Review of The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose

Jac L’Etoile is haunted by her past and a tormented childhood.  She had promised herself that she would leave home and never come back.  However, when her brother, Robbie, goes missing, she is forced to return to Paris and confront her past.  With Bobbie missing, Jac becomes responsible for the family business, a perfume company. 

When Jac was a child, her father told stories of an ancestor of the L’Etoile family who had witnessed the discovery of an ancient perfume that is said to bring out memories of past lives.   After Robbie goes missing, Jac finds pieces of ancient pottery, and starts to wonder whether her father’s stories are in fact true.

There are two separate stories being told here and Jac is in the middle of this.  In addition for the search for her brother, the Tibetan Buddhists are fighting for religious freedom. Communist China has required all reincarnated Buddhas to register with government.  As Jac searches for her brother, the government is following her.  This is because Robbie had the information about the fragrance that allows the user to remember past lives. 

The Dalai Lama of Tibet is also part of this storyline.  This is because if he were to use the perfume and recall his past lives, the Chinese would lose their lost on Tibet.  The Chinese government isn’t the only one after the fragrance – the Chinese mafia is also after it.  The fragrance is the only way that Tibet can break free from China. The fragrance is the only hope that Jac has to bring her brother home and it is also offers a promise of freedom to the Tibetan people.

The Book of Lost Fragrances pulls together history, suspense and passion all in one place. The Book of Lost Fragrances will be available on March 13, 2012 and you can purchase through many fine retailers, including Amazon.

About the Author:

M.J. Rose is the international bestselling author of eleven novels: Lip Service, In Fidelity, Flesh Tones, Sheet Music, Lying In Bed, The Halo Effect, The Delilah Complex, The Venus Fix, The Reincarnationist, The Memorist, and The Hypnotist. The Book of Lost Fragrances will be published in March 2012. Rose is also the co-author with Angela Adair Hoy of How To Publish And Promote Online, and with Doug Clegg on Buzz Your Book.

Rose is a founding member and board member of International Thriller Writers and the founder of the first marketing company for authors: AuthorBuzz.com. As well as the co-founder of Peroozal.com and the popular website BookTrib.com.

Rose has been profiled in Time magazine, Forbes, The New York Times, Business 2.0, Working Woman, Newsweek and New York Magazine. Rose has appeared on "The Today Show," Fox News, "The Jim Lehrer News Hour" and features on her have appeared in dozens of magazines and newspapers in the U.S. and abroad, including USA Today, Stern, L'Official, Poets and Writers and Publishers Weekly.

M.J. Rose lives in Connecticut with Doug Scofield, a composer, and their very spoiled dog, Winka. To learn more about M.J. Rose and her work, visit her website at: www.mjrose.com.

I was not paid for this review.  Thank you to Meryl L. Moss Media for sending me a free copy for my review. 

Live Chat with MJ Rose - The Book of Lost Fragrances

I will providing a review of The Book of Lost Fragrances on March 10, as part of the blog tour for M.J. Rose's new book.  Below find the press release for a live chat with the author tomorrow at 3 p.m.

Many love the smell of books

–but did you ever think you could love the smell of a story?

Coming: Tuesday, March 6,  3:00pm ET

 M.J. Rose Live on BookTrib

International bestselling author and literary pioneer,  M.J. Rose is living up to her legend with her soon to be released novel, THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES (Atria Books; March 2012), which inspired the creation of an all new fragrance – the Scent of Soulmates – Âmes Soeurs by Joya.

Who’s Invited: Members of BookTrib

(If you aren’t a member sign-up today!)

Where:  BookTrib

(Just click on M.J.’s picture on the homepage and it will take you into the chat.)

Click here to RSVP today: MJRose@booktrib.com

Let us know in the email that you plan on attending.

10 members of the audience will be randomly selected to win

a copy of the book & a sample of the new fragrance.

The day of the event:

Login to your BookTrib account a few minutes before the chat. On the homepage, click on M.J.’s picture. This will take you into the chat. You will see M.J. live with a text box located on the right side of your screen. Just type in your questions or comments into the text box and enjoy the  chat!

About the Book

“Rose’s deliciously sensual novel of paranormal suspense smoothly melds a perfume-scented quest to protect an ancient artifact with an ages-spanning romance…Rose (The Hypnotist) imbues her characters with rich internal lives in a complex plot that races to a satisfying finish.”

–Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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 its 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.