I think there should have been trigger warning for rape and incest. I really disliked Elizabeth for a long while, but Richard i hated more. he was whiny and complaining. I don`t know if it was the transelation or something. But it was so much awful things happening, so much complaining and whining. I did not enjoy it.

Sadly, I did not have time to read this book before it was archived, however, I still believe it is a worthwhile read!

Thank you #netgalley and @hodderandstoughtenbooks for this e-ARC in return for my honest review.

The first part of this book was promising but, overall, I found it difficult to keep reading. I assume the book flows better in French as this was full of awkward phrasing and odd words. I might have got past the translation issues and enjoyed the book if not for the truly awful male characters. Elizabeth was either stuck with Richard who wanted to 'possess' her or the incestuous grandfather. Terrible.

I received a copy of the book from Netgalley to review. Thank you for the opportunity.
An interesting idea behind this story and some good writing.
The characters were interesting and engaging. However, the translation of French to English left much to be desired as often the writing didn't make sense and ruined the flow of the story. In addition to this, the story became bizarre and unrealistic at times which confused and disengaged the reader unfortunately.
An OK read.

The Manhattan Secret is a compelling tale of one little girl and the story of her life after her parents die. Marie-Bernadette Dupuy does a good job in this historical tale.

There's a lot of layers to this story.
Elisabeth's grandfather is looking for her.
She's raised by loving, "adoptive" parents.

There are some tough revelations and some complicated decisions in this tale of moving on from one's past.

I found the first half of this story riveting, but somewhere along the way I lost interest. I guess in the end it wasn't for me.

The Manhattan Secret is a book translated from French which may have contributed to some of the trouble I had getting into this book. The book has a combination of romance and historical fiction that follows the main character Elizabeth as she undergoes a lot of trials from her childhood to the trouble she's has as an adult. This book has some pretty vivid scenes that include some disturbing content. At one point the main character seems to become psychic and can see things in her future that end up happening in the end of the book.. The ending is an abrupt surprise and leaves the reader wondering about the future of several characters but not in a way I found enjoyable.

Thanks #NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review

This was a sad read for me.
A young girl orphaned on the way to New York is taken in by two new yorkers.
I found it quite hard to read at the beginning because the story was so sad and although I wanted to see what happened to her in her life I thought that her finding out about her past was only going to bring even more upset.
When she returns to France she finds secrets and it was such a long read for me that by the end I was pleased with myself that I had finished it.
I usually enjoy historical fiction but maybe the translation meant this did not hit the mark for me.
3 stars
Many thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Poor Elizabeth, thrust from one life to another through no fault of her own. This story is a series of ups and downs with the real revelation that the life she took for granted is turned upside down in her sixteenth year. It is the yearn for family that finds her back in her native France hoping for family and in the end finding love and losing ,searching for family and realizing home begins in hearts of those who have looked out for you time and time again.

1886 France - Elizabeth is a happy child with parents who dote on her. The family history however is troubled and her parents decide to immigrate. Expecting her second baby, the voyage is harsh and her mother dies in childbirth on the voyage itself. Her father is distraught but determined to set course for New York and to set up in the carpentry field which is his speciality. Fate however has other plans and he loses his life within a few weeks of arriving in America.

Getting lost and being found by a wealthy New Yorker who loved her very much and who provided everything he possibly could for her should have been a boon but Elizabeth even at such a young age, and throughout her growingup years had flashbacks of life with her parents and her grand parents and a young boy who befriended her years ago.

The story of how Elizabeth and the changes that happen so drastically very negative and then very positive makes for an interesting change, especially told over a few decades.

I wanted to love this one sad much but sadly this fell a little flat for me. I found myself putting it down more than I was reading it.

I wanted to love this one but sadly it was actually a DNF for me. The writing wasn't bad exactly, but I just could not engage with the main character(s) or the overall story.

Lisbeth was separated from her parents and adopted in New York when she was a child. Now, she's 16 and she wants to know her French family so she's gone back to France. Lots of secrets and lies and frankly, abuse. There is a much better. novel in this hefty tome had it been re-edited after translation. I wanted to like it but I never warmed to Lisbeth and much of it felt just wrong. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A rare DNF and pass from me.

I'm sorry I just couldn't finish this one, it was a bit too melodramatic for me. The premise was good, but somehow I just wasn't connecting with the storyline.

Thank you NetGalley for the preview of this book.
The story looks so promising, just the type of story I usually love to read: Mystery, lost family, French castles, etc. To be honest, I found it difficult to follow, the character development was in my opinion not good, maybe translation issues? Some weirdly thrown in "sex" scenes with strange vernacular. It is a long novel that I just could not finish. To me, it didn't flow well, and the events got to be cliche. I did finish the book, but it was not easy.

I received this from Netgalley.com.

Elizabeth is tragically orphaned and adopted by wealthy New Yorkers.

This was translated and it wasn’t bad per say, but the English dialogue felt off, stilted and redundant and a couple hundred pages too long.

2 stars

I'm not sure how I truly felt about this book. I liked the plot, but disliked parts of the book. It takes place in the late 1800's and tells the story of a young girl,named Elizabeth, fleeing France for New York City with her parents, to escape her cruel grandfather. They're trip is rife with unfortunate events, which continue after they arrive in NYC. Elizabeth is orphaned and taken in by a wealthy couple who raise her lovingly. At the age of 16 Elisabeth finds out the truth about her past and returns to France and the families of both her mother and father, who are very different. The first part of the book is much better than the second. Although I did like the unexpected twist at the the end, things got a little too dark in the last quarter of the book. Aside from the story line, I felt the writing was a bit weak in places. The author often has characters talk to themselves - it seems that is the only way she could get her point across - but it seemed very odd to me. Again, I had a hard time rating this book, but ultimately I did enjoy it and was anxious to see how it ended. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

As a fan of dramas and sagas, I really wanted to be able to devour and love this book. While certainly interesting and dramatic, it fell short for me. I am reader in the sense that when I’ve gotten a certain way into a book I will finish it, but I do have to admit I was asking myself many of times why I was still reading it.

The premise a young girl from France orphaned in America gets raised by wealthy adoptive parents is interesting. When she is 16 she learns the truth and returns to her homeland of France. I think what I found absurd was how ridiculous the author made the bad characters to be. They were a cliche in the worst way.

I know this book is well rated so I, along with many other readers it appears, wonder if something was lost in the translation process.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not so sure about this book. Through the first half It was one of those books in which the writing wasn’t that great but the story was intriguing enough to keep you riveted. Then it began to take a turn for the slightly idiotic. I won’t give examples so I don’t spoil it.

I kept reading because the story felt like it was leading to somewhere.

All in all though, I don’t know what the point was of this book. It seemed like halfway through the novel the author realized it wasn’t going anywhere so they just added whatever new characters and crazy ideas they could come up with.

That began to showcase the less-than-stellar writing style.

This is a book I’m sure I will soon forget. Definitely not as bad as other books I’ve tried - good enough for me to read it in one week without giving up - but not a book I would recommend to others.

Oh, it takes place at the end of the 19th century and follows a girl named Elizabeth from France to New York.

What a story! Sagas are not really my thing but I was recommended it by a friend and truly enjoyed it. This book is not for the faint hearted. It tells the story of how a young French girl is orphaned in New York at the turn of the 20th C and all the dramas and tragedy that befall her and her family. The story in itself is quite sad, but very realistic for the era. It veers between two worlds: poverty and riches and two places: New York and Charente (France). There was so much suspense in each chapter that I was riveted throughout. I read it pretty quickly as it was one of those you can't put down, despite it being a long story. It had an abrupt ending, leaving you intrigued as to what happens to the main characters. I would love to read the next book in the series, just to find out whether Lisbeth and Richard stay together. The plot is original and meaningful, giving you a good insight into how tough life was for Europeans emigrating to the New World circa 1890. It's not sugar coated which adds to its realism and is one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much. Yes, I would recommend it.

I received The Manhattan Secret as part of a NetGalley giveaway.

In late 19th century France, a young couple escapes her domineering parents to travel to America with their young daughter Elizabeth. Tragedy befalls them along the way, and Elizabeth is orphaned in a new country. Taken in and nurtured by a well-off couple, she grows up happily, oblivious of her shadowy past. When she comes to terms with her trauma, she discovers the life she left behind in France, and the legacy she may one day inherit. But after traveling to her homeland and meeting her long-lost relatives, she comes to to terms with the past and plans for a new and unexpected future.

This was...a weird read. I agree with other reviewers that something was lost in translation ("moist genitals" is one of the more disturbing sex scene phrases I've ever encountered), but it was something more than that. It just wasn't a well crafted story in ways that transcended the words on the page. The heroine is beautiful and universally adored, despite being a limp, passive, boring noodle of a person. Characters swung wildly between kind and cartoonishly evil. The whole thing felt like a Victorian melodrama with some bad sex scenes added--the beatific, saintly parents sacrificing everything for their adored daughter, an orphaned waif (and lost heiress) wandering the streets of New York, her inheritance a medieval French estate filled with darkness and secrets, two dashing suitors. Had the characters been more interesting, the story might have worked, but everyone involved had the charisma of a paper bag, the wild changes in plot and temperament were weird and off-putting, the ending was bizarre, and it all added up to one mess of a novel. Hard pass for me.