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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
i think this book had a lot of potential to be interesting as the subject matter was super intriguing, but I ended up finding this a bit boring. The characters just fell flat imo
I've been fascinated by just about anything to do with the Paris apartment for years. So of course I had to read this after it being on my shelf for several years.
Alyson Richman draws you into this world right from the very first page. Beautiful description of the settings, the people and culture of that time period. It's a story of love, loss and survival against all odds.
I just find it fascinated that this apartment in Paris sat untouched and undiscovered for 70 years. I'm fascinated that this survived the attacks from the Nazis. It was like I was there from the late 1880s all the way through to 1942.
One of my favorite reads of the year.
Alyson Richman draws you into this world right from the very first page. Beautiful description of the settings, the people and culture of that time period. It's a story of love, loss and survival against all odds.
I just find it fascinated that this apartment in Paris sat untouched and undiscovered for 70 years. I'm fascinated that this survived the attacks from the Nazis. It was like I was there from the late 1880s all the way through to 1942.
One of my favorite reads of the year.
2.9. Had some good descriptions, but I had a hard time getting into it...or caring much for Marthe.
I didn’t fall in love with this one like The Lost Wife because I didn’t acquire a deep emotional connection like with The Lost Wife. However, I loved the intrigue of Marthe’s fascinating life and find it shocking that somehow her apartment remained untouched and in tact for all those years!
THIS was such an enthralling book! Captivating, based on a real event, and so well researched and written. Richman draws you in with her style of writing and evoking everything in your mind. Highly recommended!
A beautiful and luscious story of a great love and the world we create to live in. Told in a then and now manner the two stories are set in the late 1800's and 1939 as war closes in on Paris. Based on an actual apartment that sat unused and unopened for 50 years, this is a tale that leaves the reader wondering on the nature of being remembered once we are gone.
I seem to be reading a lot of books about this particular apartment lately.
I have read reviews of Alyson Richman's books that quickly led to me scooping up her newest book, The Velvet Hours, and all of her backlist, without having read a single word. All of those reviews held true for me. Richman's writing is exquisite, and the characters were fascinating and vividly realistic. I read a few books about the now famous Paris apartment left as a time capsule for over 70 years, but this book was certainly the most captivating on the subject. This novel gets my highest recommendation for my reader friends who enjoy great fiction, and especially those who love fiction grounded in history. Don't miss this one!
Oh, this WWII era is my absolute favorite to read about. The women, the men, the secrets, and the mysteries are all so fascinating to me. This is a little different due to the fact that it isn’t about the war, at least not directly. This is the story of an amazing woman who lives an extraordinary life. Marthe is a kept woman by a very influential man. Being kept in this case was not a bad thing, she lived in high class, high quality lifestyle. The quality of life she lived shared so much about the happenings in the era. As the war moved closer to Paris the lifestyle changes were bound to happen yet Marthe took it all in stride and continued living her life as she wanted. As her story is told to her granddaughter, I could picture the story and wanted to be there to hear it firsthand.
The relationships within the story were also intriguing. Marthe gave up her son when he was born so she could live the life she wanted and the baby could have a family that would love him completely. When they met again their relationship did not take off. Her son then realized that his daughter, Solange, needed her grandmother. What he could not see is how much Marthe needed Solange. The relationship between Solange and her grandmother was my favorite part of the story.
The story moved quickly and I devoured each page. The Velvet Hours was a book that when finished I just sat back and thought about all the history that was shared between a grandmother and her granddaughter.
The relationships within the story were also intriguing. Marthe gave up her son when he was born so she could live the life she wanted and the baby could have a family that would love him completely. When they met again their relationship did not take off. Her son then realized that his daughter, Solange, needed her grandmother. What he could not see is how much Marthe needed Solange. The relationship between Solange and her grandmother was my favorite part of the story.
The story moved quickly and I devoured each page. The Velvet Hours was a book that when finished I just sat back and thought about all the history that was shared between a grandmother and her granddaughter.
Really I think it's more of a 2.5 but I rounded down because the author's writing style seemed very elementary and stagnant to me. The story that this book is based on is intriguing and fascinating and I like many of the choices the author took to fill in the blanks. I did find myself wanting to know what happened in the story, but dreading getting there. Reading this book is a bit like wading knee deep in sand...you want to know what's on the other side, but it takes foreeeeeeeever. Also, the last part of the book felt like a different story that eventually came around to tying in to the rest of the book. It was just weird.