The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose

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A sweeping and suspenseful tale of secrets, intrigue, and lovers separated by time, all connected through the mystical qualities of a perfume created in the days of Cleopatra--and lost for 2,000 years.

Jac L'Etoile has always been haunted by the past, her memories infused with the exotic scents that she grew up surrounded by as the heir to a storied French perfume company. In order to flee the pain of those remembrances--and of her mother's suicide--she moved to America. Now, fourteen years later she and her brother have inherited the company along with it's financial problems. But when Robbie hints at an earth-shattering discovery in the family archives and then suddenly goes missing--leaving a dead body in his wake--Jac is plunged into a world she thought she'd left behind.

Back in Paris to investigate her brother's disappearance, Jac becomes haunted by the legend the House of L'Etoile has been espousing since 1799. Is there a scent that can unlock the mystery of reincarnation - or is it just another dream infused perfume?

The Book of Lost Fragrances fuses history, passion, and suspense, moving from Cleopatra's Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet's battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris. Jac's quest for the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past.

The Book of Lost Fragrances is the epitome of what I enjoy the most about M.J. Rose's works: fascinating historical facts mixed with thought-provoking spirituality and exciting storylines to form a potent elixir of a novel. Like the most complex perfumes, this book had layers of intrigue, most ostensibly involving the Chinese suppression of Tibetan Buddhists and a French family of perfumers' personal and financial troubles. These two initially separate narratives eventually collide in thrilling action which centers around an ancient legend of a perfume with unique, magical properties.

These sections, where Rose describes scents and their powerful associations, transported me. If words could have aromas, then Rose's writing is lyrical fragrance.

The magical perfume at the heart of the novel, and one which everyone is desperately searching for, at whatever cost, is that of "âmes souers" or the scent of soul mates. Rose weaves a legend that Cleopatra, still in love with the dead Julius Caesar, commissions a very special concoction, that which will allow her in her future lives the ability to find her soul mate, Caesar, no matter where or when, through scent.

The mixture of memory, scent, and love is a powerful and heady combination. The passages dealing with doomed lovers through the centuries were the most moving for me. For instance, this image of a woman pining for the man who broke her heart and buying bottles of his scent because she's still in love with him.

"Jac thought the scent promised stories, too, but based on its essences. Its ingredients were as old as the Bible: bergamot, lemon, honey, ylang ylang, vetiver, civet, and musk. Rich florals and animalic accords that blended together to create a particular scent that for her would always be associated with Griffin. With their time together. With wonder. With falling in love. With a cessation of loneliness. And then with anger and brutal grief.

"Long after they'd broken up, she still scanned tables at flea markets and auctions on eBay, buying up even half-empty bottles. In the recesses of the armoire in her bedroom, she had a cache of eight bottles. Even sealed packaging, even in the dark, cologne evaporated. Like moments in your life. Time fades the details."

"The powerful musk embraced and enveloped her, lulled her into believing that she was still with Griffin---that she'd once more found the soul she was truly connected to."

Along with the poignant love stories of soul mates found and lost, The Book of Lost Fragrances is charged with multiple, exciting plots and backed by meticulous research. Throw in exotic Ancient Egypt, the glamour of Paris, as well as its macabre catacombs, and you've a wonderful, fictional concoction.





For the Book of Lost Fragrances tour schedule, go here.

M.J. Rose is the international best selling author of eleven novels and two non-fiction books on marketing. Her next novel THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES (Atria/S&S) will be published in March 2012. Her fiction and non-fiction has appeared in many magazines and reviews including Oprah Magazine. She has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, Time, USA Today and on the Today Show, and NPR radio. Rose graduated from Syracuse University, spent the '80s in advertising, has a commercial in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and since 2005 has run the first marketing company for authors - Authorbuzz.com. The television series PAST LIFE, was based on Rose's novels in the Renincarnationist series. She is one of the founding board members of International Thriller Writers and runs the blog- Buzz, Balls & Hype. She is also the co-founder of Peroozal.com and BookTrib.com.

Rose lives in CT with her husband the musician and composer, Doug Scofield, and their very spoiled and often photographed dog, Winka.

For more information on M.J. Rose and her novels, please visit her WEBSITE. You can also find her on Facebook.

Embrace by Jessica Shirvington

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Violet Eden is dreading her seventeenth birthday dinner. After all, it’s hard to get too excited about the day that marks the anniversary of your mother’s death. The one bright spot is that Lincoln will be there. Sexy, mature and aloof, he is Violet’s idea of perfection. But why does he seem so reluctant to be anything more than a friend?



After he gives her the world’s most incredible kiss – and then abandons her on her front doorstep – Violet is determined to get some answers. But nothing could have prepared her for Lincoln’s explanation: he is Grigori – part angel and part human – and Violet is his eternal partner.


Without warning, Violet’s world is turned upside down. She never believed in God, let alone angels. But there’s no denying the strange changes in her body … and her feelings for Lincoln. Suddenly, she can’t stand to be around him. Luckily, Phoenix, an exiled angel, has come into her life. He’s intense and enigmatic, but at least he never lied to her.


As Violet gets caught up in an ancient battle between dark and light, she must choose her path. The wrong choice could cost not only her life, but her eternity…

Embrace by Jessica Shirvington has individual, unique facets that attracted me; however, although I was entertained, I could not entirely embrace this world.

Shirvington has drawn from rich Biblical and Jewish mythological sources to create a complex, otherworldly heirarchy of angels at war with one another, with humans in the center of it all. On her 17th birthday, Violet Eden finds out she is half-angel and half-human and that she must "embrace" the powers, as well as responsibilities, that come with who she is.

I struggled a bit to understand the rules and laws that governed each class of angels and their interactions with one another; I had to re-read some passages and even then I couldn't comprehend the overarching logic, especially as it related to the significance of senses being possessed by angels. I can see how the smell of apples relates to the knowledge of good and evil and the fall, and that's why angels give off that scent, but it still seemed rather random to me. The sections dealing with the nature of good and evil were the most fascinating to me and I wish that there was more discussion of that.

As a heroine, Violet is promising: motherless, with a dark past, artistic, good student, and training in defensive arts. For most of the book, however, she is hapless and somewhat of a victim of events and others' shady motives. She doesn't even begin to fulfill her promise until well into the second half of the book.

Violet's awareness of who she is begins with her dead mother's letter to her, which as far as letters go is beautifully written but not very helpful, as it is composed of poetic hints and vague, confusing warnings. As a mother, penning my last words to my daughter to be read on the eve of her life-changing moment, I think I would be crystal clear, especially on how she was in mortal danger, or even just say in plain words: my daughter, you're half-angel and other angels will be going after you once you turn 17.

There is the ubiquitous love triangle which developed in a way that surprised me - racy, complicated and...hot! Shirvington establishes a dichotomy of carnality versus spirituality/evil versus good that somehow makes the "good" guy seem frankly impotent and not as fascinating as his rival.

I relished the plot once it finally arrives where Violet is the center and driving force of the action and conflict; if a significant portion of the next book contains the same then it will be worth picking up.


Brand New Embrace Book Trailer from Sourcebooks Inc on Vimeo.



Embrace Cover Shoot from Sourcebooks Inc on Vimeo.


Thank you to the Amazon Vine program for providing a copy for me to review!

Winner!

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The winner of my Wicked Giveaway is


Shantal!!!

Shantal has been notified and her prize is on its way! Thank you for entering, everyone.

San Francisco Anne Rice Book Signing

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Being the bibliogeek that I am, I decided to celebrate my birthday by ordering a couple of exquisite purses crafted from hardcover books: Dracula by Bram Stoker and The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. A couple of days after receiving them in the mail, I discovered in astonishing coincidence that Anne Rice would doing a book signing in San Francisco for her new novel, The Wolf Gift, her only Northern California appearance for this tour.


I had a devil of a time trying to figure out which of my books to bring to the signing. To my horror, I realized that my only copy of Interview with a Vampire was a discard I bought at a library sale long ago and that my Mayfair Witches books were all tattered mass marked paperbacks. So instead, this past Friday, I brought my fabulous new book purse, Christ the Lord Out of Egypt (a previous birthday present from my brother), and Servant of the Bones.

I had called ahead to Books, Inc., the book store hosting the signing, and managed to score for myself and my friends a ticket in the "A Group" with a purchase of the new book.  We were about 15th in line and were able to sit comfortably inside on chairs while many had to stand outside in the cold San Francisco night air.  The first people in line had been there since noon for the privilege.  We only stood in line for about half an hour.  Some people came from as far away as Sacramento and Yuba City and had rented hotel rooms for the night. 

To say that I was excited would be an understatement.

I stopped breathing when she appeared;  here was the grand dame, the queen, a living legend. Did she ever live up to my gothic image of her, making her magnificent entrance in floor-length black velvet with an ornate Victorian brooch decorating her throat.

I kept telling myself to be calm so that I would be coherent when my turn came.



And when I finally was face-to-face with my idol, who wore a gracious smile, I could barely utter, "Your books formed me."


There's not much more I remember, being completely starstruck, except for this little exchange when I presented my book purse for her to sign:


Me: "Have you seen one of these before?"


Anne (with a polite smile): "Yes, I've seen that book before."


Me: (Laughs hysterically, while mentally slapping myself): "It's a purse."


Anne: "This is a purse?" (Raises eyebrow) No, I haven't seen one of these before."


Me: (Crap, now she's thinking someone ripped apart her book and took out the best part for sheer vanity.) "It's recycled!!!"

Aftwerwards, my euphoria lasted for hours until I started to wonder if I had possessed the wits to thank her.  Late that night, I got an excited message from my friend saying that my purse had been filmed and uploaded into Anne Rice's Youtube channel.  I vaguely recalled one of Anne's people holding up his iPhone to the crowd but I was so excited I didn't realize he had been filming my few precious moments with Anne - now for posterity!  

Upon viewing the video, I was relieved to know that aside from gushing, I did, in fact, remember to express my gratitude. 

To see how long the line was outside the store (and it gets chilly in San Francisco, brrr):







Since I know y'all are gonna want one of your own- I got it at Novel Creations on Etsy.  I can attest that Karen is a sweetheart and has excellent craftsmanship.


And I have no shame in saying that I coordinated my entire outfit, head to toe, to match that purse. Wouldn't you?


"It is the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory of fashion that heralds your arrival and prolongs your departure." - Coco Chanel

The Humming Room by Ellen Potter

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Hiding is Roo Fanshaw's special skill. Living in a frighteningly unstable family, she often needs to disappear at a moment's notice. When her parents are murdered, it's her special hiding place under the trailer that saves her life.

As it turns out, Roo, much to her surprise, has a wealthy if eccentric uncle, who has agreed to take her into his home on Cough Rock Island. Once a tuberculosis sanitarium for children of the rich, the strange house is teeming with ghost stories and secrets. Roo doesn't believe in ghosts or fairy stories, but what are those eerie noises she keeps hearing? And who is that strange wild boy who lives on the river? People are lying to her, and Roo becomes determined to find the truth.

Despite the best efforts of her uncle's assistants, Roo discovers the house's hidden room--a garden with a tragic secret.

Inspired by The Secret Garden, this tale full of unusual characters and mysterious secrets is a story that only Ellen Potter could write. 

The Humming Room by Ellen Potter  is a fantastic, modern retelling of The Secret Garden. In fact, other than the names and the setting, The Humming Room closely follows the beloved original. So why read The Humming Room, you say, instead of just re-reading The Secret Garden?

I give you – Roo. Distrustful and tough, wild and willful, Roo endeared herself to me from the first page. Something about Potter’s sharp and unsentimental description of the flatness of her green eyes, were they should be alive and brilliant but are spiritless instead --- won me.

Roo has learned how to hide from the harshness of the world. She has no friends and refuses to talk to anyone, even if well-meaning. Easy enough if you're quiet and small and your charming but criminal father and his trailer trash girlfriend have no parenting instincts. But even Roo can't hide from the social worker who comes to get her after they're murdered. From hiding in a garden of pilfered, artificial flowers she created as a sanctuary below her family’s trailer, Roo is taken by the social worker to remote Cough Island to be raised by a rich, mysterious uncle she never before knew existed.

"All around her on the icy, packed earth were dozens of tiny flowers, some made of blown glass, some trapped in Lucite domes-daisies, tiger lilies, a bouquet of pink roses, paper-thin red poppies. There was a pair of enamel earrings shaped like marigolds, large and gaudy, which she had stolen from the drugstore. She had mounded up earth and planted them by sticking their posts through the ground. Roo considered the little garden before nudging the poppies closer to the marigolds and putting the snake between them. Then she flung herself to the ground and listened to the earth. It was something she often did, checking the ground the way other girls might check the mirror. She could hear all its movements, small, fluttering sounds of life that fascinated her."

There’s a quiet beauty to Potter’s writing which reflects Roo’s personality – ever watchful and observant. Roo is sensitive to everything around her, even if it’s not immediately apparent to anyone else. She can find an all but dead garden that’s been walled up on the island; she can hear life humming in a seemingly lifeless earth. Cough Island just wild and stimulating enough that it awakens Roo’s adventurous spirit. In doggedly resuscitating the secret garden and making unlikely friendships, Roo blossoms as well, coming to life when she stops hiding herself from the world and becomes part of it.

The message in The Humming Room is exquisitely conveyed:  Like the secret garden, Roo and other characters in may have walled off their emotions because of painful tragedy, but there’s always a chance for redemption and renewal. 

Thank you very much to the Amazon Vine Program and Feiwel & Friends for providing copies for me to review!