Book Review: ‘The Riviera House: A Historical Fiction Novel’ By Natasha Lester

Set in a dual timeline starting in 1939 and in present day France in 2015, this historical fiction novel is another in a great line of this genre novels that I have read in the last few years. It’s a fascinating story about the Germans invading France and taking as much artwork as they can and a small group of rebels that try to stop them. Author Nataha Lester has written a great follow-up to her previous novels The Paris Orphan and The Paris Seamstress.

In 1939 Elaine is working at the Louvre and helping out at her families restaurant in France and then the war hits. Her father and brother are sent to fight and Elaine sends her mother and sisters away. Elaine has also fallen for Xavier, who suddenly leaves for England with his father. Elaine keeps her job at the Louvre as the Germans take over and start taking art. She’s is cataloging what is there and who is getting what. She can talk German but keeps that a secret. Then she sees Xavier with the Germans and she is furious. She soon joins a secret resistance unit to spy on what the Germans are doing with the art.

In 2015 in France, Remy Lang is at a big house on the water still struggling with the tragic deaths of her husband and daughter two years ago when she meets the family staying next door. It’s a big family reunion and Remy ends up hanging with them and falling for one of the sons Adam. She soon learns a shocking secret about her past, when she finds a painting in a book. It relates back to what happened in 1939 and she soon learns who she really is and how the past and her present collide.

You can pickup The Riviera House in stores on Tuesday, August 31st from Forever.