ARC to read and review.