Review: The Perfumist of Paris

Title: The Perfumist of Paris

Author: Alka Joshi

Publisher: 5th April 2023 by HQ Fiction

Pages: 384 pages

Genre: historical fiction, women’s fiction, cultural - India

Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

Paris, 1974. Radha is now thirty-two and living in Paris with her husband, Pierre, and their two daughters. She still grieves for the baby boy she gave up years ago, when she was only a child herself, but she loves being a mother to her daughters, and she’s finally found her passion—the treasure trove of scents.

When her friend’s grandfather offered her a job at his parfumerie, she quickly discovered she had a talent—she could find the perfect fragrance for any customer who walked in the door. Now, ten years later, she’s working for a master perfumer, helping to design completely new fragrances for clients and building her career one scent at a time. She only wishes Pierre could understand her need to work. She feels his frustration, but she can’t give up this thing that drives her.

Tasked with her first major project, Radha travels to India, where she enlists the help of her sister, Lakshmi, and the courtesans of Agra—women who use the power of fragrance to seduce, tease and entice. She’s on the cusp of a breakthrough when she finds out the son she never told her husband about is heading to Paris to find her—upending her carefully managed world and threatening to destroy a vulnerable marriage.

The final chapter in Alka Joshi’s New York Times bestselling Jaipur trilogy takes readers to 1970s Paris, where Radha’s budding career as a perfumer must compete with the demands of her family and the secrets of her past.

My Thoughts

I read The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, the second in the Jaipur Trilogy series even though I had not read The Henna Artist. I adored it! Could this final installment live up to my expectations - yes it could. The Perfumist of Paris is exquisite and most likely my favourite from the series. 

Book One, The Henna Artist was Lakshmi’s tale and introduced readers to the vivid sights and smells of India. Book Two, The Secret Keeper of Jaipur picked up the story 12 years later with her protégé, Malik. Finally, in Book Three, The Perfumist of Paris the spotlight is now on Radha, Lakshmi’s younger sister, living in 1974 Paris with her husband and two daughters.

‘It fascinated me that a mixture of unrelated ingredients could produce something so tantalizing, so appealing, so intoxicating.’

Alka Joshi is a masterful storyteller from the exotic streets of Jaipur, to the stunning street of Paris. How artfully she captures all the sights, smells and sensations and with this book all about perfumery and essential oils combining East and West made for a spectacular sensory experience. I learnt so much and the combination of art and essential oils was inspired - I was captivated. 

‘…my first boss in Paris, told me that the first women's fragrance to use vetiver was Chanel No. 5 in 1921, and here Indians had been using it and exporting the scented grass to the world for thousands of years!’

Each book was so good in its own way yet combined to bring us characters whom we enjoyed seeing evolve and grow. There are references to characters from the other books so reading them first would be beneficial especially as a major plot involves an event from Radha as a young girl in book one 

‘There's a settled feeling about you, in you. It's as if, in India, you found a piece of yourself you had lost." There it is again. The idea that we women lose track of ourselves.’

This was an absolutely beautiful conclusion to the Jaipur trilogy that allowed readers to be part of Radha’s struggle to balance her career, marriage and motherhood in 1974 Paris. Alka’s storytelling has opened up new worlds for many of us and I for one look forward to her future books.

‘The measure of us isn't in the day-to-day. And it's not in our past or our future. It's in the fundamental changes we make within ourselves over a lifetime.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: Happy Place

Title: Happy Place

Author: Emily Henry

Publisher: 27th April 2023 by Penguin UK, Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking

Pages: 400 pages

Genre: General Fiction (Adult) | Romance | Women's Fiction

Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

Harriet and Wyn are the perfect couple - they go together like bread and butter, gin and tonic, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds. Except, now they don't.

They broke up six months ago. And they still haven't told anyone.

Which is how they end up sharing a bedroom at the cottage that has been their yearly getaway with their best friends for the past decade. For one glorious week they leave behind their lives, drink far too much wine and soak up the sea air with their favourite people.

Only this year, Harriet and Wyn are lying through their teeth. The cottage is for sale so this is the last time they'll all be together here and they can't bear to break their friends' hearts. So, they'll fake it for one more week.

It's a flawless plan (if you look at it through a pair of sunscreen-smeared sunglasses).

But how can you pretend to be in love with someone - and get away with it - in front of the people who know you best?

My Thoughts

“Everything good?” she asks. “Of course it is,” I insist, snuggling closer. “I’m in my happy place.”

I was excited to read Emily Henry’s upcoming, Happy Place thinking it would be fun, light and romantic. I am happy to report that it was that and so much more. Emily’s fourth novel where she takes on the second chance romance trope is a definite winner and for many more reasons than readers might immediately think. 

‘What can you feel? Sunlight, everywhere. Not just on my bare shoulders or the crown of my head, but inside me too, the irresistible warmth that comes only from being in the exact right place with the exact right people.’

On the surface, Happy Place is the story of Harriet and Wyn who have to pretend they are still together so they don’t ruin their last holiday with their group of best friends. How this plays out will obviously prove eventful, however, dig a little deeper and there is a great deal more going on here. The tale goes between past and present but there is a real depth of emotion on both an individual, dual and group level that definitely sets this Emily Henry book apart from her earlier works. 

‘He’s become my best friend, the way the others did, bit by bit, sand passing through an hourglass, so slowly it’s impossible to pin down the moment it happens. When suddenly more of my heart belongs to him than doesn’t, and I know I’ll never get a single grain back.’

Yes, this book has all the expected charm with fun and light encounters but this time around there is an added layer of real character development. There is a sense of melancholy as other reviewers have noted that makes it less rom-com with a focus more on the slow burn. With deeper understandings and revelations as characters explore their individual and collective arcs and how navigating life and love - both romantic, family and friendships - is front and centre. 

‘The place I go when I feel trapped inside myself. When I’m terrified that all my happiest moments belong to the past.’

This, I found to be, one of the most appealing aspects of this book. Whether it be the individual's growth, the romantic growth and family/friendship growth - Emily Henry takes it to the next level. I found the theme of friends and family and what that looked like and how that impacted them to be just as powerful as the romantic themes - perhaps even more so. 

‘Time doesn’t move the same way when we’re there. Things change, but we stretch and grow and make room for each other. Our love is a place we can always come back to, and it will be waiting, the same as it ever was.’

Emily Henry’s Happy Place, is quite possibly her best yet as it has everything you have come to expect and so much more. Her writing is truly evolving with readers sure to love her latest offering. The romance is incredible but so too are the other themes and life lessons.

‘Everything is changing. It has to. You can’t stop time. All you can do is point yourself in a direction and hope the wind will let you get there.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: Crushing

Title: Crushing

Author: Genevieve Novak

Publisher: 5th April 2023 by HarperCollins Publishers Australia

Pages: 360 pages

Genre: romance, women’s fiction, contemporary

Rating: 4 cups

Synopsis:

When do you stop starting over? The sparkling new novel from the author of No Hard Feelings.

Getting over someone is not that difficult. All you have to do is focus on every negative thing about them for the rest of your life until you forget to stop actively hoping for their slow and painful death, then get a haircut ...

Serial monogamist Marnie is running late to her own identity crisis. After a decade of twisting herself into different versions of the ideal girlfriend, she's swearing off relationships for good. Forever. Done. No more, no thank you.

Pretty inconvenient time to meet Isaac: certified dreamboat and the only man who has ever truly got her. It's cool, though, they're just friends, he's got someone else, and she has more important things to worry about. Like who she is, what she wants, and what the hell she ever saw in the love(s) of her life in the first place.

Flanked by overwhelmed new mum Nicola, terminally single Claud, and eternal pessimist Kit, Marnie reckons with the question: who are we when we're on our own?

My Thoughts

I read and adored Genevieve’s first book, ‘No Hard Feelings’, therefore it was with great anticipation that I came to read her latest offering. The last book followed a theme of where are you going with your life, on this occasion Crushing follows along a similar winning formula except this time around the question is, who are we when we’re on our own? 

‘I was running late to my own identity crisis. Usually reserved for people on the cusp of adulthood, I had only just realised on the edge of my thirties that I had no idea who I was, what I liked, or what I wanted.’

Once again Genevieve hits you with her wit, humour and upfront honesty that people will relate to the rawness of emotion presented at times. Once more the uncertainties and insecurities can be felt by all people at any age of their life when they don’t know how to be by themselves. We can personally relate or know of someone who this would clearly speak to.

‘I had to know all of my options before making a choice, no matter its significance. I was paralysed by indecision, idling for years. I let myself be led by stronger personalities to absolve myself if — when — things went wrong.’

Genevieve takes her readers on an adventure from flat sharing, to family occasions, to looking for yourself and much, much more. I loved cruising the streets of my hometown Melbourne once more, with a particular nod to the Fairfield boathouse.

There will be many laugh out loud moments, there will be many tantrums and tears but I had faith in Genevieve’s writing. Marnie is a hard character to like at times, I mean in all honesty, she doesn’t even really like herself. But I trusted Genevieve and boy! Did she come through for me. When all the avoidance and anger was swept away, she leaves her readers with raw emotion, like new clay ready to be sculptured into something new and better. Remarkable.

Why do you do it?’ he asked. ‘What’s wrong with how you are? I might like her better.’ I paused, holding my breath in my lungs while I decided how honest to be.

‘I’ve let her down too many times,’ I said.

Crushing is polarising in that it can be hard to read yet is equally heart-assuring being full of lessons on loss and strength, hope and discovery all bound together with loads of ludicrous laughter. 

‘How clearheaded we become when we come to terms with ourselves; our ugly and our redeemable. The weight hadn’t eased but it was easier to carry now. I was a person in progress, and there was much work left to do.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: The Fancies

Title: The Fancies

Author: Kim Lock

Publisher: 5th April 2023 by Harlequin Australia, HQ & MIRA

Pages: 367 pages

Genre: contemporary, Australia 

My Rating: 3.5 cups

Synopsis:

Abigail Fancy returns to the tiny town that the Fancys have ruled for decades, fresh from her second stint in prison and utterly out of time... A bold, punchy and wry novel from the author of The Other Side of Beautiful.

A story about stories - those we tell, those we believe and those we make into a reality - whether they are true, murky or not true at all.

Port Kingerton: the insular cray-fishing town at the butt-end of South Australia, where everyone knows everyone. And everyone knows too that when Abigail Fancy left town at seventeen, she hung out the window of her boyfriend's Corolla, middle fingers held high, swearing she'd never come back. And she hasn't, until now.

At her parents' house Abigail finds a party (read: town meeting) in full swing over something iffy found on the beach - a thigh bone. And although iffy things aren't uncommon in Port Kingerton, Abigail's surprise arrival forces a family - and an entire town - to unpack a twenty-four-year-old secret that rocked this tiny place to its core: that time they found something much iffier ...

Through Abigail, her grandfather Old Dick Fancy's unreliable memories and the collective voices of the town itself, Port Kingerton unravels as old wounds are picked open, skeletons fall from closets and unlikely bonds are forged. But will Abigail finally change the past ...?

Fresh, punchy, expertly crafted and deliciously wry - the author of The Other Side of Beautiful returns with a tour de force of a small-town mystery where a homecoming lifts the veil on a time when a town failed to stand up for its girls.

My Thoughts

Kim Lock’s, The Other Side of Beautiful was one of my very favourite reads from over the past couple of years - I own it in multiple formats. So it was therefore with great anticipation that I embarked on her follow up novel, The Fancies. Whilst the writing and subtle messages are still clearly present in Kim’s writing, this was a very different sort of tale. 

‘… she was tired of running and simply would not anymore. So be it. She would stop and face it, the tidal wave of emotion, and she would deal with whatever that meant, whatever that came with.’

This is a story told from three different perspectives with larger-than-life characters. Firstly, there is Abigail just out of jail, Old Dick (Abigail's grandfather) who brings a hefty dose of humour and then 'Them' - various people from Port Kingerton in third person. This is Australiana on steroids - the dark/dry humour, the laid back mentality and culture, the shenanigans and the language (both foul and otherwise). Mysteries and secrets from the past arise and generational family rivalry stir up the town

‘Maybe they never stop being what other people say they are, and it goes on and on, generation after generation, until it’s just a town where everyone thinks they know who everyone else is, but no one knows who they really are themselves.’

Scratch the surface a bit more and by the end when all is settled, it is clear that Kim’s writing is wonderful. With themes of how people are quick to judge (especially in small rural towns) the bias towards people out of prison and the treatment of young women are just some of the issues placed under Kim’s spotlight. One of my favourites concerned Abigail and how she learned to pause and consider her reactions - not everything had to be an angry confrontation.

I have to say I am a little saddened but that is purely personal as I am just not a fan of this style of dialogue or Australian dark humour. However, if I dug a little deeper, my love for Kim’s writing and thought provoking ideas were still evident.

‘They were both searching for the exact same thing: freedom. The liberty to be whoever they really are.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Review: The Last Party at Silverton Hall

Title: The Last Party at Silverton Hall

Author: Rachel Burton

Publisher: 2nd March 2023 by Aria & Aries, Aria

Pages: 400 pages

Genre: Historical Fiction | Romance | Women's Fiction

Rating: 5 cups

Synopsis:

Two women. Two centuries. A life-changing night...

1952: Vivien and Max collide in the thick London smog. Within a few years, their whirlwind romance sees them living a quiet life on the Norfolk coast, blissfully happy with their beautiful daughter – at least, that's how it appears...

2019: Isobel is hoping for a fresh start when she inherits her beloved grandmother Vivien's house in Silverton Bay. But when she discovers an old photograph of Vivien at one of the infamous parties held at Silverton Hall in the 1950s, Isobel is forced to question how well she really knew her grandmother. Silverton Hall is a place Vivien swore she never went and never would – but why would she lie? And what other secrets was she keeping?

Together with an old friend, Isobel searches for answers. But is she prepared for the truth?

My Thoughts

I am a fan of Rachel’s writing and on this occasion, I really feel she has outdone herself. The Last Party at Silverton Hall is a wonderfully nuanced novel that weaves around a family’s secrets and the impact keeping them can have. 

‘How can anyone know what choices they would have made if they had known what was going to happen?’

A dual time narrative detailing a grandmother and granddaughters story. When Isobel is sorting out her grandmother's house, secrets are unearthed that leave her wishing she had asked more questions whilst Vivien had been alive. The grand hall overlooking the bay is newly renovated and its history may hold the key to many of Isobel’s questions. This is an opportunity Vivien has given Isobel to start again, to find happiness if she can only sort through this family mystery. 

‘They aren’t failures,’ Spencer said quietly. ‘It’s just life.’

This is a tale that cleverly mixes historical fiction with an intriguing family mystery and just the right amount of romance to flavour. The scenes from the 1950s are expertly portrayed by Rachel as she skilfully interweaves events from the past with their current day impact. Both timelines hold rich storylines with engaging characters working through themes of love and loss, family dramas and reconciliations.

Rachel writes wonderfully warm and captivating tales set against perfect locales that keep me coming back from more. The Last Party at Silverton Hall holds such an atmosphere of mystery and then revelation - I found it to be charming and all I could have hoped for. 

‘… the wonderful, awe-inspiring party at Silverton Hall felt as though it would be the last party she would ever attend. The last party where she could ever be the version of Vivien that she wanted to be.’

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.