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Lucinda Riley was born in 1965 in Ireland and, after an early career as an actress in film, theatre and television, wrote her first novel aged twenty-four. Her books have been translated into thirty-seven languages and continue to strike an emotional chord with cultures all around the world. The Seven Sisters series specifically has become a global phenomenon, creating its own genre. I have read most of Lucinda Riley’s books including the Seven Sisters series. They are all very good novels but I really enjoyed this one. The events surrounding World War Two are particularly moving and realistic. Highly recommended. As always Lucinda Riley story telling is incredible. You live the characters and the story she tells is always an emotional journey. I have learnt so much from books and have always been enriched by them in my own life. At some point I will always listen them again . So sad there no more . But predictability of plot can be okay if you are interested in the characters. Which was my second issue. In particulare Emilie, the main protagonist in the modern-day story, drove me mad. She is the daughter of an aristocratic family, whose socialite mother was totally uninterested in her. The mother dies at the start and Emilie, who has 'rebelled' by abandoning the social life and becoming a vet, is left with a huge chateau on her hands. You'd think someone who has worked hard enough and single-mindedly enough to have such a career would have a bit of gumption, but Emilie seemed to me to have absolutely none. She dithers and she swithers. When her mother's dog is run over, she actually has to consult another vet! She seems to think she can only practice in Paris, and that any move to any other part or France or any other country must mean she gives up her career (the one she's worked so hard to succeed at) and frankly, when she met her Nemesis (and anyone but Emilie would have known right from the start that's what he was) I thought she deserved all she got.
The Chateau holds memories good and bad, and as Emilie discovers these she also discovers something of the past which has an immediate effect on the future. The reader goes on an emotional rollercoaster with Emilie, as it seems all is suddenly well with the sudden appearance of Sebastian Carruthers, an Englishman visiting the south of France because of a family tale from his grandmother. For Emilie suddenly life is going to be easy and full of light and love. Then everything builds to the top and most highest point of the rollercoaster, emotions are running high and the descent is rather fast and makes her relook at all she has. Does she need to once again reassess all that is left behind? And the husband: Still can't figure out why he married her. I mean, if it was just "her money" that'd be one thing. But we're told it was to steal a specific book. For money. But the book isn't really THAT valuable, comparatively. I mean, it's a ton of money to me, but in context it isn't. I don't think so, anyway, because our novel isn't actually sure how much this MacGuffin is worth. It's not even the most valuable book in the chateau's library. There were plenty of other objects he could have stolen, since Emilie didn't even know what she owned. The book trots this "steal one specific book" explanation out at the end and even tries to lampshade it but it just doesn't make sense. I wasn't sorry, it was such a touching and gripping story i couldnt stop listening to it! You really get the characters and feel their emotions, The narrator read it so well too, highly recommended. This one is classified as historical fiction and that it is. I have no qualms with that. However, that’s probably my only non-objection to this one. Lucinda Riley attempts to interweave the stories of Emilie de la Martinières, a young French woman who recently inherited a vast fortune after her mother’s death, and Constance Carruthers, a young English woman who was sent to France during World War II as a special operative. Riley then tells the reader how these two women, decades apart, are intertwined. The potential this story had was immense but unfortunately it remains just that - potential. I will also say that the dialogue and language in which this book is written is ridiculous. It’s kitschy in the WWII sections for sure and, throughout the whole book and both times periods, way too formal. I understand that for most of the book the characters are speaking in French but, as someone who speaks French, I also know how to translate it to English. The tone was just all wrong and way too off-putting.
A sweeping, engrossing work. Riley is talented, delighting in the small details of aristocratic luxury and the pastoral countryside . . . The heroines of [The Light Behind the Window] struggle to master circumstances seemingly beyond their control, a common thread in Riley's work. A tale of family secrets, wartime espionage, and loyalties gained and gambled, The Lavender Garden will appeal to fans of historical fiction, Kate Morton, and Helen Bryan Though she brought up her four children mostly in Norfolk in England, in 2015 she fulfilled her dream of buying a remote farmhouse in West Cork, Ireland, which she always felt was her spiritual home, and indeed this was where her last five books were written.
The Light Behind the Window is a stunning tale of love, war and, above all, forgiveness, from Lucinda Riley, international #1 bestselling author of the Seven Sisters series. South of France, present day. After the death of her glamorous, distant mother, Emilie de la Martiniéres finds herself alone in the world – and sole inheritor of her grand childhood home.Air raids are boring to sit through apparently but don't damage anything, apparently, and travel is smellier but apparently everyone does it. Cousins from Vichy France apparently head to Paris for holidays without any difficulty. A few month after the war Constance wants to go home so she just does, without difficulty. In reality it took people months to find passage home. The detailed descriptions of the castle, the French society during WWII, the hint of mystery about the de la Martinieries' history, and the current-day love story make this book another amazing, mesmerizing, and fantastic Lucinda Riley novel. Emilie de la Martinieres is there when her glamorous mother draws her final breath. As the end comes, Emilie realises what a task she now has to face, as the sole remaining heir she has to sort a flat in Paris, her mother's jewels and other remnants of her famous and glamorous life as well as the Chateau in the south of France, which her mother hated, but Emilie loved as a child when her father was alive.
If I can't give a book an honest 3 stars, it hasn't worked for me. I don't rate them 1 or 2 because I personally think this gives people a false picture, but I do try and explain. So it was with this on.No habiendo leído aún “Hothouse Flower”, me decidí por conocer a Lucinda Riley a través de esta novela, de la que también había escuchado buenas referencias. Sebastian's family had some connection to Emilie's chateau and vineyard, and the winemakers on the estate knew what that connection was. The account of the important family connection is revealed through Constance's life during WWII and her connection to the de la Martinieries' family. But, did Sebastian suddenly appear and help Emilie because of the family connection or because he was interested in the valuable paintings inside her estates and most of all her family inheritance?
The incredible bravery of the SOE, the Resistance and the ordinary French men and women is movingly told; I'm a Brit used to war stories told from home soil and am ashamed to say how little I know about day to day occupied France. That's not to say this is a gritty war book though, far from it. There are some tense moments, but they're dealt with 'nicely' with only hints of the horrors that happen off-screen. The main body of this book is how the long-lost secrets of the past affect the future generations. From the Sunday Times best-selling author of the Seven Sisters series, Lucinda Riley's The Light Behind the Window is a breathtaking and intense story of love, war and, above all, forgiveness. You may be right. It's only coffee. So let's also talk about forged identity papers. Based on this book I'd assume 90% of citizens in France during the war had forged papers. Need new papers? Your local aristocrat can have them whipped up overnight! Don't know any aristocrats? Head to the nearest cottage; the peasantry can meet the same deadline for half the price! (I am assuming on the price thing; money is never mentioned and it's never hard for anyone to obtain anything in this book.) THE LAVENDER GARDEN had wonderful characters that were believable as well as characters that you would want to share a day with. Being in a beautiful chateau with a vineyard, being in Paris and a small French village, being in an English castle, and being with characters you definitely will bond with made the book even more appealing.
Just one other thing before I wrap this one up. The way Emilie throws in at the very end that she can’t have kids feels rushed and makes zero sense. It doesn’t add anything to the story. Yes, there’s Anton but that storyline could’ve happened without her whole melt down. I just personally think that that scene was random and poorly done. Combina, como en tantas otras, una historia en el presente y otra en el pasado, concretamente en 1943, en las postrimerías de la Segunda Guerra Mundial y en la Francia ocupada por los nazis. Mir hat der Lavendelgarten sehr gut gefallen. Es wird nicht das letzte Buch von Lucinda Riley sein das ich lesen werde. Außerdem wird es auch nicht ausziehen wie ich ursprünglich geplant habe. Zugegebenermaßen habe ich aber2 Versuche gebraucht bis ich das Buch beenden konnte. Beim ersten Mal war wahrscheinlich einfach die falsche Zeit für das Buch. Jetzt beim zweiten Mal hatte ich echt Spaß beim Lesen und wollte mehr über Emilie und ihre Geschichte und die Vergangenheit ihrer Familie erfahren. A sweeping, engrossing work. Riley is talented, delighting in the small details of aristocratic luxury and the pastoral countryside . . . The heroines of [The Light Behind the Window] struggle to master circumstances seemingly beyond their control, a common thread in Riley’s work. A tale of family secrets, wartime espionage, and loyalties gained and gambled, The Lavender Garden will appeal to fans of historical fiction, Kate Morton, and Helen Bryan
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