To Read, Perchance to Dream: Book Tour: Review - The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose

Welcome to the Book Tour for The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose!

Today I'm doing a review of the book, and on the 14th, I'll have a guest post from the author, herself, so make sure and come back!

A sweeping and suspenseful tale of secrets, intrigue, and lovers separated by time, all connected through the mystical qualities of a perfume created in the days of Cleopatra--and lost for 2,000 years.

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 it's 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.

The Book of Lost Fragrances is a book with a little something for everyone. There's mystery, intrigue, suspense, history, reincarnation, and romance! Who knew you could fit all that into one story. M.J. Rose did, and she meshed all of that together and more for this interesting tale.

The best parts of this book for me were where I learned new things. I never knew Cleopatra had her own perfumery and personal perfumer. There is a lot of information revealed about the perfume business as Jac does her investigating. Also, though I knew about the tunnels under Paris, Ms. Rose's descriptions brought them to... ummm life (I'm sorry, I had to!), as she talked about the dead.

For me, things got a bit muddled as the story jumped from character to character. Some of the jumps being the same character, but past lives, made it difficult to keep up with at times. Because of this, I think, the book dragged in places.

Still, I have to say the whole book may have been worth reading just for the climactic scene at the end where all the characters came together. I may not have been sure where Ms. Rose was going a lot of the time, but when we got there, I was so glad I came along for the ride!