The Perfumist of Paris by Alka Joshi
Narrator: Sneha Mathan
Publisher: Harlequin Audio
Release Date: March 28, 2023
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
From the author of Reese’s Book Club Pick The Henna Artist, the final chapter in Alka Joshi’s New York Times bestselling Jaipur trilogy takes listeners to 1970s Paris, where Radha’s budding career as a perfumer must compete with the demands of her family and the secrets of her past.
Paris, 1974. Radha is now living in Paris with her husband, Pierre, and their two daughters. She still grieves for the baby boy she gave up years ago, when she was only a child herself, but she loves being a mother to her daughters, and she’s finally found her passion—the treasure trove of scents.
She has an exciting and challenging position working for a master perfumer, helping to design completely new fragrances for clients and building her career one scent at a time. She only wishes Pierre could understand her need to work. She feels his frustration, but she can’t give up this thing that drives her.
Tasked with her first major project, Radha travels to India, where she enlists the help of her sister, Lakshmi, and the courtesans of Agra—women who use the power of fragrance to seduce, tease and entice. She’s on the cusp of a breakthrough when she finds out the son she never told her husband about is heading to Paris to find her—upending her carefully managed world and threatening to destroy a vulnerable marriage.
The Perfumist of Paris follows Radha, Lakshmi’s younger sister. She lives in Paris with her husband Pierre and works at a perfume company mixing scents. She and Pierre have two little girls. Radha loves her job and sometimes works long hours. Pierre would rather she stay home and focus on their daughters.
*****This review has tiny spoilers for The Henna Artist*****
This book takes place in the 1970s when women were entering the work force en mass for the first time. France was behind America in accepting working women, which is one of the reasons Pierre was so against it.
If you’ve read The Henna Artist, you know that Radha gave birth to a baby boy when she was thirteen and placed him for adoption. One day, that boy, named Nicki, who is now a teenager, shows up at Radha and Pierre’s doorstep. The problem is that Radha never told Pierre about Nikki.
This book started out slowly – the first half was just Pierre and Radha fighting over her career. It got tedious. Things picked up once Nikki showed up at Radha’s house. Radha takes a trip back to India to look for new fragrances and we get to catch up with what Lakshmi and Malik have been up to.
Although not my favorite book of the series, I thought The Perfumist of Paris was a nice conclusion to The Henna Artist Trilogy.
Review of The Henna Artist (Book 1)
Review of The Secret Keeper of Jaipur (Book 2)
June 24th, 2024 in
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The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi
Publisher: MIRA
Publication Date: June 22, 2021
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
It’s the spring of 1969, and Lakshmi, now married to Dr. Jay Kumar, directs the Healing Garden in Shimla. Malik has finished his private school education. At 20, he has just met a young woman named Nimmi when he leaves to apprentice at the Facilities Office of the Jaipur Royal Palace. Their latest project: a state-of-the-art cinema.
Malik soon finds that not much has changed as he navigates the Pink City of his childhood. Power and money still move seamlessly among the wealthy class, and favors flow from Jaipur’s Royal Palace, but only if certain secrets remain buried. When the cinema’s balcony tragically collapses on opening night, blame is placed where it is convenient. But Malik suspects something far darker and sets out to uncover the truth. As a former street child, he always knew to keep his own counsel; it’s a lesson that will serve him as he untangles a web of lies.
***This review might have mild spoilers for The Henna Artist.***
The Secret Keeper of Jaipur takes place about ten years after the end of The Henna Artist. Lakshmi and Dr. J are married and running a medical clinic in Shimla. Malik has graduated from an elite boarding school and is in Jaipur interning at Samir’s construction company. The company has been contracted by the Palace to build a fancy cinema.
Malik has left Nimmi, a humble tribeswoman that he’s started to form a relationship with, behind in Shimla. One of the reasons Lakshmi sent Malik to Jaipur is to get him away from Nimmi – she doesn’t think Nimmi is good enough for him.
The cinema collapses on opening night, injuring, and even killing, some of the people in attendance. Malik doesn’t buy the official explanation for the collapse and decides to investigate himself.
In this book Laksmi is a supporting character but she’s still up in everyone’s business, just like she was in The Henna Artist. The focus is mostly on Malik and Nimmi. It’s more plot driven than The Henna Artist since we already know most of the characters. (Although this could be read as a stand-alone because anything you need to know from the first book to understand what’s going on is explained.)
I thought The Secret Keeper of Jaipur was just as good as The Henna Artist. The mystery of who was behind the cinema collapse was well-plotted. I’m looking forward to the final book in the trilogy, The Perfumist of Paris.
My review of The Henna Artist is here.
May 9th, 2024 in
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A Winter in New York by Josie Silver
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: October 3, 2023
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
When Iris decides to move to New York to restart her life, she realizes she underestimated how big the Big Apple really is—all the nostalgic movies set in New York she’d watched with her mom while eating their special secret-recipe gelato didn’t quite do it justice.
But Bobby, Iris’s best friend, isn’t about to let her hide away. He drags her to a famous autumn street fair in Little Italy, and as they walk through the food stalls, a little family-run gelateria catches her eye—could it be the same shop that’s in an old photo of her mother’s?
Curious, Iris returns the next day and meets the handsome Gio, who tells her that the shop is in danger of closing. His uncle, sole keeper of their family’s gelato recipe, is in a coma, so they can’t make more. When Iris samples the last remaining batch, she realizes that their gelato and her gelato are one and the same. But how can she tell them she knows their secret recipe when she’s not sure why Gio’s uncle gave it to her mother in the first place?
Iris offers her services as a chef to help them re-create the flavor and finds herself falling for Gio and his family. But when Gio’s uncle finally wakes up, all of the secrets Iris has been keeping threaten to ruin the new life—and new love—she’s been building all winter long.
A Winter in New York follows Iris, who has moved to New York City from London to get a fresh start after a bad breakup. She’s also still grieving after the loss of her mother Vivien.
Growing up, Iris’s mother made the best gelato using a recipe she got years ago from Santo, a man that she had a brief fling with. The recipe is a family secret so secret that only two family members are allowed to know it at the same time. Santo should not have given Vivien the recipe.
Iris happens to stumble upon Santo’s gelato shop while out walking but they are closed because they’ve lost the gelato recipe. Iris is torn – should she give them the recipe and risk making the family mad at Santo for giving the recipe to her mom? Iris is a chef so she decides she will offer to help Santo’s nephew Gio experiment with different ingredient combinations, knowing she will eventually lead him to the right recipe. And you know what ends up happening with them working so closely to together…
Frankly, I thought this book was boring. The writing itself wasn’t bad but it was very slow paced. I didn’t think there was good chemistry between Iris and Gio. They spent a lot of time making gelato. Like a lot. And I didn’t understand what the big deal was with Iris just telling Gio’s family that she had the recipe. I think they would have preferred that over being closed for weeks while they tried to figure out the recipe. I probably would have DNFed this book if it wasn’t one of my Book of the Month books. I paid good money for it, so I was determined to make it through!
Sunshine Nails by Mai Nguyen
Narrators: Carolina Do, David Lee Huynah, Quyen Ngo, Vyvy Nguyen and Trieu Tran
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Release Date: July 4, 2023
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Vietnamese refugees Debbie and Phil Tran have built a comfortable life for themselves in Toronto with their family nail salon. But when an ultra-glam chain salon opens across the street, their world is rocked.
Complicating matters further, their landlord has jacked up the rent and it seems only a matter of time before they lose their business and everything they’ve built. They enlist the help of their daughter, Jessica, who has just returned home after a messy breakup and a messier firing. Together with their son, Dustin, and niece, Thuy, they devise some good old-fashioned sabotage. Relationships are put to the test as the line between right and wrong gets blurred. Debbie and Phil must choose: do they keep their family intact or fight for their salon?
Sunshine Nails is a light-hearted, urgent fable of gentrification with a cast of memorable and complex characters who showcase the diversity of immigrant experiences and community resilience.
Debbie and Phil Tran have owned Sunshine Nails for years, but the neighborhood is becoming more gentrified by the minute. A fancy new nail salon opens across the street while Sunshine Nails’ rent is nearly doubled. What lengths will Phil and Debbie go to save their nail salon?
I enjoyed Sunshine Nails. It’s a heartwarming story about family and community. It has its serious moments. The microaggressions some members of the Tran family experienced made me angry. But there is humor to keep it from becoming too heavy. The audiobook had multiple narrators, which I thought worked well. Recommended.
March 14th, 2024 in
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The Second Chance Year by Melissa Wiesner
Publication Date: December 5, 2023
Publisher: Forever
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Sadie Thatcher’s life has fallen apart in spectacular fashion. In one fell swoop, she managed to lose her job, her apartment, and her boyfriend—all thanks to her big mouth. So when a fortune teller offers her one wish, Sadie jumps at the chance to redo her awful year. Deep down, she doesn’t believe magic will fix her life, but taking a leap of faith, Sadie makes her wish, opens her eyes, and . . . nothing has changed. And then, in perhaps her dumbest move yet, she kisses her brother’s best friend, Jacob.
When Sadie wakes up the next morning, she’s in her former apartment with her former boyfriend, and her former boss is expecting her at work. Checking the date, she realizes it’s January 1 . . . of last year. As Sadie navigates her second-chance year, she begins to see the red flags she missed in her relationship and in her career. Plus, she keeps running into Jacob, and she can’t stop thinking about their kiss . . . the one he has no idea ever happened. Suddenly, Sadie begins to wonder if her only mistake was wishing for a second chance.
Sadie has just had a Very Bad Year. Her temper has caused her boyfriend to break up with her and for her to lose her job as a pastry chef as well. Plus, she kissed her brother’s best friend Jacob, which was probably not a good idea. At a New Year’s Eve party, a fortune teller casts a spell that wipes out the previous year. The next morning when she wakes up, it’s the first day of what was her Very Bad Year. She has a chance to do things differently, so she doesn’t lose her job and boyfriend. And kissing Jacob never happened.
As Sadie relives the year, she starts to wonder if the Very Bad Year wasn’t so bad after all.
This book was cute. I loved Jacob. He was so shy and sweet. I thought it was clever that since. Sadie was a pastry chef, all the metaphors she thought were food related. For example:
“I blush brighter than a red velvet cake.”
The Second Chance Year is a great New Year’s themed book to read anytime.
***The Second Chance Year was one of my Book of the Month Club selections. You can join Book of the Month with this link and get a hardcover book for only $5 with no obligation to continue your membership.***
The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf
Publisher: Park Row
Publication Date: January 29, 2022
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
True crime writer Wylie Lark doesn’t mind being snowed in at the isolated farmhouse where she’s retreated to write her new book. A cozy fire, complete silence. It would be perfect, if not for the fact that decades earlier, at this very house, two people were murdered in cold blood and a girl disappeared without a trace.
As the storm worsens, Wylie finds herself trapped inside the house, haunted by the secrets contained within its walls—haunted by secrets of her own. Then she discovers a small child in the snow just outside. After bringing the child inside for warmth and safety, she begins to search for answers. But soon it becomes clear that the farmhouse isn’t as isolated as she thought, and someone is willing to do anything to find them.
Another great thriller!
Wylie is a true crime writer staying at a remote cabin to finish her latest book. A huge snowstorm is raging outside when she encounters a small child who will not speak. Who is this child and why are they alone outside in a snowstorm?
The book also flashes back to the 1990s when the crime Wylie is currently writing about occurred. That is another mystery – who committed that crime and why?
This is the kind of thriller where I really can’t tell you much more about it without spoilers. Just trust me when I tell you that the twists are crazy. And the last part was so suspenseful, my stomach was in knots. Heather has a long backlist – I can’t wait to read more of her books!
February 20th, 2024 in
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The Daddy Diaries: The Year I Grew Up by Andy Cohen
Narrator: Andy Cohen
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Release Date: May 9, 2023
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Andy Cohen has taken on the most important job of his life—father—and boy (and girl!) does he have a lot to say about it!
One of Andy Cohen’s most momentous years starts off with a hangover the morning after an epic New Year’s Eve broadcast. But Andy doesn’t have time to dwell on the drama, as his role as media mogul is now matched with the responsibilities, joys, and growing pains of parenthood.
This fast-paced, mile-a-minute look behind the scenes of living the so-called glamorous life in Manhattan now takes firm aim at life at home. With a three-year-old son, Ben, and a daughter, Lucy, born in May, stories of late-night parties are replaced by early mornings with Ben, drama at the playground, and the musings of a single dad trying to navigate having it all. All this is set against the backdrop of constant Housewives drama, hijinks behind the scenes at Watch What Happens Live, a revolving door of famous faces, and a worried mother (and newly minted grandmother) in St. Louis.
Buckle up, bottle up, and get ready for a laugh-out-loud and surprisingly poignant look at the ways in which family changes everything and the superficial gets very real. Watch what happens!
Andy Cohen’s new book is his third book of published diaries. It starts when his son Ben is three and his surrogate is pregnant with his daughter Lucy to when Lucy is a few months old.
Even though Andy is wealthy and has a nanny, his struggles as a single dad were actually relatable. He writes about feeling insecure at one of his son Ben’s birthday parties because he doesn’t feel he measure’s up to the other parents. My favorite relatable moment is when he moved Ben to a toddler bed and Ben would not stay in it and would get up super early. Andy wrote, “This toddler bed is ruining my life!” I’ve totally been there, Andy!
I listened to this on audio, which is a must. Andy reads it himself which makes it even funnier. His comedic timing is spot on. And he spills tea all over the place, which I love.
I hope he keeps publishing his diaries – they’re the best!
Other books I’ve reviewed by Andy Cohen:
Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture
The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look at a Shallow Year
Superficial: More Adventures from the Andy Cohen Diaries
February 3rd, 2024 in
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The Other Mothers by Katherine Faulkner
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: December 5, 2023
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
When a young nanny is found dead in mysterious circumstances, new mom, Tash, is intrigued. She has been searching for a story to launch her career as a freelance journalist. But she has also been searching for something else—new friends to help her navigate motherhood.
She sees them at her son’s new playgroup. The other mothers. A group of sleek, sophisticated women who live in a neighborhood of tree-lined avenues and stunning houses. The sort of mothers Tash herself would like to be. When the mothers welcome her into their circle, Tash discovers the kind of life she has always dreamt of—their elegant London townhouses a far cry from her cramped basement flat and endless bills. She is quickly swept up into their wealthy world via coffees, cocktails, and playdates.
But when another young woman is found dead, it’s clear there’s much more to the community than meets the eye. The more Tash investigates, the more she’s led uncomfortably close to the other mothers. Are these women really her friends? Or is there another, more dangerous reason why she has been so quickly accepted into their exclusive world? Who, exactly, is investigating who?
Tash is a journalist who recently quit her job to start free-lancing. The projects aren’t exactly rolling in so when she hears about the mysterious death of an area nanny, she decides to investigate and write an article about it.
Tash puts her son in a playgroup (it seems in England playgroup is what we call preschool or mother’s day out in the US) and finds she is envious of the other mothers’ seemingly perfect, lavish lifestyles. When they invite her into their inner circle, she feels special but also like a bit of an imposter. Her husband is a doctor, so they don’t have enough money to keep up with the Jones’s as it were. (I guess in England, being a physician isn’t a high paying career like it is here!) As Tash gets further into her investigation of the nanny’s death, she starts to wonder if the women in her playgroup know something they aren’t telling her.
The Other Mothers was so good! I had high hopes going in because the description gave Stepford Wives vibes and that’s one of my favorite books. I was not disappointed! There were so many twists – this book was expertly plotted. I want to go back and read it again. I feel like I felt after I read Gone Girl – just amazed at how everything came together at the end. The Other Mothers definitely has earned a spot on my favorite thrillers list! Now I must read Katherine Faulkner’s other book Greenwich Park. If it’s even half as good as The Other Mothers, it’ll be great!
***The Other Mothers was one of my December 2023 Book of the Month Club selections. You can join Book of the Month with this link and get a hardcover book for only $5 with no obligation to continue your membership.***
January 25th, 2024 in
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Wreck the Halls by Tessa Bailey
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: October 3, 2023
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Melody Gallard may be the daughter of music royalty, but her world is far from glamorous. She spends her days restoring old books and avoiding the limelight (one awkward tabloid photo was enough, thanks). But when a producer offers her a lot of money to reunite her mother’s band on live tv, Mel begins to wonder if it’s time to rattle the cage, shake up her quiet life… and see him again. The only other person who could wrangle the rock and roll divas.
Beat Dawkins, the lead singer’s son, is Melody’s opposite—the camera loves him, he could charm the pants off anyone, and his mom is not a potential cult leader. Still, they might have been best friends if not for the legendary feud that broke up the band. When they met as teenagers, Mel felt an instant spark, but it’s nothing compared to the wild, intense attraction that builds as they embark on a madcap mission to convince their mothers to perform one last show.
While dealing with rock star shenanigans, a 24-hour film crew, brawling Santas, and mobs of adoring fans, Mel starts to step out of her comfort zone. With Beat by her side, cheering her on, she’s never felt so understood. But Christmas Eve is fast approaching, and a decades-old scandal is poised to wreck everything—the Steel Birds reunion, their relationships with their mothers, and their newfound love.
Melody Gallard’s mother was in the band the Steel Birds with Beat Dawkins’ mother, but they broke up years ago due to an unspecified feud. Beat and Melody are offered a lot of money from a reality TV producer to convince their mothers to reunite for a Christmas Eve performance.
When Beat and Melody met at sixteen years old, there was chemistry, but they haven’t seen each other since then because of their mothers’ fight. When they meet again, the spark is still there. However, Beat harbors a few secrets that might keep them from being able to get together.
This book was way steamier than I expected based off the cute cartoon cover. I’m probably the only one who didn’t know that Tessa Bailey writes super spicy books. I’m totally down for that, it just caught me off guard. Beat and Melody’s chemistry leapt off the page. Beat was super protective of Melody which got a little annoying because she was a strong, capable woman from the get-go. At least she seemed that way to me. I know that Tessa Bailey is supposed to be the “Michelangelo of dirty talk” but Beat’s dirty talk was just a little too…something. Cheesy, maybe? I don’t like a lot of talking in my spicy scenes. More action, less talking!
I enjoyed Melody. She was charming and funny. I liked how she handled Beat and his overprotectiveness. They made a great couple. Overall, I thought this was a fun, holiday read, and I definitely want to check out more of Tessa’s books. From the list in the back of the book, it appears that there are several more to choose from.
December 26th, 2023 in
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After I finished reading Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle, I decided to watch the Netflix movie based on the book.
Going in, you should know that the movie is only very loosely based on the book. Like it’s actually so different, you can’t even compare the two. The characters have the same names and the same basic outline of their story in the book and that’s about it. Luckily, I had heard that was the case before I watched the movie, so I knew what to expect.
So usually when I do a Page to Screen review, I compare and contrast the book and movie, but I can’t really do that in this case since they were vastly different. I will say that I really enjoyed the movie in and of itself. It wasn’t a goofy, teenage movie with horrible acting and a cheesy plot. I liked the characters and I felt invested in them. They had substance. The Duke is played by Keirnan Shipka from Mad Men and Tobin is played by Mitchell Hope (Ben from the Descendants), both of whom are great actors. And Joan Cusack is The Tin Foil Woman! I didn’t recognize anyone else but that might be because I’m old.
I appreciated that the cast of the movie was more diverse than it is in the book and that there are LGBT characters as well. I don’t recall any in the book. This is a smart holiday movie that the whole family can enjoy. Teenagers will relate but adults will be entertained as well.
