The Book of Lost Fragrances

This book was difficult to read in that it moved painfully slow most of the time, but when it moved fast, it was almost ridiculous. I did not care for the main characters. They were very one dimensional. We get snippets of scenarios and they should raise your flesh in horror. The way they were written gave me a feeling of "meh." There should have been more parallel with Jack and the lama, Xie. Instead, they collide for about 20 seconds and thats the end of Xie's story. I feel like the reader was cheated with how his story just abruptly stops. There isn't too much action in the story, but when there is, it moves at a breackneck speed like the author can't stand writing them, but knows her book is going to put people to sleep if something doesn't happen. Overall I probably won't read any of the other books in this series, unless I want to be bored to death.

The Book of Lost Fragrances is a mesmerizing romp through ancient Egypt, Revolutionary France, and the modern day struggle to keep a family perfume business alive. The way Rose weaves in these different worlds, in addition to the quest for a Dalai alma, is masterful and imbued with intrigue. The research and story combine to hold one spellbound, and the end cannot be guessed, even though the clues were always there. A satisfying read that will linger in my mind like the perfumes of Le Etoile. bravo MJ Rose.

I first heard about M.J. Rose and The Book of Lost Fragrances on a radio interview, in which the author mused that certain fragrances lost to history were said to have the power to evoke trance-like states in ancient shamans. Apparently Rose had come upon this information while researching another work all together, and later spun an entire work of fiction out of the idea. Thus, The Book of Lost Fragrances sometimes reads like it is an encyclopedia of random, interesting facts, and the plot is merely a thinly structured edifice to house these facts. Nevertheless, if you enjoy learning useless but intriguing bits of information about ancient Egypt, Communist China, and the catacombs of Paris, you will like this book. If nothing else, it will give you interesting conversation starters for cocktail parties. Rose successfully weaves at least half a dozen different storylines together to tell the tale of a global hunt, spanning close to five centuries, for an ancient Egyptian artifact that is wanted, ultimately, by the Chinese government in order to suppress Tibetan Buddhism. A fanciful and thought-provoking page-turner.

An interesting read and not at all what I was expecting. It's not often you find a book about past lives and reincarnation that adds in as much dimension as The Book of Lost Fragrances did. Mystery. Suspense. Romance. Good guys. Bad guys. All of it.Oh. And the perfume! I'm a huge fan of anything Ancient Egypt so reading about Cleopatra's perfume factory was an added bonus (and prompted me to buy more perfume of my own).I have to admit, though, that I stumbled out of the gate and had a bit of a tough time getting into the swing of the story. I recognize a lot of the early chapters were set up (and I LOVED the opener), but things really got into gear about halfway through. The ending was a shocker, on the romance and the family front. Kudos to MJ Rose for the twists.I've read this series out of order and still have two other Reincarnationist books to read, but it didn't matter. This book very easily can be read as a standalone.If you're into high drama with a dose of mythology and fact written as fiction, this is a book to come to. A solid read.

What an amazing book! As the 4th book in author MJ Rose's incredible reincarnationist series, I was absolutely hooked from the start. From the streets of Paris to the wilds of Alexandria in Egypt, the legends and story take us around the globe. I love Jac and Robbie and Griffin, as they are remarkably intense characters with intriguing stories. I'm addicted to this series and happily moving on to the next book in the series!

It is the anniversary of Jac L'Etoile's mother's death and she puts flowers in the vase in the mausoleum, her mother's favorites. She sees her mother's ghost but refuses to talk to her for fear her old psychotic episodes will drag her back down into the abyss where the line between hallucination and reality will claim her forever.Jac is surprised by her brother Robbie showing up. As much as Jac wanted Robbie there, she was certain he would not show. Robbie has brought flowers, but his main reason for coming was to get Jac to agree not to sell any of the L'Etoile house scents to cover the debts their father, in his growing dementia, ran up and ruin the company. He would rather have Jac's help deciphering the individual notes of a scent that is believed to be a memory tool, a tool that with one whiff can take a person back through previous incarnations, a scent that will save L'Etoile Parfumerie and their family's long legacy. Jac doesn't want to be involved. She doesn't believe in reincarnation and she fears Robbie is chasing a myth that will ensure the company's downfall.Jac refuses Robbie, but soon finds herself in a race with time when Robbie disappears and she must find him and the reason he killed a man in their family workshop.The Book of Lost Fragrances by M. J. Rose is part of her Reincarnation series and is my second foray into the world of history, denial, mystery, and madness. One thing I always find with Rose's work is complex characters with depth, warts and all. The story lines are always fascinating and contain a great deal of information, but not so much that the story takes a second place. Rose seamlessly weaves history, myth, and magic into each book and The Book of Lost Fragrances is no exception.Whether you believe in reincarnation or not, Rose masterfully evokes both sides of the question and adds the spice and mystery of the past with a look into the fabled past with a deft hand. This time Cleopatra, perfume making, and the connections inherent with a family legacy is steeped in reality without sacrificing believability or the suspension of time. I was drawn into the story and into the intricacies of perfume making and the vast catacombs beneath Paris while being intrigued with the story of a young Chinese calligrapher venturing forth into the world for the first time. The Book of Lost Fragrances is at its worst dark and forbidding and at its best simply mesmerizing.

An excellent suspense melding the world of perfumery with reincarnation. The ideas in the book are based on the premise that smell is such a stong sense that odours/perfume/scents can evoke in us memories of where/when we smelt that particular smell before. So, if a perfume/scent can do that, could thay make us regress to past life memories?The L'Etoile family are perfumiers. In the 18 century Gile L'Etoile discovered, in Egypt, clay jars with the essense of a perfume still lingering in them. For generations the L'Etoiles have believed that those "lost" jars contained an fragrance that enabled people to regress to distant lives. Robbie L'Etoile has taken over the family business from his ill father, only Robbie isn't the real "nose" of the family, his sister Jac is. The problem is that when Jac was 15 years old she suffered a trauma and has not entered the family laboratory since and refuses to have anything to do with the perfumery.Robbie finds that his father has left a mountain of debts and chaos and the only way out of the mess is to sell two of the firm's signature perfumes, which he is reluctant to do. Then he finds shards of a broken pot which date back to ancient Egypt. Do they prove that the family legend is true. Jac is sceptical. Then the pair find that shards are wanted by people who will stop at nothing, even murder, to get them.The story is interlaced with two other stories from the past and the plight of modern day Tibet.Vastly enjoyable. It held me all the way through and it takes a lot to do that nowdays. Extremely good book.

I'm not quite sure how so much is packed into this book yet its still such an enjoyable, comfortable and compelling read. Archaeology, Egyptology, Buddhism, Reincarnation, Tibet, Chinese triads, and, of course, all held together around a thread of fragrances and perfumery. Astonishingly good and suspenseful thriller with a dash of romance. Really enjoyed the story and the themes. Highly recommended.

Jac L’Etoile è una giovane donna studiosa di miti, delle radici storiche in cui affondano le loro origini. È soddisfatta del proprio lavoro al quale è approdata dopo essersi lasciata alle spalle un tragico episodio del passato legato, in qualche modo, alla centenaria attività di famiglia, the House of L’Etoile, quella della produzione di profumi. Quando il fratello Robbie, che continua a occuparsi della compagnia, la contatta per una straordinaria scoperta fatta negli archivi di famiglia, Jac è scettica, ma quando Robbie sparisce e nel suo laboratorio viene ritrovato un cadavere, la donna decide di partire per Parigi, nella speranza di ritrovarlo. Qui apprenderà che Robbie ha scoperto dei cocci, provenienti dall’Egitto, in cui era contenuta una straordinaria fragranza, risalente all’epoca di Cleopatra, che avrebbe la capacità di far ricordare alle persone le loro vite precedenti. Ma tutto questo è possibile? E se lo fosse, chi vorrebbe impossessarsene?Come suggerisce il sottotitolo, si tratta di un romanzo di suspence, in cui si seguono due vicende principali: quella di Jac che, per salvare il fratello, dovrà lanciarsi in un’avventura e cercare di aprire la propria mente a credenze che non condivide; e quella di Xie Ping, uno studente cinese, che nasconde un grande segreto e ha un destino da realizzare. Per tutto l’arco del libro, il narratore cambia in continuazione e ciò contribuisce a dare alla narrazione un ritmo sostenuto, soprattutto all’inizio, quando l’azione è relativamente poca e viene dato spazio all’inquadramento dei personaggi. Da pagina 97, con la scomparsa di Robbie e il ritrovamento del cadavere di cui si fa cenno sopra, l’azione incomincia ad acquistare un ruolo più importante e a permeare il dispiegarsi dell’intreccio.In questo romanzo ha un grande spazio il tema della reincarnazione, in un certo senso la trama si fonda per buona parte su di esso, e altri concetti a esso legati, come quello di sincronicità contrapposto a coincidenza e la convinzione che ogni cosa sia legata a tutte le altre. The book of lost fragrances è, per altro, il quinto volume della serie The reincarnationist (l’opera è, però, autoconclusiva e può essere letta indipendentemente dalle precedenti, i cui protagonisti principali sono diversi, mentre una figura secondaria è ricorrente). Altro tema portante è quello del profumo, dei profumi, l’universo di essenze che ci circonda e la composizione delle fragranze che molti di noi amano usare e che ci contraddistinguono.Un libro piuttosto scorrevole, che richiede una certa attenzione all’inizio per non perdere i vari fili della trama. La fine del volume comprende un glossario che è un estratto degli appunti di ricerca e di lavoro dell’autrice.Il romanzo è stato pubblicato in italiano, con titolo ll libro dei profumi perduti, da Fabbri Editori.

I haven't read an MJ Rose book before but this one was pretty good. I liked the story and perfume references especially. The characters had good chemistry and the past-lives stories were nicely woven into the main story without being distracting.As mentioned in the blurb, the story is a mystery. Jac and Robbie are siblings and heirs to the L'Etoile line. Robbie is a practicing perfumer and Jac, who has the better nose, has left the business to pursue her career as a reality tv host of a show on mythology.Robbie discovers an ancient Egyptian clay pot of perfume that he believes is a memory tool created by a L'Etoile ancestor. Jac'who regularly on her show finds proof of myths'refuses to believe the mythology of the L'Etoile ancestors developing a scent that would aid in memory, let alone provide insights into past lives.When Robbie and the clay pot go missing and a dead man turns up in the L'Etoile workshop, Jac must sniff out the truth.

I loved reading every page of this book. The story was intriguing, provocative, and had my interest going from page one. The writing was light,easy to follow, and pleasurable. The author really has a good command of English language.It is one of the best historical fictions I have read.