Monday, May 5, 2014

The Perfume Collector





Grace Monroe is living a life of privilege in London 1955. She receives a letter from France that changes her life. Eva d'Orsey has left her a substantial fortune. The only problem is, Grace has no idea who Eva was, and why she would leave her a fortune. Grace travels to France to receive her inheritance and to try to discover who this mysterious benefactor was. Her search leads her to an abandoned Perfume Shop. The perfumes in the shop help to slowly uncover Eva's story.

The story alternates between Grace and Eva's points of view, and their stories are woven together in an artful way. Telling both of their stories together did make the end more predictable, but I still enjoyed discovering how we would get to that end. Using the perfumes as prompts for the story was a unique method, and I liked the imagery that conveyed.

The plot itself is rather simple, but that should not deter readers. This makes Tessaro's writing style stand out more as she weaves simplicity into a gripping story that you want to continue reading, despite knowing how it must turn out in the end. With characters written so well, you feel you know them by the end, this was altogether a satisfying read. This was the first book I have read from this author, but I will be checking out her other work.

I would recommend this to fans of historical fiction.

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