The Rain Watcher by Tatiana De Rosnay

 
Linden wondered why his mother organized a family get together in Paris for his father’s 70th birthday since his father didn’t like Paris.

In addition to his dislike of Paris, Paris was having torrential rainfall with threats of flooding. The rain and flooding continued throughout their time in Paris and throughout the book with worries it would be as bad if not worse than the Paris floods of 1910.

THE RAIN WATCHER brings together this family of four from Venozan, London, and San Francisco - no spouses or children - just the four of them.  We meet Linden from San Francisco who never got along with his father, Tilia from London who is unhappily married for the second time, and Paul and Lauren their parents. 

All the characters seemed to have something to hide, but you warmed up to them as the book continued.

The children had grown up in Venozan after their parents met when Lauren was on a vacation in France more than 30 years ago.  It was a whirlwind romance that had Lauren never going back to the states.

The family was still indifferent as always as they gathered together for breakfast and the rain continued to pour down.  Lauren insisted they were in a non-flood area of Paris and should continue with their celebration plans.

Their celebration was wonderful until something tragic happened at the restaurant and Lauren became ill as well.

Besides being part of family issues and seeing how people interact, there was a lot of interesting information about photography.  Linden was a famous photographer with a photo of his father taken years ago that made him famous.  There is also wonderful information about plants and gardening and Paris.

THE RAIN WATCHER is beautifully written and pulls you into the story line with Ms. De Rosnay’s marvelous storytelling skills and details about every situation. 

If you like rainstorms and family drama, this book will be of interest.  4/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NETGALLEY and in print in exchange for an honest review.  All opinions are my own.