An artist lost to history, a family abandoned to its secrets, and the woman whose search for meaning unearths it all in a sweeping and expressive story from the New York Times bestselling author of Letters from Paris.Long, lonely years have passed for the crumbling Château Clement, nestled well beyond the rolling lavender fields and popular tourist attractions of Provence. Once a bustling and … and popular tourist attractions of Provence. Once a bustling and dignified ancestral estate, now all that remains is the château’s gruff, elderly owner and the softly whispered secrets of generations buried and forgotten.
But time has a way of exposing history’s dark stains, and when American photographer Cady Drake finds herself drawn to the château and its antique carousel, she longs to explore the relic’s shadowy origins beyond the small scope of her freelance assignment. As Cady digs deeper into the past, unearthing century-old photographs of the Clement carousel and its creators, she might be the one person who can bring the past to light and reunite a family torn apart.
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An untrusting American orphan meets a dysfunctional French family — and each turns out to possess wisdom that helps the other to heal from old, old wounds. With crystalline imagery, vivid characters and lively prose, Juliet Blackwell redefines what family means, in a way that will touch readers long after they’ve read the last page. As Cady points her camera at one antique carousel after another, this novel should come with a warning: Will cause enormous desire to travel to France.
I was tempted to read this book by its titled. Having lived in Europe I have fond memories and wanted to see if Blackwell’s writing lived up to my memories. The Lost Carousel of Provence is a complex book in three points of view in multiple settings and time frames from the Belle Epoque to World War II to modern day France and California, all tied together with the spandrel of a burnt-old carousel. The author handled the shifts in POV well, and I never felt lost or was taken out of the story to re-orient myself. Her descriptions of the landscape and people of Provence are spot-on. Her research on carousels and their restoration was fascinating and her descriptions of carving evoke the desire to pick up a chisel.
Themes of family, what constitutes a family, and what it’s like to have no family run through the book. Cady is a tough orphan from Oakland. She has been given an antique carousel rabbit and goes to France to determine its provenance. A second very-likable character is Maelle Tanguy. In the early 20th century she serves as the only female assistant to Gustave Bayol, famous for his carved carousels. Like any good artist, she is driven to be a sculptor. Jean-Paul is a Frenchman who befriends Cady in Paris then again in Provence. The most endearing character is the grumpy, irrascible, reclusive Fabrice. He participated in the French Resistance against the Nazis. The threads of their lives come together. from World War II. He is and century and a tragic story of German occupied France during World War II. All three threads are related and come together as family secrets are unraveled to reveal the truth. to form a cohesive narrative.
This is a bit of a genre-bending story: mystery, women’s fiction, and romance. The romantic elements are sweet, but minimal, There is some romance here, and while the romance was sweet and charming, it didn’t overwhelm the rest of the book.
While I enjoyed the ambiguous ending, readers who like a definitive closure to a book may not.
Who wouldn’t want to go to Paris and photograph carousels?
Cady was excited to head to Paris when she received the assignment especially since her interest in carousels had begun when she was a child and found Gus.
Gus was a carved carousel rabbit with a secret Cady found hidden inside Gus when he accidentally broke open. The hidden secret had a story of its own, and turned into a mystery that haunted Cady to solve.
Cady was used to mysteries and secrets since her childhood was spent in the foster system. She was moved from one foster home to another with no parents to be found. When she met Maxine and found Gus, though, they seemed to give her some stability and interest in antiques.
THE LOST CAROUSEL OF PARIS follows Cady back and forth from her childhood to present day with the history behind the carousel rabbit marvelously added in as well.
I enjoyed the history of European carousels and learning about a famous carousel maker Monsieur Gustave Bayol and his company in Angers, France.
THE LOST CAROUSEL OF PARIS allows the reader to get a free trip to Paris and to experience the beautiful landscape and people of Southern France both present-day and past.
This book will appeal to those who enjoy France, antiques, warm-hearted characters, the Provencal countryside, chateaus, and European history during WWII.
A charming, heart-warming read.
The characters were lovely, and the story line was creative, uplifting, and positive.
France, carousels, lovable characters, and a marvelous story line.
LOVED the book…ENJOY if you read it…I know you will. 5/5
This book was given to me free as an ARC. All opinions are my own.
Juliet Blackwell tells the story of Cady, present time, and the 1900’s in France using a dual timeline format. While it can sometimes get confusing which time you are reading, Juliet does an amazing job keeping the two storylines separate while weaving them together a little bit at a time. I liked finding out how Gus, the carousel rabbit, Cady, and the Clements would all come together. I wasn’t surprised at how it all ended up but I did enjoy seeing how it all worked out.
Usually, I find myself connecting to a certain character or a certain storyline but with this one I was thrilled with the descriptions and the characters of the 1900’s. I am also curious about wartime living and many of the characters were active in the war efforts. The present storyline was just as amazing. The food Cady ate, the towns she visited, the carousels she photographed, and the people she met were alive to me. I could taste, see, and enjoy all that she did.
I really enjoyed The Lost Carousel of Provence. I learned about the making of carousels and all the tedious precision work that goes into their making. There was enough fact that I felt informed but not overwhelmed with facts that I didn’t need or want to know. Pick up your own copy and travel to Paris, visit the carousels, eat the food, and meet the wonderful characters.
Never in my life have I read a book that reminds me of my time in Paris with such clarity as this one. Not only did it transport me back in time through various time periods, but it touched me deeply. From the parts where we learn about the female sculptor in the early 1900’s to the resistant movement against the Nazis in World War II to present day, Chateau Clement is alive and casting a spell on the characters and the reader at the same time. It wasn’t so much reading as experiencing the highs and lows of life. Friendship, betrayal, greed, classism, art and love all play a part in this story. Heart-breaking at times, The Lost Carousel of Provence will steal your breath away.
A must read and the best book I’ve had the pleasure to read in 2018.
I love reading historical fiction and I love books that are set in France so this book was a perfect read for me. I have seen several of the carousels in Paris that the author mentions but I guess it’s time for another trip to Paris to see the rest (don’t I wish!)
This is a dual time line story. The early story takes place in Avignon in the early 1900s where a carousel is being built at a chateau for a wealthy French couple. In the group who is assembling the carousel is a female apprentice who longs to be a carver but makes a mistake that could ruin her plans and her life. In the modern day story, Cady is an orphan from San Francisco who is at odds with her life until she gets a commission to take photos of the carousels in Paris for a book. She owns a piece of an old carousel and wants to find out more about it which takes her to the chateau where the carousel was located in the early 1900s. Fire and world wars have taken their toll on the original carousel but Cady is determined to find out more about it.
I enjoyed this novel and both of the stories that were intertwined throughout and loved the way that they author tied them together at the end. If you enjoy historical fiction, you don’t want to miss this book.
Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
I do love me some good historical fiction and also a well-constructed timeline that can move back and forth between present and past. Since first discovering this title, I have been looking forward to delving into this story which brought in several elements that were either unique or that I have not personally delved into much to this point.
What I liked about “The Lost Carousel of Provence”:
The carousel theme – This was one of the big hooks for me with this book because it was something I cannot ever recall encountering in any book I’ve read. It set me up to learn some new things and did not disappoint in this aspect. It was quite fascinating.
French Resistance – I have to admit that with all the historical fiction I have read, namely WWII, I have read very little that has highlighted the French Resistance. I really enjoyed the way it was presented.
The setting – I’ve also read very little on the French countryside. The way the little (fictional) village was written made me feel like I was there and wish that I were.
The characters – For the most part, I liked the characters, and even if I didn’t, I enjoyed the way they contributed to the story as a whole. That’s a big deal for me. I don’t expect to like everyone I meet in a book, but I like to see their purpose.
What I didn’t care for:
Top heavy toward one timeline – I felt like we spent a lot of time in the present day timeline and much less in the historical one, which made it a bit challenging to care equally about both. Additionally, while in the present day, an inordinate amount of time was spent on the lead character compared to the thread that links present to past, and without that link being the main purpose of the book, it was easy to lose the connections between timelines. This improved toward the end of the book but I would have preferred to feel more connection earlier on.
Moving between timelines – The storytelling seemed to lack a flow as it switched between timelines. This wasn’t a dealbreaker for me, because I didn’t struggle with knowing “when” I was, but I felt like the transitions could have been smoother. I also really like when the transitions back and forth feel “related” somehow, which maybe is what makes them feel smoother. However, at times, this one felt more as if two stories got shuffled together like a deck of cards. This also improved toward the end as well.
Overall, I found this book to be a charming story with a satisfying ending, but being super picky about my timeline shifts, I could not justify rating higher than three stars. If that sort of thing doesn’t bother you, this is easily a four-star read. I really wanted to crawl inside the pages once we arrived at Chateau Clement.
I was so taken by this novel. And Juliette does such a beautiful job visually with Fance.
“The Lost Carousel of Provence” by Juliet Blackwell was the first of her novels that I’ve read and I really enjoyed her style and her way of weaving a story.
This story opens in Provence, France with the mistress of the Chateau Clement watching as the carousel is being built on the property in 1901. Little does Josephine know that her story will intrigue a modern-day woman from America named Cady. Cady and Josephine are connected by the carousel and the love of the work of Gustave Bayol, a French sculptor whose famous for his carousels.
While Cady is in France photographing carousels for a coffee table book, she stumbles upon the family members of the original chateau owner and she is able to connect the mystery of her own carousel piece, Gus the rabbit, to the Clement carousel and to the Clement family mystery of Josephine’s death. “The Lost Carousel of Provence” is a love story and a puzzle all at once.
I love historical fiction and often times when writers have a present day story as well as one in the past, I dislike the present day. This was not the case. You really are drawn to all the characters, both present and past In this story. Makes me want to visit our local carousel museum too. Interesting read. Good mystery too.
The Lost Carousel of France is an emotionally stirring book about families and home, along with the whimsy, history, and beauty of carousels! There are several stories that weave through this book: present-day Cady, a young girl who has grown up in foster homes, who discovers a secret message inside an old carousel rabbit she inherits; from 1900 we meet Josephine, whose husband is having a carousel built for her at their chateau in France; 1944, when a young man joins the Resistance at the end of the war. It was intriguing to watch these three stories come together, especially with the carousels and a chateau in the background. This book is full of secrets, but ultimately it is a story about family and finding a place to call home.
I loved Juliet’s previous books set in Paris, so I bought this the instant it was released. She weaves together stories from the past and the current day, all linked by a hand-carved and painted carousel figurine and charming settings in Paris and Provence. Photographer Cady Drake unravels secrets in her own difficult past as she befriends a lonely old Frenchman residing in his dysfunctional family’s chateau.
Plan your trip to Provence now. In this meticulously researched novel, Juliet Blackwell deftly navigates three time periods, taking us from contemporary California to both The Belle Époque and Nazi-occupied France as she spins a story as charming as an antique carousel.
“An artist lost to history, a family abandoned to its secrets, and the woman whose search for meaning unearths it all in a sweeping and expressive story from the New York Times bestselling author of Letters from Paris.”
Truly a book with everything in it to make a great read. I love books set in different time periods and this book had 3 and 3 different point of views.
I enjoyed each time period and character greatly and felt placed in that time. The author does a very good job with accurate historical details.
This book contains all the emotions of happiness, sadness, romance, longing and family ties.
I recommend this book for anyone that loves a great historical fiction that will transport you to France. I mean who doesn’t love carousels.
I give this book a very strong 5 stars
The Lost Carousel of Provence intertwines three stories from 1900, WWII and present day. These stories all revolve around a historic carousel. At the center of the story are American Cady Drake and the French Clement family who originally commissioned the carousel.
The book has themes of family, what makes a family and what it’s like to have no family. There is the mystery of the origin of Cady’s carousel rabbit as well as mysteries and secrets that surround the Clement family. Then there is the mystery that is Cady.
I really wanted to like this book. It has potential to be a great read but fell short for me. At times I found it just did not hold my attention. I’m not sure if it is because the storyline jumps around through three time frames or if it was lack of character development which was really lacking in the 1900’s Clement family characters.
The ending of this book was beyond disappointing. After all the discussion of Cady’s parentage it remained completely unsolved. It felt like the book was leading up to some conclusion about who Cady is but never got there. The rest of the ending felt forced and rushed. Basically I feel cheated of a real ending to a story of characters I grew to know as a reader. Yes the question of Cady’s rabbit is solved but the relationships were left hanging in a way that is just frustrating.
I can’t recommend this book as it stands now. I read a lot and it isn’t very often I reach the end of a book prepared to go on to the next chapter and it isn’t there. In my opinion this is an unfinished novel. My exact words when I turned the last page were “are you kidding? Where’s the rest of the book?”
Historical Fiction is always my favorite read but what makes The Lost Carousel of Provence exceptional is the split time periods, character relationships and mystery. The word flow, constant thrills, and face paced storyline make this an exceptional read. Juliet Blackwell takes you back to childhood remembering the magic of riding a Carousel, the excitement of choosing your animal and the delightful music. My thanks to the author and First to Read for making this book available for me to read and review. I look forward to reading all titles by Juliet Blackwell.