Maybe it is just a world that I took for granted, but I loved the whole thing!! I will think twice the next time I smell something particularly unpleasant or odd because of this book.Įxcept this: SPOILER At the end, I wanted more!!!!! I wanted to see Grace in a year's time. They will concoct your own special blend of myrrh and frankincense and oud to burn in your home. Maybe this book was particularly interesting because I am living in the Middle East and I see oud shops and perfumers all over the place. I wanted those bottles of perfume in front of me so I could smell the scents. I wanted to be Grace trying oysters for the first time. Of course, I guessed how Eva was related to Grace, long before Grace figured it out, but how their lives became intertwined and how and why Eva did what she did, took more time. I felt my mind wandering ahead trying to figure out the connections, like a child's dot-to-dot picture. I loved how this story was slowly revealed to the reader from two time periods. I loved this twist of perfumes- of how one smell or a combination of smells can take you back to a place in time, a moment, an hour, a day. I love books where the author has had to do her (or his) research into the time period, or technical issues pertaining to a book. I especially love books where I can learn a little while reading.

Add to the characters a unique and quirky story involving the smells of our lives and the life of a perfumer, and you have the recipe for an amazing book. Each one of them added to the overall character and life of this book. Lambert, Rita, Valmont, Madame Zed, Madame Hiver, and the rest of the characters in this book are eclectic, strange, maniacal, subdued, eccentric, and at times, plain crazy. I only have one complaint that I will share at the end, which is a spoiler, so beware.

The perfume collector