The Light Behind The Window: A breathtaking story of love and war from the bestselling author of The Seven Sisters series

Product Information

I love Lucinda's writing, intelligence and skill in describing works of art. She's also a wonderful poet. Emilie de la Martinieres is there when her glamorous mother draws her final breath. As the end comes, Emilie realises what a task she now has to face, as the sole remaining heir she has to sort a flat in Paris, her mother's jewels and other remnants of her famous and glamorous life as well as the Chateau in the south of France, which her mother hated, but Emilie loved as a child when her father was alive. The characters in The Light Behind The Window are exceptional, I became very emotionally involved with them, especially Emilie and Constance. I thought that they were such fantastically written characters. Constance in particular showed such courage and strength in the story and it touched my heart, I really enjoyed reading her part of the story and her journey was a very emotional one. Lucinda Riley has not only created two outstanding main characters, but has excelled in her supporting cast, Sebastian and Alex really stood out for me in that category, not forgetting Sophia as well. Booklist A fast-paced, suspenseful story flitting between the present day and World War II . . . Riley expertly weaves Emilie's story into a dual narrative . . . A real old-fashioned romance which manages to have a compelling narrative as well as something of a history lesson in the Special Operations Executive. Brilliant escapism 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.)

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. A sweeping, engrossing work. Riley is talented, delighting in the small details of aristocratic luxury and the pastoral countryside . . . The heroines of [The Light Behind the Window] struggle to master circumstances seemingly beyond their control, a common thread in Riley's work. A tale of family secrets, wartime espionage, and loyalties gained and gambled, The Lavender Garden will appeal to fans of historical fiction, Kate Morton, and Helen Bryan

In collaboration with her son Harry Whittaker, she also devised and wrote a series of books for children called The Guardian Angels. 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.

From the Sunday Times best-selling author of the Seven Sisters series, Lucinda Riley's The Light Behind the Window is a breathtaking and intense story of love, war and, above all, forgiveness. Forced to surrender her identity and all ties to her homeland, Constance finds herself drawn into a complex web of deception, the repercussions of which will affect generations to come . . .

A fast-paced, suspenseful story flitting between the present day and World War II . . . Brilliant escapism' – Red No habiendo leído aún “Hothouse Flower”, me decidí por conocer a Lucinda Riley a través de esta novela, de la que también había escuchado buenas referencias. A notebook of poems leads her to the mysterious and beautiful Sophia, whose tragic love affair changed the course of her family history. As Emilie unravels the story, she too embarks on a journey of discovery, realizing that the château may provide clues to her own difficult past.

Yet again Lucinda Riley has created and weaved a story which has you gripped from the beginning to the end. You have to keep reading, you have to know what happens you have to know if love will conquer all, if war will end, if all wrongs will be righted and that the light will shine again from behind the window where it has been hiding for many years of the main characters. 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.Our servers are getting hit pretty hard right now. To continue shopping, enter the characters as they are shown 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. Combina, como en tantas otras, una historia en el presente y otra en el pasado, concretamente en 1943, en las postrimerías de la Segunda Guerra Mundial y en la Francia ocupada por los nazis. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the topic whether a fan of Lucinda Riley's or not. If I can't give a book an honest 3 stars, it hasn't worked for me. I don't rate them 1 or 2 because I personally think this gives people a false picture, but I do try and explain. So it was with this on.

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. The Light Behind The Window: A breathtaking story of love and war from the bestselling author of The Seven Sisters series

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. The incredible bravery of the SOE, the Resistance and the ordinary French men and women is movingly told; I'm a Brit used to war stories told from home soil and am ashamed to say how little I know about day to day occupied France. That's not to say this is a gritty war book though, far from it. There are some tense moments, but they're dealt with 'nicely' with only hints of the horrors that happen off-screen. The main body of this book is how the long-lost secrets of the past affect the future generations. This story, of epic proportions, is a must-read. Both set in France and England, it is a heartfelt story that will pull at your heartstrings and often confound you. 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 . . .