Having read Sarah's Key, de Rosnay's earlier work, I was excited to read The Rain Watcher.
I was not disappointed.

Family drama and natural disaster... makes for a page turner. Linden, the central character, is the only son of Paul Malegarde, a world renowned arborist. The family, including Linden's mother Lauren and his older sister Tilia, are together in Paris to celebrate Paul's 70th birthday. At the celebratory dinner, Paul suddenly collapses and is taken to the hospital.

Unprecedented rains in Paris cause the Seine to jump its banks and flooding begins...and does not relent, eventually flooding even the hospital where Paul had been taken. At the same time, Lauren falls ill... Linden & Tilia get along like sister and brother... bumpy.

Family secrets unfold amid the harrowing flooding of the City of Light.

An excellent read...though I was let down by the ending - perhaps wanting a bit more closure.

I will start out by saying I very much liked this book but I wasn’t blind to it’s flaws. Strange absences of storylines are scattered throughout and there isn’t always an obvious reason for that. That being said the characters were worth investing in and the writing style was gorgeous. I would recommend it to specific friends but not for every one.

I really enjoyed this book. I think it will be a big hit when it is published. Very well written and character development

The Malegarde family reunites in Paris for the father's 70th birthday. The family has lots of secrets and are not a close family. The Siene river overflows and causes a terrible flooding situation and the family has to work together to try and survive. This is a story of family and the secrets that tear them apart. Also it is a story of a family's love above all else. I received an advanced readers copy from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press. All opinions are my own.

The Rain Watcher by Tatiana de Rosnay is focused on a family’s life long secrets and tragedies. The family gathers to celebrate and everything falls apart due to illnesses and a natural disaster. The book focuses on everyone‘s personal problems and how much they care for each other despite these problems. Nice thoughts but not very entertaining. I persisted reading hoping something would change to make it worthwhile. Unfortunately the story continued the same way and the ending was disappointing because it did not connect all the storylines. I have enjoyed Tatiana de Rosnay‘s other books and hope to read more in the future. My thanks to the author, the publisher and netgalley for making this book available to me to read and review.

I have enjoyed all of de Rosnay's books until this one. The other novels move along and are peopled with interesting characters. I did not find that to be the case for The Rain Watcher. It was slow, plodding and had too many backstories popping in. It was, in my opinion, written to be lyrical rather than engrossing

The story line is richly interwoven amidst the drenching rain flooding the Seine in Paris as the reader discovers the history of a family and the heartbreak and tragedies that shape who we are. This is by no means depressing, although you can almost feel the never ending rain as the author describes in exquisite detail the Paris catastrophe. I’ve read de Rosnay’s prior novels and I admire her ability as an author to captivate the reader with her beautiful writing and also to create a lasting impact. Highly recommend this novel!

A family drama with great characters. The descriptions of Paris were evocative and as usual De Rosney provides the senses with taste, sounds and sights of Paris.

Well written, based around a 70th Birthday family reunion in Paris at a time when the city is under siege from the weather and major flooding.
Linden, the son and the main protagonist flies in from the U.S, a photo journalist, he’s quickly drawn into the escalating drama of the floods mirroring the ongoing family drama.

THE RAIN WATCHER by Tatiana de Rosnay is a story of the force of nature and the power of family. I loved the author’s previous novel, SARAH’S KEY, and was very excited to read her latest book. Although well-written and atmospheric, I found I was never as engaged with this story as I was with SARAH’S KEY. This novel is set in present day Paris as the unrelenting rain is causing catastrophic flooding, nearly paralyzing the city and its suburbs. With the massive flood as a backdrop, the author tells the story of a complicated and somewhat dysfunctional family that has come together in Paris to celebrate the father Paul’s 70th birthday and the parents’ wedding anniversary. Each family member is harboring haunting memories, buried secrets and lasting regrets that are gradually revealed as the story unfolds. It is told mostly from son, Linden’s point of view, but there are a few of Paul’s remembrances of the past events woven in. The descriptions of the setting are so vivid, I felt like I was there with the family. However, I found it difficult to connect emotionally to any of the characters and the plot seemed a bit disjointed to me. I recommend this book for fans of a more melancholy and atmospheric family drama. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read an early copy.

Now this is a story that completely englufs you in the same way as the rain surrounded the Malegarde family. The Rain Watcher is one of those unique stories you savor reading and you don't wish to end. Thoroughly enjoyed Tatiana de Rosnay's world of rain and secrets. Highly recommend The Rain Watcher!

This book felt like a slight departure from past books by Ms. de Rosnay. I felt like a different voice could be heard in the pages. None the less, I did like the story. It was centered around a family coming to Paris to celebrate the father's 70th birthday. Each person in the family has been harboring secrets for many years. Over the course of the story, they are revealed, and at the same time, we get a closer look at each family member and their dynamic. She kept an atmosphere of foreboding throughout, it kept me reading, because I wanted to find out what was going to happen. The descriptions of Paris during the terrible flooding were very vivid.

I liked this book very much, but I didn't love it. What I liked was the softly flowing prose that drew me in like a river and bore me along on the tide. It's the story primarily of a young gay photographer, Linden Malagarde, and his father, Paul, who's dying of a stroke in Paris during an apocalyptic flood. The fact that it was told in present tense made the details very immediate.

But there's a drawback to present tense too. I found that the story stayed "shallow," for the most part, although the pace of the novel picked up hugely in the last third, as Linden races back to his family home in the south of France to try to find something for his dying father.

I liked the portrayal of Linden and the story is gay-positive. But I found that certain strands went unexplored: his mother's other relationship, for example, which is revealed and then brushed away. And the story of Paul's trauma vis a vis Suzanne is not really fleshed out that well. It does explain Paul's lifelong silence with his children and his love of trees -- but somehow, I wanted more.

The ending is far too sudden; there should have been an epilogue. And I would have liked to have seen Linden and Sasha, his boyfriend, have one private scene together.

I put the book down for a long time and it was easy to get back into the swing of it when I picked it up again. Some people obviously love it. And de Rosnay's writing style is certainly mesmerizing.

I also noticed a few awkward words on occasion. I'm not sure if it was written in French and translated or just gone over by an editor....

I'm glad to have read the book, but it didn't ultimately impact me on a deep level. Still, sometimes you just want a pleasurable and interesting read. And I like de Rosnay's sensibility. I think, in her novels, she lets herself go a bit, which I can understand and be sympathetic to.

Read it if you want to be lulled, but not bored :)

I tried. I really, really tried, but I just didn't like this book. I couldn't connect with any of the characters. I couldn't relate to any of them. The entire tone of this book is somber and depressing, both the present and the past, nothing redeeming or happy or any resolution for the characters and their relationships with each other and with others. Plus, the way the book is written, with ZERO dialogue, instead everything told in narrative form and jumping around at times so that it was hard to follow, made it monotonous and so hard for me to read.

There is too much family history and too many secrets trying to be woven into one short family trip set against the background of a natural disaster and it's just too confusing and too much.

What is the thing with Suzanne?? It's hinted at throughout the book, though, since the book is mainly told from Linden's perspective, the reader is led to believe it has to do with him instead of his father and then when it's revealed that it has to do with Paul, there is ZERO resolution or explanation about it and what it has to do with any of the rest of the book. The foundation is there for a great story with that, but since it's hardly dealt with, it should have just been left out completely, especially since the focus of the book appears to be all about Linden being gay and never having told his father that he is and then when he does, his father reacts by telling him he has to go find the box in the tree at home that leads to his revelation about Suzanne, which still has nothing to do with the rest of the book and Paul's stroke and love of David Bowie's music.

The connections between just everything in this book were just nonexistent, when there were so many aspects with huge potential and then they just jumped to other areas that had nothing to do with anything else. I would start to be drawn in with certain aspects of the story and then it would be one huge long sentence or paragraph of Linden recounting conversations with no actual dialogue. Even Tilia's tragedy from her youth and her two disastrous marriages aren't developed enough to lend much to the story and bring the reader any connection to her and even to Mistral, her daughter, who is a great character but not brought into the story enough to help it along any better. Plus, what did the setting of flooding Paris have to do what anything - that needed more connection that was left empty, other than for it to be a setting for Linden's horrible memories from growing up there??

The heartbreak expressed about Linden's aunt Candice and his youth and coming of age and his photography and his wanting a better relationship with his father (other than the beautifully done but too short section of Linden following Paul to Versailles after the storm to try to save the tree and the famous photograph that came from that experience) could have been so much more and really made this book incredible, but it fell so short by trying to jump around and hint at the mystery of Suzanne that then is never even resolved or explained or dealt with (other than saying what happened to her and who did it). Even Linden's rush home to get the box and his time in his childhood home and interactions with the gardener are well done and then rush back to Paris, and then it falls short yet again. de Rosnay, in my opinion, just needed to focus on the family's struggles to relate to one another instead of trying to weave in the "mystery" and build the story there when every other focus of her writing was on the present and not the past.

There is so much time spent on Linden seeing the flooding of Paris and his photography, the descriptions of which are well done, then everything else in this story is just all over the place so that I was left going "huh???" I struggled to have the desire to pick up this book to keep reading and finally just had to force myself to finish so that I could be done with it and move on to something else, which is a huge disappointment because of <i>Sarah's Key</i>, which was much more interesting with better characters, better dialogue, and a much more well-developed plot and story line and the tie-ins between the past and present. Instead, this latest book from de Rosnay just fell completely flat for me. I really wish I had better things to say about it, but it just didn't work for me. I read several reviews here on Goodreads where people loved it, so it may work for many people. Sadly, it just didn't for me.

I received an advance copy of The Rain Watcher and was excited to see the author Tatiana de Rosnay had written Sarah's Key....a great book that was very well received in the film of the same name.

Family dynamics, secrets and conflicts are common to us all but when a family is forced to stay together when a natural disaster occurs, tensions and emotions become heightened.

A so we meet the Malegarde family in Paris for their fathers birthday. Their father suffers a stroke while out for the birthday dinner and so the story of how the family cope with this.....each in their own ways, is told through our lead character Linden.

The title hints at the backdrop; Paris in the grips of the Seine in flood, bought about while endless rain. Linden does get out and about and through his photographer eyes, we see the city in crisis. But at the same time, his family is also is crisis. Secrets are discovered, angry words said and strength gathered.

Being a keen gardener, I enjoyed the references to trees and it dawned on me that just like a tree, strength comes from our roots just as a trees does.

I also enjoyed he Parisian streets written about and a rich picture of the cities layout was provided.

I did however find the story very slow in places and found myself skim reading large tracts where childhood memories were explored. A very gentle story and possibly a little to much so for me.

Thanks #NetGalley #StMartin'sPress

I received an free advanced copy of this book through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
This was not my favorite book for many reasons. The first one I faced was the writing. It kept me engaged for the first half of the book so I didn't recognize it until the reading became more tedious. This story doesn't invite you in to become a part of the story. It felt more like you were overhearing a conversation about a persons weekend. Instead of experiencing the story you are merely told what happened and the gist of the conversations.
Another stumbling block that I found was so many places and dates. Dates seemed to be stressed in an odd way when really they had no bearing on the story at all. The details of which streets were being walked down or seen around Paris was probably a nice detail for those familiar with Paris. Not being one of those people I had to wade through a lot of directions that meant nothing for me.
I was asked to give an honest review and I don't want to discourage others from reading it. I really was an alright story. It kept me engaged, if not in the writing and details, in the characters. I did enjoy the story of this man being brought back with his slightly estranged family and mending fences.
Am I sorry I read this one? No. Would I want to read it again? No

This book was compellingly different from the author’s very popular novel “Sarah’s Key”. I enjoyed this book, it definitely is comparable to something that would happen in real life-- complex families., relationships etc. What was most appealing to me was the very specific detail and descriptions.

This novel is about a dysfunctional family (what family isn't?) gathering for a reunion with the backdrop of Paris and bad weather. Disaster abounds, and we move through family drama and relationships. The author does a great job of painting the setting and atmosphere.

I had very high expectations from this author as I loved her last book but for me this was a sad, tedious story of a family reunion in Paris as a major flood hits the city. All of the characters have secrets that need to be shared before it is too late but all seem to have a lot of trouble in really facing and sharing these truths. As the flood crisis worsens and illness strikes, the aging father and mother are forced to rely on their adult children. With no electricity, no heat and Paris a disaster zone, the narrator of the story, Linden, a famous photographer, seeks to save his family despite the revelations that each member is struggling to come to terms with and to move on from. The descriptions of Paris in a crisis is beautifully written and the words the author uses just flow beautifully but the story is simply too sad and just not interesting enough to sustain my interest. The book is a reflection of the gloom that surrounds Paris in a natural disaster situation.

I found this book difficult, slow and certainly not in the least joyful or hopeful in any way. Having just finished a light but truly delightful story of Paris that made me yearn for a return to Paris, this book was plodding, sad and I couldn’t wait to escape from this family and their secrets. Very disappointing.

I already posted this to Goodreads and Facebook on 08/17/2018!
I gave it a 3star rating.

“I just reviewed The Rain Watcher by Tatiana de Rosnay#The Rain Watcher#NetGalley. I normally really like her books but was a little disappointed by this one. The book happens as the Seine in Paris floods for a couple of weeks and paralizes the city and some of the adjoining towns. It’s an interesting family. The son and only heir leaves home to live with his aunt who understands him. The rain and flooding finally stops. So does the book.”