Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
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. 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.
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 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.
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. 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. 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. An aristocratic French family, a legendary château, and buried secrets with the power to destroy two generations torn between duty and desire. 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.
The author has a skill in drawing you right into the characters lives so much so that you experience all that they do and just as you think you know the outcome or the next stage in their development, it is shifted again. A veritable tease in some ways a good skill of holding the reader's attention in others. I did not want this book to end, it could have been double the size and I still would have wanted to learn more about both the past and the present. If you don't care what life was like in wartime France, the hardships and dangers, why bother to set your story there? With one exception nothing really difficult happens to these ridiculous characters. And they are so ridiculous. They do nothing and then talk to each other about how brave they all are. 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.)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. As a lover of things Provençal and interested in the role of the French Resistance, this book was a favorite. 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 know this is fiction and heaven knows I am not a very big fan of "gritty" realism, but there does have to be some detail to evoke a sense of reality and place. I can't find any of that here. The author tosses in a few names of some actual people from SOE, but that's where it stops.
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.But the crowning idiocy is at the convergence of the two stories: After the war ends what on earth is the justification for not telling Frederik about his daughter?! And he just doesn't care! "You lied to me about my child for 55 years and only told me she existed after she died so I had no hope of ever having a relationship with her, but hey, water under the bridge!" And Emilie and Jean congratulate Jacques on how wise this decision was. (?!) It was baffling and silly and nonsensical. A fast-paced, suspenseful story flitting between the present day and World War II . . . Brilliant escapism' – Red This is by far my favorite Lucinda Riley book. I loved her detail about the French and English countryside and absolutely loved the specifics of the ancestry of Emilee's family. Digging into a family's history is my favorite historical thing to do. The ending is wonderful. La Côte d’Azur, 1998: In the sun-dappled south of France, Emilie de la Martinières, the last of her gilded line, inherits her childhood home, a magnificent château and vineyard. With the property comes a mountain of debt—and almost as many questions . . . Her books have been nominated for numerous awards, including the Italian Bancarella Prize, the Lovely Books Award in Germany, and the Romantic Novel of the Year Award. In 2020 she received the Dutch Platinum Award for sales over 300,000 copies for a single novel in one year – a prize last won by J. K. Rowling for Harry Potter.
Great Deal 
New Comment