The book is warm and well written, with characters who attract the reader’s sympathy and affection. Danielle’s growth from naive new bride to struggling widow to successful businesswoman is deftly shown, and her courage and kindness shine through the novel. The love story is passionate and tender, and her relationships grow as she does, sometimes for the better and sometimes not. The main characters are three-dimensional human beings, with flaws and virtues, and their actions are believable and suited to their personalities. The plot is set against a vivid backdrop of war, allowing the characters to demonstrate their values and their essential natures in their actions and reactions to the ongoing worldwide struggle. The trail of sweetly-scented perfume that runs through the novel provides an additional foil for the events and characters, adding a new sensual dimension to the story.
The plot does bog down in a few places, especially near the end, where the love story at times seems stalled just for the sake of a little extra suspense. Part of the resolution at the end feels a bit Dickensian in its coincidence, almost as if it were thrown in at the last minute to make the story complete (but in truth, it wouldn’t have been complete without it). There were only occasional misplaced words or misused punctuation, but a bit of cleaning up might be nonetheless useful.
Still, these are only minor quibbles when set against a lovely story well-told, which will appeal to romantics, fashion and perfume devotees, and fans of historical fiction.
Reviewed by Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader