FINALLY!! My first post!
I am a HUGE fan of historical fiction! I loved Tatiana Rosnay's "Sarah's Key" so when I saw this on the shelf, I grabbed it.
In the mid 1800s, Napoleon III odered large scale rennovations of Paris to make room for wider streets and a more modern city. His prefect, Baron Hausmann, has gone through the city and destroyed hundreds of houses, eradicating whole neighborhoods at a time, erasing the history of Paris. Rose Bazelet is determined to fight for her home- the only home her husband ever knew. The reader is told the story of the house through letters that Rose writes to her deceased husband, Armand and through scattered letters from people who have been a big part of her life- past and present. As Rose remembers, she is forced to come to terms with a secret that she has kept for 30 years.
I loved that the novel was written in letter form. It made the connections to the characters in the story more real and tender. I enjoyed seeing her love for her husband pour out in her letters. I don't feel like it was as well written as "Sarah's Key", though. It felt rushed, especially toward the end- like the plot hadn't been fully developed. The ending was a bit morbid, but I kind of like the macabre.
Good, fast read. It just wasn't as captivating as I was hoping.
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