THE PLEASING HOUR by Lily King

Nineteen-year-old Rosie, an American, has been hired as an au pair by a French couple, Marc and Nicole.  We learn early in the novel that she has given her infant daughter to her sister, but the details do not surface until much later.  We also know that her tenure with Marc and Nicole is relatively short-lived, as the timeline bounces between Rosie’s time with them and her later role as caretaker of Lucie, an elderly woman who knew Nicole as a child.  The two mysteries—that of Rosie’s baby and that of her departure from Marc and Nicole’s household—unfold in a dreamy manner, as we learn not just of Rosie’s background but of Nicole’s as well.  Both women’s histories are a little sketchy, however, and their complex personalities are most vivid during the pages in which they live together but never wholly warm up to one another.  Marc is also a very central character, although we learn almost nothing about his past.  That omission is obviously intentional, as we are left to draw our own conclusions about his real character.  Is he a man of integrity and substance, or is he not what he seems?  Rosie’s mistakes in life are plain to see, as both of the novel’s mysteries revolve around unfortunate decisions on her part.  Marc, however, is an enigma, as is the title.