Review: The Riviera House by Natasha Lester

The Riviera House by Natasha Lester
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Rivieira House is the story of Eliane, she is raised in a large family with five girls in Paris during the 1930's during the time of Hitler. She is studying Art, and working 2 jobs, whilst also trying to take care of her family. Her Mother works hard at the Brasserie they own, her father is a drunk, and is quite aggressive and violent and takes a lot of out on Eliane and her mother.

Eliane meets Xavier, an old friend of her brothers who is an Artist, his family run an Art Museum in town and also own a couple in America and England. Eliane and Xavier fall in love, they spend every possible moment together, Xavier is a kind, generous and thoughtful boyfriend to Eliane.

Xavier and his father move to England when the Germans invade France, Eliane is on her own. Her Father and Brother have been called up to join the army. Her Mother and her four sisters have fleed Paris in search of safety away from the war. Eliane is left on her own as the eldest daughter to keep working and earning money to support her family.

Ellie has been relocated to work at Jeu de Paume, under the supervision of the Germans, she keeps a secret from them and also pretends that she can not speak German.

The book then moves to the year 2015, Remy is living in a seaside house she is grieving the loss of her daughter and husband in a car accident two years prior. Remy wakes up one morning to find a stranger sitting in her lounge chair reading a book in the sunshine, she looks outside and the stranger quickly disappears. Remy owns a boutique antique clothing online store, she loans her antique clothing collection to fashion shoots and also sells them.

Remy meets her neighbours whilst she is down on the beach reading a book, they all invite her over to dinner, and the friendship she is forming with these strangers, is a great relief to Remy, she is starting to laugh again. She forms a friendship with Adam who is a professional photographer, who assists Remy by doing some photoshoots of her clothing for her Instagram account. Adam and Remy find a book which is a catalogue of lost Art from 70+ years ago, "The Goring Catalogue," which contains Art that Hermann Goring stole during World War II. It is this catalogue that Remy sees a picture of a stolen piece of Art that is hanging on her bedroom wall back home in Sydney. Remy is confused, how did she end up with this particular art piece that was stolen during war 70+ years ago, when Germany invaded France, and why is it in her family's possession.

This book is beautifully written by Natasha Lester, the dual time lines make the book very intriguing, and making you want to keep reading, to find out what is going to happen next with both main characters. It is a book I could not put down. This is the first book I have read by Natasha Lester, and I am now a huge fan, I will definitely be looking for more of her books in the future.

I received a copy of this book from Better Reading and Hachette Australia in exchange for an honest review, it's brilliant and five stars from me.

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