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4.27 AVERAGE
4.27 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Review of The Riviera House by Natasha Lester:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
It’s 1939 in France when the German start to occupy Paris. Éliane says goodbye to her family while she stays behind to continue working at the Louvre where she is cataloging all the art the Germans have confiscated and where the Nazis think she doesn’t understand German. But what the Germans don’t know is that Éliane does understand them and she is secretly compiling the information she is seeing and hearing, to pass along to the Resistance with the hope that once the war is over, the stolen art can be recovered and returned to their rightful owners. Nearly 80-years later, Remy escapes to a stunning home she mysteriously inherited where she comes across a book that has cataloged all the artworks stolen by the Nazis. But what shocks her the most is that while glancing through this book showcases all of the stolen artwork, she finds one piece that has been hanging on the wall of her childhood bedroom for as long as she can remember. How did Remy come into possession of it, who is her family, and what other secrets will she uncover?
Told from two perspectives and a dual timeline, this was a stunning read. The research that went into this had me going down even more rabbit holes. Lester did a fantastic job describing each piece of art so readers can easily envision them. I adored the romance, was engrossed in the history, and was captivated by the parallel storylines. Though this is historical fiction, Lester writes as though this was her life; her story to tell. It’s beautifully written with an unexpected link from past to future. The Riviera House is my new go-to recommendation for historical fiction. You couldn’t ask for stronger characters - the courage and determination, putting their love of art above all else while also holding out hope - will fuel readers until the end. The Riviera House is truly a work of art.
Thank you @ReadForeverPub [#partner] for gifting me with an early readers copy in exchange for an independent and honest review!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨
It’s 1939 in France when the German start to occupy Paris. Éliane says goodbye to her family while she stays behind to continue working at the Louvre where she is cataloging all the art the Germans have confiscated and where the Nazis think she doesn’t understand German. But what the Germans don’t know is that Éliane does understand them and she is secretly compiling the information she is seeing and hearing, to pass along to the Resistance with the hope that once the war is over, the stolen art can be recovered and returned to their rightful owners. Nearly 80-years later, Remy escapes to a stunning home she mysteriously inherited where she comes across a book that has cataloged all the artworks stolen by the Nazis. But what shocks her the most is that while glancing through this book showcases all of the stolen artwork, she finds one piece that has been hanging on the wall of her childhood bedroom for as long as she can remember. How did Remy come into possession of it, who is her family, and what other secrets will she uncover?
Told from two perspectives and a dual timeline, this was a stunning read. The research that went into this had me going down even more rabbit holes. Lester did a fantastic job describing each piece of art so readers can easily envision them. I adored the romance, was engrossed in the history, and was captivated by the parallel storylines. Though this is historical fiction, Lester writes as though this was her life; her story to tell. It’s beautifully written with an unexpected link from past to future. The Riviera House is my new go-to recommendation for historical fiction. You couldn’t ask for stronger characters - the courage and determination, putting their love of art above all else while also holding out hope - will fuel readers until the end. The Riviera House is truly a work of art.
Thank you @ReadForeverPub [#partner] for gifting me with an early readers copy in exchange for an independent and honest review!
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Really enjoyed this, although I must confess to not gettiing alot of the fashionreferences
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It's so fun discovering a new-to-me author and loving her newest book even more than the last.
And that's after giving The Paris Secret five stars - Natasha Lester's The Riviera House is just that good!
Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for my gifted copy for review!
This historical fiction novel is told in two timelines, one is Éliane's story in the WWII era, then Remy's story in present-day.
Remy has experienced the agonizing loss of her family. She has tried to rebuild her life as a vintage fashion proprietor and living in a Riviera home she mysteriously inherited.
Along the way she discovers a painting from her childhood has connection to the wave of Nazi theft of Jewish artwork during the war and the Jeu de Paume museum as a holding/sorting facility.
Folded in are the unanswered questions of Remy's family history, of her parents and grandparents.
Éliane's story fills in the backstory, with the sweeping backdrops of Paris, the French Riviera and New York; the art and resistance community.
I don't read a ton of historical fiction but this one was absolutely in my interest area - I'm intrigued by art history and thefts, alongside strong and memorable female characters. Natasha Lester manages to infuse her books about the horrors of war with layers of beauty and obvious depth of research.
Absolutely recommended!
Released on Aug. 31.
And that's after giving The Paris Secret five stars - Natasha Lester's The Riviera House is just that good!
Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for my gifted copy for review!
This historical fiction novel is told in two timelines, one is Éliane's story in the WWII era, then Remy's story in present-day.
Remy has experienced the agonizing loss of her family. She has tried to rebuild her life as a vintage fashion proprietor and living in a Riviera home she mysteriously inherited.
Along the way she discovers a painting from her childhood has connection to the wave of Nazi theft of Jewish artwork during the war and the Jeu de Paume museum as a holding/sorting facility.
Folded in are the unanswered questions of Remy's family history, of her parents and grandparents.
Éliane's story fills in the backstory, with the sweeping backdrops of Paris, the French Riviera and New York; the art and resistance community.
I don't read a ton of historical fiction but this one was absolutely in my interest area - I'm intrigued by art history and thefts, alongside strong and memorable female characters. Natasha Lester manages to infuse her books about the horrors of war with layers of beauty and obvious depth of research.
Absolutely recommended!
Released on Aug. 31.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death, Hate crime, Grief, Car accident, War
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Natasha Lester has created a masterpiece. I loved the concept of this historical fiction based around the voracious art theft, especially from Jewish owners, by the Nazi's during WWII. The story is told in dual timelines by our heroines Eliane in the 1940's and Remy in 2015. I really enjoyed how each leading lady was their own type of strength and fierceness. With an independence to each that helps them survive the horror they encounter in their lives. Events that now one should have to live through.
While the book started off a bit slow, and I found for the large part like we were almost reading two separate stories until they really begin to tie together in the end, I could not put it down. I found myself engaged and enthralled in the lives of both women and their heartaches. I did suspect the inevitable out come and how everything connected, but I enjoyed the path we were taken on to get to that point. I also really appreciate all the obvious time and research that was put into keeping events as accurate as possible. And that Rose Valland's character is based on the real life resistance hero. We are given a tale of heroism, hope and epic love. love of a person, love of country, and love of art and that which makes life a little easier. A must read historical fiction for fall.
Thank you to @forever pub and @hachettebooks for my gifted copy in exchange for an honest review
**TW: loss of child, depression, loss of spouse, sperm donor, allusion to torture**
While the book started off a bit slow, and I found for the large part like we were almost reading two separate stories until they really begin to tie together in the end, I could not put it down. I found myself engaged and enthralled in the lives of both women and their heartaches. I did suspect the inevitable out come and how everything connected, but I enjoyed the path we were taken on to get to that point. I also really appreciate all the obvious time and research that was put into keeping events as accurate as possible. And that Rose Valland's character is based on the real life resistance hero. We are given a tale of heroism, hope and epic love. love of a person, love of country, and love of art and that which makes life a little easier. A must read historical fiction for fall.
Thank you to @forever pub and @hachettebooks for my gifted copy in exchange for an honest review
**TW: loss of child, depression, loss of spouse, sperm donor, allusion to torture**
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
emotional
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily posting a review. All opinions are my own.
I’ve never read anything from Natasha Lester before, but I’ve heard good things about her work, so I decided to take a chance on The Riviera House. The Nazis’ art theft is a topic I had heard a bit about, but hadn’t looked into very much, so I was excited to learn more.
I found the historical timeline incredibly well-researched and engrossing. I liked the seamless mix of real and fictional characters working on the art cataloging project. One of the major historical characters is Rose Valland, and I liked learning a bit about her.
I also felt Éliane’s story was well-written, working with the Resistance and taking advantage of the fact that Nazis underestimate her.
The present narrative is interwoven through a shared setting of the French Riviera, and the fact that Remy uncovers the actions of Éliane and the Resistance in her chapters. Remy is also dealing with her own personal familial losses, and while I wasn’t as invested in her chapters and did feel like some of her initial chapters dragged, I did like seeing her find healing. And structurally, I feel like Lester’s approach was more balanced, allowing us to spend more time in each time period in mostly-multi-chapter bursts, instead of pulling us back and forth from chapter to chapter, at least initially; she does start to do the chapter-to-chapter switch towards the end, but by then, I feel like it’s more effective.
I enjoyed this book quite a bit, and look forward to catching up on Natasha Lester’s backlist, and any future books she’ll release in the future. If you like historical fiction about World War II, you won’t want to miss this!
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I received a gifted copy from Forever Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
I have not picked up a historical fiction read in a few years and this first one in forever was absolutely perfect! It was the perfect combination of history, intrigue, romance, and heartbreak. I felt that both storylines (Éliane and Remy) were compelling, interesting and so full of life. I was constantly looking forward to both of these perspectives and timelines in the story. As I read between these two different perspectives set in different times, it felt like I was always given just enough about the mystery to keep me guessing even up to the very end. And that reveal! Just thinking about how it all came together and ended makes my heart sting a little. In the best way possible. Thank you to Forever Publishing and Natasha Lester for making my return to historical fiction so fantastic.
I have not picked up a historical fiction read in a few years and this first one in forever was absolutely perfect! It was the perfect combination of history, intrigue, romance, and heartbreak. I felt that both storylines (Éliane and Remy) were compelling, interesting and so full of life. I was constantly looking forward to both of these perspectives and timelines in the story. As I read between these two different perspectives set in different times, it felt like I was always given just enough about the mystery to keep me guessing even up to the very end. And that reveal! Just thinking about how it all came together and ended makes my heart sting a little. In the best way possible. Thank you to Forever Publishing and Natasha Lester for making my return to historical fiction so fantastic.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Death, Grief, Sexual harassment, War
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No