I was drawn into this story immediately. The subject matter is timely with the storms and natural disasters occurring weekly around the world. The writing is excellent and the characters are so well developed that it felt like I was reading a memoir. It’s a great reminder of how deeply self absorbed we can become that we completely miss what is going on in the lives of people to whom we are closest.

As an aside I also learned some new vocabulary words from this author! Can’t wait for her next book.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an early release in exchange for an honest review.

I was a little confused with this book. I had a hard time following the story and was lost in most of it. For me this was not a good read which disappointed me as I have head great things about this author.

This book did not work for me. I was a fan of Sarah's Key and was excited to read more of her work. But, this was a very disappointing read for me. I think there were too many characters that I didn't connect with...I abandoned at around 50%.

This is a slow plodding family story that ambles along. There's not much drama or confrontation which makes the book a bit of a bore and chore to read.

Generally speaking, this book has everything I like in adult fiction. Its set in contemporary Paris, though it feels a bit historical fiction-ish and is the story of a French/American family that gathers for the birthday celebration of the Father. What should have been a nice quiet reunion with a not-so-close family turns into a series of chaotic situations: A natural disaster occurs (the rain and flooding of Paris was almost a secondary character), illness hits the family, family secrets are revealed ...
I quite liked it as it was fast paced and generally a satisfying story - I really liked the male narrator Linden. But... so much happened so quickly and so many new stories were introduced all the way into the last quarter of the book that it almost became too much. Still a good one.

Tatiana de Rosnay’s 11th novel is “The Rain Watcher” (St. Martin’s Press) tells the story of the Malegarde family: Linden, a world-renowned photographer, his mother Lauren and sister Tilia as well as his father Paul. The family meets in Paris to celebrate his father’s 70th birthday on to have Paul suffer a stroke in the midst of days of torrential rain soak the city, causing flooding never before experienced. The days spent together bring out resentments and stories never told as well as the realization that we shouldn’t always wait to say what’s in our hearts.

After reading Sarah's Key several years ago and falling in love with that book I looked forward to reading this story by the same author. Tatiana de Rosnay really knows how to pack an atmospheric punch. Rain,rain go away come again another day. The steadily falling rain is persistent in this family drama with the family all meeting in Paris for a reunion to celebrate the father's seventieth birthday.
The family with have to weather reconciliation, love and loss set amidst an unthinkable natural disaster in Paris as the Seine bursts its banks and floods the city.
Pub Date 30 Oct 2018
I was given a complimentary copy of this book from St. Martin's Press through NetGalley. Thank you. All opinions expressed are my own.

What starts out as a gathering of the Malegarde immediate family (no spouses or children invited) for a double celebration of Paul’s 70th birthday as well as the parents 40th anniversary in Paris turns into a debacle of the worst kind. As Paris is dealing with one of the worst floods (perhaps the worst flood) in their lifetime the father has a stroke and is hospitalized and the mother is bedridden with the flu leaving the two adult children to handle everything under dire circumstances. Needless to say long held secrets are exposed and amends are attempted to be made. The best part of the book for me were the descriptions of the flooding in Paris as well as the description of the trees (the only thing Paul truly cared about and could relate to-even naming his two children after particular trees). The ending left me cold almost like de Rosnay didn’t know how to end it so just threw this ending in.

This is my first book by Tatiana de Rosnay, but it will certainly not be my last. She is a great writer, painting vivid scenes and descriptive experiences. This is a well written family drama set in Paris while the city is being flooded by the River Seine. The story focuses on the reunion of the Malegarde family, where nothing goes according to plan. It's a thought provoking read that takes a look into marriage, family, and the wisdom of trees. I would definitely recommend this story.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Rain Watcher is not my favorite of Tatiana De Rosnay's novels. It is an interesting story told about a family who has never been able to share personal feelings, now faced with illness and the rising water of the 2016 Paris flood, finds ways to open up and share long hidden fears, hurts and resentments.

Set against the backdrop of the Paris flood with newscasts and very descriptive narration of the rising water comparing this flood to the Paris flood of 1910, we meet the Malegarde family. Linden is the famous photographer and son to Lauren and Paul. Lauren , married at an early age to Paul, who has become famous for his love of trees. Known as the "Treeman", he travels the world trying to save tress that come in the path of progress. Paul had told his son, "What do the trees tell me? Everything. ...
They tell me what lies under their roots, in the thickness of their leaves. That's why we need trees to understand the world. Trees are living encyclopedias. They give us the keys."

Lauren was a young girl traveling with her sister Candice, from Boston, when she met Paul. She married him and moved to the quiet and distant homestead of Venozan between the villages of Nyons and Sevral, a six hour drive from Paris. Each family member has secrets they have been harboring for years. As the flood waters rise and Paris is evacuated, Linden, his sister, Tilia and the parents slowly unravel and face their long buried fears to bring the family together and face the turmoil that is happening both within the family and around them with the weather.

Though the main plot should be the focus of the family and their relationship and interactions, the book is mainly focused on the flooding of Paris. It is interesting historically, but I thought it should take on more of a background role in the novel.

n case you ever wondered if I will not warmly embrace a book – especially one that I was asked to review (that means I got it free) – this review will be the proof.

I hate to give reviews that are not positive for three reasons. The first is that the author poured his/her soul into writing a book and I hate to say that the book just didn’t do it for me. The second reason is that you could have a totally different opinion. The last reason is, why would I waste your time reading a book review about a book that I didn’t like? There are so many books that I like and can share with you.

So I have some ambiguous feelings about this book. Let’s get on with the review, huh?

The Rain Watcher takes place in Paris. Not sunny, romantic Paris but a Paris that is flooding. Linden and his family meet in Paris to celebrate his parent’s 40th anniversary and his father’s 70th birthday. Linden grew up in France. He is a famous photographer who now lives in San Francisco with Sacha. Through the story, we find out about his life and losses. Linden has an older sister, Tilia, who is married to an alcoholic art expert. She has a daughter, Mistral, who seems more mature than her mother. (Her daughter is not the art expert’s daughter.)

Linden’s mother is an American. She was traveling in France when she was 19 and met Linden’s father, Paul. She never went home. They fell in love and have been together since the day they met. Paul is a famous “treeman”. He travels the world to save notable trees. Paul’s family has owned Venozan estate for generations which is where Linden grew up until his teens when he moved to Paris to live with his aunt.

During the story, we learn why Linden moved to Paris as a teen, how his photography career started and about his relationships with his parents and his sister. Interspersed there are chapters that (okay, it took me a little while to figure this out) are from Linden’s father. I would say to you that it is a bit hard to follow these parts. You have to put the pieces together that Linden’s sister is older, but that Paul’s sister is younger. I did not see any way to distinguish the Paul sections from the Linden sections, BUT it could be because I was reading an advanced copy. (There were some formatting issues and typos that are probably fixed in the real copy.)

The continual cold, rain, darkness, and Paris flooding serve as characters in the book. They are constant. It makes you want to read the book under a blanket.

So, most of this doesn’t sound unbelievably positive. BUT… I did finish the book. I was occasionally frustrated, but I could keep going. While I wouldn’t put this on the top of my TBR pile, you might find it interesting. Especially if you know Paris and New York neighborhood. Since I don’t, there were parts of the descriptions that left me flat. Also, there are some quotes in French that in my copy were not translated. I assume that the quotes were apropos to the chapter but since I couldn’t read what they said, it was not helpful. This also might be remedied in the published book.

Thank you for reading!

Families have secrets. This book tries really hard to make you care about this family's particular secrets, but I just couldn't get all that into it. The writing was excellent, and the descriptions were lovely, but I didn't care for the characters as much as I feel I should have. The ending felt rushed and not resolved very well.

I absolutely loved Sarah's Key and was so excited to hear to hear Tatiana de Rosnay had written a new book. Rain Watcher was beautifully written. I loved the descriptions of Paris, the trees , the rain etc. However, I felt there were just too many themes and therefore, some were not as developed as I would have liked. I found the ending very confusing and not sure yet what I thought of it. However, even with these flaws I definitely thought it was well worth reading and would highly recommend it.

I'm not quite sure how to feel about this book. I loved the rain component and the description of the storm as the story progresses. The author's writing style was beautiful. This was an interesting, character driven family drama. I did find myself invested in the story but found myself more interested at times and less interested other times. The emotion and traumas of the different family members felt vivid and I connected with each character in a different way.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

The Rain Watcher was not what I expected it to be, but still I was not disappointed. It was more about the discovery of the main characters life than about the flooding of Paris...or rather because of the flooding he was forced to discover things that would both wound and enrich his being. The story was well written, plot entertaining. The characters were were complex and showed themselves slowly through the story which I found made you want to keep reading to find out more.
I giving the book a 4 star rating.

This book did not grab me at all. The biggest problem might well be the author's writing style. Vast pages of prose uninterrupted by dialogue or action. A conversation would be described in prose form, as if someone was telling you about an overheard conversation. That might be one reason I never felt attracted to the characters. I felt like I was hearing about them second or third hand. I found myself skimming after a while, the prose was so long and tedious often uninterrupted by paragraph breaks.

The plot was boring. A photographer flies to Paris to meet his parents and sister for a family time celebrating the father's birthday. Nothing really interesting happens until after a fifth of the way into the book. The author seems to have a sexual orientation agenda too. I had to convince myself to keep reading. I would have stopped except that I did agree to review this book.

I rarely give such a low rating on a novel but this was was particularly uninteresting. The story line never grabbed me nor did I ever feel engaged with the characters. The author's writing style of present tense prose was almost painful to read. I would have preferred some dialogue from time to time. I found the ending to be unsatisfactory. One does learn quite a bit about cameras and photography and what happens in Paris when it rains so much the city floods.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley. Thank-you to the author, the publisher and to Netgalley. About 1/4 of the way through this book, I considered not finishing it, I wasn't really loving the slow moving book. I found that once the pace picked up, although I didn't love the book, I still enjoyed it. I love Paris, and loved the moving through Paris throughout this book. I had a bit of a hard time rating this book, I really liked the current day story of the flood in Paris, but wasn't a big fan of the past stories. I loved "Sarah's Key" by the same author, but this book just isn't as good as that.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an ARC of The Rain Watcher in exchange for an honest review. This is my first Tatiana de Rosnay novel, and although historical fiction of any kind is not usually my go to genre, I did enjoy reading this book. A family reunion to celebrate their father’s seventieth birthday and their parents’ wedding anniversary brings together the Malegard family . Taking place in Paris during a relentless rain storm. the author reveals family conflicts, happy and sad memories, and complicated family relationships, mostly from LInden's point of view. The writing is very descriptive and the author evokes emotion and hope from the reader that this family will be able to love and forgive and move on with life.

I was excited to receive The Rain Watcher as an advanced reader copy. I enjoyed Sarah’s Key and couldn’t wait to read another book by Tatiana de Rosnay. I really struggled to get into this book. I enjoyed the parts focused on Linden and his relationship with his Aunt and his troubles growing up. I wanted to hear more about Candace and who she was. His sister had an interesting story as well. I lost interest reading about specific street details of Paris. I have been there but am unfamiliar with all the details of the city. Maybe someone who is more familiar with Paris would find these details enjoyable.
I had every intention of reviewing this book by its publication date but I just couldn’t seem to get it read. I only finished it to write a review. It just didn’t hold my attention.
The ending left me with questions and am unsure of the story line for Suzanne and the importance of the box.
So maybe I’m missing something that others seemed to love.
Thank you for allowing me to read it. I hate that it didn’t work for me. I really wanted it to. Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press.

Set against the backdrop of a historic flood in Paris, The Rain Watcher is an atmospheric tale about the Malegarde family, told primarily from the perspective of the youngest son Linden, who is a world-renowned photographer. As he and his family – older sister Tilia, his parents Lauren and Paul – reunite to celebrate his parents wedding anniversary as well as his father’s 70th birthday, the atmosphere around them is grim, with ceaseless rain that greets each family member upon their arrival. As the family prepares for their gathering, a crisis slowly unfolds around them in the form of rising floodwaters that threaten to submerge the city. When tragedy befalls the family and Paul ends up in the hospital, Linden embarks on a retrospective journey that, over the course of the story, gives us insight into not only his own past but also that of the various members of his family.

With this well-written family saga, author Tatiana de Rosnay did an incredible job presenting an emotional story that was at the same time heartbreaking yet also uplifting. This is very much a story about love and family relationships, but also about redemption, identity, and also the power of uniting together as a family in the face of crisis. As a character-driven story, this was more of a slow-burn narrative that took awhile to get into, but it’s one that pays off in the end with a story that was absolutely well-told. The family at the center of the story was so well-depicted, with flaws and dysfunctions that many of us could relate to – this was a family that grew on me, to the point that at the end, I didn’t want to let them go. Aside from the Malegarde family though, another important character in the story was the rain itself, which factored into the narrative in various places, serving as a constant throughout the story. In terms of the writing, the prose was wonderfully rendered, with sparse dialogue and long descriptive paragraphs that made the surrounding environment – the rain, the flood and its effects, etc. – truly come alive.

This was truly an introspective novel, one that I enjoyed for both the story and the characters as well as the atmospheric mood it invoked – sad and somber yet not entirely devoid of hope. I know this is the same author who wrote Sarah’s Key, which is a book I’ve had on my “to-read” list for quite some time already – I look forward to reading that one even more now.

Received ARC from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley