Book Review: The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro

This is yet another book about a secret history. Yawn! Aren’t there too many books about that already? Well, who cares? This book is fantastic! I loved every page of it (and there are quite a few).

The Perfume Collector: What it is about

What the publishers say: “London, 1955: Grace Monroe is a fortunate young woman. Despite her sheltered upbringing in Oxford, her recent marriage has thrust her into the heart of London’s most refined and ambitious social circles. However, playing the role of the sophisticated socialite her husband would like her to be doesn’t come easily to her—and perhaps never will.

Then one evening a letter arrives from France that will change everything. Grace has received an inheritance. There’s only one problem: she has never heard of her benefactor, the mysterious Eva d’Orsey.

So begins a journey that takes Grace to Paris in search of Eva. There, in a long-abandoned perfume shop on the Left Bank, she discovers the seductive world of perfumers and their muses, and a surprising, complex love story. Told by invoking the three distinctive perfumes she inspired, Eva d’Orsey’s story weaves through the decades, from 1920s New York to Monte Carlo, Paris, and London.

But these three perfumes hold secrets. And as Eva’s past and Grace’s future intersect, Grace realizes she must choose between the life she thinks she should live and the person she is truly meant to be.“

The Perfume Collector: What I thought

I enjoyed reading this book so much! It was a very quick read, and I found it hard to put it down. Grace inherits a lot of money as well as a beautiful apartment in Paris. Wonderful! We readers get a look around the apartment and while it’s meant to be sold, I hoped Grace would be able to keep it and maybe live in it herself.

Most of the story is about Grace trying to find out why she has been left all this wealth. She doesn’t know the deceased and rather than accepting the inheritance just like that, she wants to find out who this Eva d’Orsey is. In a sense, the book is a mystery in which Grace, step-by-step, tries to find out how Eva knew her. Her search brings her to an abandoned perfume shop and an old lady who lives above it.

It’s also the story of Eva, who we find 30 years earlier, in the 1920s, working as young woman in a New York hotel. Here she meets all kinds of guests, some of which play a role in her further life. Most of these guests are flamboyant types and it’s good fun reading about their antics while staying in the hotel. Eva isn’t supposed to talk to the guests, but she does make some life-long friends there.

There is a really good sense of place and time. I especially loved reading about the hotel where Eva worked and about the perfume shop. The story is build up well, and I couldn’t stop reading and finding more about Eva and about Grace’s search for Eva’s history.

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Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Number of pages: 464

First published: 2013

I got this: from Harper for review

Genre: historical fiction

Book Review: The River of No Return by Bee Ridgway

The River of No Return: What it is about

What the publishers say: ““You are now a member of the Guild. There is no return.” Two hundred years after he was about to die on a Napoleonic battlefield, Nick Falcott, soldier and aristocrat, wakes up in a hospital bed in modern London. The Guild, an entity that controls time travel, showers him with life’s advantages. But Nick yearns for home and for one brown-eyed girl, lost now down the centuries. Then the Guild asks him to break its own rule. It needs Nick to go back to 1815 to fight the Guild’s enemies and to find something called the Talisman.

In 1815, Julia Percy mourns the death of her beloved grandfather, an earl who could play with time. On his deathbed he whispers in her ear: “Pretend!” Pretend what? When Nick returns home as if from the dead, older than he should be and battle scarred, Julia begins to suspect that her very life depends upon the secrets Grandfather never told her. Soon enough Julia and Nick are caught up in an adventure that stretches up and down the river of time. As their knowledge of the Guild and their feelings for each other grow, the fate of the future itself is hanging in the balance.“

The River of No Return: What I thought

This was a proper time-travel book: time travel wasn’t an excuse to get a modern person into a previous century or vice versa, but it was a concept that was used throughout the book. Not only as in time-travel, but also in stopping time, manipulating time. That was all very interesting.

On the other hand, I also had a strong Georgette Heyer-feel at times: aristocrats in the early 19th century, some romance, it was all there. Nothing wrong with that, but not really what I expected in this novel.

More time than I had hoped, was spent in the 1800s. A greater frequency of to-ing and fro-ing would have satisfied this time-travel nerd reader somewhat more. Thus, a large part of the book was historical fiction in which time travel did not (often) take place, but it was talked about a lot.

There is something fishy about the Guild and Nick wants to find out what it is. He discovers that something terrible is awaiting humankind in the future and together with other time-sensitive people, tries to stop this from happening.

I found the ending a little disappointing, because I didn’t feel the story was sufficiently wrapped up. I was reading this on an ereader and the ending came very unexpected. But in all, this was a very entertaining story with some interesting ideas about time.

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Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Number of pages: 464

First published: 2013

I got this: from the publishers, Penguin, via Netgalley (e-galley)

Genre: science fiction, time travel, historical fiction

Book Review: Harlequin’s Costume by Leonid Yuzefovich

Glagoslav Publications contacted me asking me if I wanted to review one of their books on my blog. I hadn’t heard of them, but I found out that they are an British-Dutch publishers that translate Russian, Ukranian and Belarussian books into English.

Harlequin’s Costume sounded like a really fun book about a Russian police detective investigating a murder in 1871. It reminded me of another book that takes place in the same time period in Russia, with a different detective: The Gentle Axe by R. N. Morris.

This book is the first in a series about a real-life detective and was made into a mini-series for Russian television. After reading the book, I’d love to watch that series on tv!

Harlequin’s Costume: What it is about

What the publishers say: “The year is 1871. Prince von Ahrensburg, Austria’s military attaché to St. Petersburg, has been killed in his own bed. The murder threatens diplomatic consequences for Russia so dire that they could alter the course of history. Leading the investigation into the high-ranking diplomat’s death is Chief Inspector Ivan Putilin, but the Tsar has also called in the notorious Third Department – the much-feared secret police – on the suspicion that the murder is politically motivated.

As the clues accumulate, the list of suspects grows longer; there are even rumors of a werewolf at large in the capital. Suspicion falls on the diplomat’s lover and her cuckolded husband, as well as Russian, Polish and Italian revolutionaries, not to mention Turkish spies. True to his maxim that “coincidence and passion are the real conspirators,” Putilin seeks answers inside the diplomatic circus as well, which leads him to struggles with criminals and with the secret police itself. When the mystery is solved, the only person who saw it coming was Putilin.“

Harlequin’s Costume: What I thought

This was a very entertaining story, that indeed brought back the fantastic atmosphere of Russia in the late 1800s that I had found previously in The Gentle Axe by R. N. Morris. It’s amusing throughout. Especially fun is when they force someone to volunteer to be the murderer. You see, it doesn’t actually matter who did it, just that they arrest someone. Interestingly, later on, more and more people are suspected of the crime.

It all seemed very much like a cliché of how you’d expect the Russian police to behave, but having said that, it was both funny and believable. This brilliant sentence on page 178:

With this kind of evidence we can prove anything we like.

While it was fun, I did have problems keeping the characters apart. Not because of their Russian names, that wasn’t so hard, but because they weren’t very well developed and there were rather many of them. I often lost track who was who and this also influenced my understanding of the story at times.

On the other hand, I could very clearly picture the events in the story and it was not hard to imagine that this would make a brilliant tv series.

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Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Number of pages: 266

First published: 2001 (Russia, 2013 UK)

I got this: from the publishers, Glagoslav Publications

Genre: historical thriller

Book Review: The End of the Point by Elizabeth Graver (DNF)

This book looked really interesting to me, and it was, for a while. But eventually I lost interest and did not finish the book. I read just under half of it.

The End of the Point: What it is about

What the publishers say: “A place out of time, Ashaunt Point—a tiny finger of land jutting into Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts—has provided sanctuary and anchored life for generations of the Porter family, who summer along its remote, rocky shore. But in 1942, the U.S. Army arrives on the Point, bringing havoc and change. That summer, the two older Porter girls—teenagers Helen and Dossie—run wild. The children’s Scottish nurse, Bea, falls in love. And youngest daughter Janie is entangled in an incident that cuts the season short and haunts the family for years to come.

As the decades pass, Helen and then her son Charlie return to the Point, seeking refuge from the chaos of rapidly changing times. But Ashaunt is not entirely removed from events unfolding beyond its borders. Neither Charlie nor his mother can escape the long shadow of history—Vietnam, the bitterly disputed real estate development of the Point, economic misfortune, illness, and tragedy.

An unforgettable portrait of one family’s journey through the second half of the twentieth century, The End of the Point artfully probes the hairline fractures hidden beneath the surface of our lives and traces the fragile and enduring bonds that connect us. With subtlety and grace, Elizabeth Graver illuminates the powerful legacy of family and place, exploring what we are born into, what we pass down, preserve, cast off or willingly set free.”

The End of the Point: What I thought

This book started really good, with the story of the Porter family spending their summer at Ashaunt Point, as they have always done. But with the Second World War well on its way, there are soldiers everywhere and everything is different from normal. Bea, the nanny, falls in love with a soldier. This part of the story was wonderful. It felt very much like Atonement by Ian McEwan, with the same atmosphere of a well-to-do family in wartime. The children and the staff of the family become more and more acquainted with the soldiers, which leads to an incident, which is hushed down. Most of the story is in Bea’s perspective.

After about 100 pages, the story shifts forward in time and changes narrator. This time it’s Helen, the family’s oldest daughter, who in the form of letters to her parents, writes about her time in Switzerland. This was very different from the first part of the book, and I hoped the story would pick up again and deliver the lazy, sunshine atmosphere from the first part.

However, the book then skips another decade and moves on to focus on Charlie, Helen’s son. He was not present in the earlier parts of the book and therefore, it was almost as if I was starting a whole new story. It seems he has been taking drugs. This was such a contrast with the much more relaxed and easy feel of the earlier stories, that I didn’t want to continue reading, as the book now was nothing like how it started off.

I think the issue for me was that the first part of the book was really good, and I wanted the story to linger there, or at least bring back the same feel in the rest of the book, but that didn’t happen.

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Rating: No rating, did not finish the book

Number of pages: 352 (read to page 160)

First published: 2013, March 5th

I got this: from the publishers, Harper (Uncorrected proof)

Genre: historical fiction

Quick Book Review: The House Girl by Tara Conklin

This book combines a modern fiction story with a historical one. Lina Sparrow is a lawyer who is asked to find someone who descends from a slave to take on an class-action lawsuit in which the descendants of slaves would be repaid for all the labor and hardship their ancestors had to suffer.

With her father an artist, Lina comes across the paintings of a female slave owner. There is some suggestion that the paintings were actually made by her slave maid, Josephine. As this would make for a great story in the media as well as in the court case, Lina goes about trying to find out whether the paintings really were made by Josephine and whether she can find a descendant.

Intermixed with Lina’s research are chapters about Josephine. Her story takes  place all in one day, a day in which she has decided to finally run away from her “owners”, a farmer and his terminally ill wife. She thinks back on a previous occasion that she tried to  run away. As the day goes on, she prepares to leave but circumstances don’t make it easy for her to do so.

This book started really very good and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It was well written and the historical and modern parts contrasted beautifully. The story about Josephine was a sad one, but also one of languid days, fresh air and fields all around. The modern city life is all about making money and standing out from amongst your colleagues.

I deducted half a star in my rating (giving 4.5 rather than 5) because of some development near the end of the story. The idea of a class-action law suit in which all descendants of slaves would be compensated was rather unlikely and practically impossible, too, so I was a little disappointed in some places. But overall, this was a very good read.

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Rating: 4.5 stars (out of 5)

Number of pages: 384

First published: 2013

I got this: from the publishers, William Morrow, for review (ARC)

Genre: historical fiction, contemporary fiction

 

Quick Book Review: Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor

Rating: 5/5
Number of pages: 410
First published: 2002
Genre: historical fiction
I got this book: via Bookmooch

The story takes place in 1847 when the ship Star of the Sea travels from Ireland to America. It’s a difficult crossing, with many people dying (from illness, exhaustion, hunger) during the month at sea. Some of the passengers’ back stories are told throughout the book, and the reader finds out how they link together.

There is a maid who has been through a lot, a Lord who is bankrupt, a thief and murderer, a newspaper man. All have their own past and often, a devastating one, in which the potato famine in Ireland plays a large role.

In many cases the histories of these people are stories within the main story (which was the voyage to America), which I often don’t appreciate. In this book, I loved it! This is my first book by Joseph O’Connor, but boy, is he a great story teller! Every time, I was hooked from the beginning and didn’t really care about the ship and its passengers for the time being. I just wanted to know more about the subjects of these histories.

I especially enjoyed the story of the murderer, who has great adventures in Ireland and England. His story can be summarised as “You can run but you can’t hide”, and is sad, tragic, and disgusting. You can’t love the man but he’s got something very interesting about him.

The story about the bankrupt Lord was good too, and very clearly exposed all that was wrong with the world at the time of the potato famine, which actually made him almost as poor as the tenants on his land.

Finally, the ship arrives in the New York harbor, where the passengers face further problems before disembarking.

While reading this book, I was reminded of the Barcelona series by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (about the Cemetery of Forgotten Books), where I also was grabbed from the start by the story and the great way it was told.

Star of the Sea is not a short book and sometimes I got a bit impatient, wanting to know where the story would go. But as the characters become better known to the reader, we realise that an explosive situation may occur on board of the ship, with these people together in one place. And of course, it does.

Highly recommended for historical fiction fans, and anyone who likes good story telling.

Book Review: The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton

I have read and enjoyed two of Kate Morton’s previous books. This new book sounded good and in a similar format as the other books. I liked it, but I didn’t love it, unfortunately.

The Secret Keeper: What it is about

From the publishers: “During a summer party at the family farm in the English countryside, sixteen-year-old Laurel Nicolson has escaped to her childhood tree house and is happily dreaming of the future. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and watches as her mother speaks to him. Before the afternoon is over, Laurel will witness a shocking crime. A crime that challenges everything she knows about her family and especially her mother, Dorothy—her vivacious, loving, nearly perfect mother.

Now, fifty years later, Laurel is a successful and well-regarded actress living in London. The family is gathering at Greenacres farm for Dorothy’s ninetieth birthday. Realizing that this may be her last chance, Laurel searches for answers to the questions that still haunt her from that long-ago day, answers that can only be found in Dorothy’s past.

Dorothy’s story takes the reader from pre–WWII England through the blitz, to the ’60s and beyond. It is the secret history of three strangers from vastly different worlds—Dorothy, Vivien, and Jimmy—who meet by chance in wartime London and whose lives are forever entwined. The Secret Keeper explores longings and dreams and the unexpected consequences they sometimes bring. It is an unforgettable story of lovers and friends, deception and passion that is told—in Morton’s signature style—against a backdrop of events that changed the world.”

The Secret Keeper: What I thought

The story starts strong with 16 year-old Laurel seeing a crime being committed by her mother. After that, there is a slightly confusing scene in the second world war of Laurel’s mother, Dorothy, and a friend, Vivian during a bombing in London. The scene is confusing, because the reader doesn’t have all the information yet. It wasn’t off-putting though and reading the scene back after finishing the book, everything fell into place.

I didn’t find the story completely convincing. Laurel’s mother was old and frail, but rather than going through great lengths to find out what her mother’s secret was, Laurel could have tried a bit harder at asking her mother.

I wasn’t sure about the order in which the story was told. That is, generally we first read a bit about the past and then about Laurel trying to find out what happened at that time. Because of that, I didn’t find the story too compelling, because the reader already knew what Laurel didn’t. There are a few “cliffhangers”. While this felt rather contrived, it did work to make me interested in the next part of the story!

While I could take or leave most of the book, I was really grabbed by the last quarter of the book. By then, there really was a mystery to be solved and I was actively thinking along. And close to the end, there is a shocking revelation, that changed my whole idea about the story (which is why I read some of the beginning again) and finally made me decide this was a good novel after all.

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Rating: 4 (out of 5)

Number of pages: 496

First published: 2012 (Atria Books)

I got this book: for review from the publishers via Netgalley (ebook)

Genre: contemporary fiction, historical fiction

 

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