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A review by becca
The Scent of You by Maggie Alderson
4.0
First reviewed on my blog, Pretty Little Memoirs.
Polly's life is on the rocks. Well, technically, it's because of one thing: her husband. Before he just left abruptly, life was good. But perfume blogger Polly, who links different scents to different memories and other things, on her own little blog, hasn't seen her husband for months. Before he announces his need for space, Polly had an idyllic kind of normalcy. Her kids are away at university, her mother is still modelling and settled in a retirement village, she's loving being a perfume blogger among other things.
So with his vanishing from her every day life, she struggles to cling to what her life is without him there. She hangs on to her friends - some new, from her yoga class - and with the space in her life, finds herself being drawn to a man from her past and a striking new man with the same tastes in perfume as her. But the end of her trying to ignore her husbands vacancy comes too soon, and she's forced to face the reasons why he's left and who she wants to be in life.
I wasn't sure how I felt about The Scent Of You when I first started it. It did take me a little while to get into the world and get used to the character setting, but once I was mid-way in, something clicked. I became absorbed with the way Polly loved perfume (and as a candle maker, myself, I love scents just the same!) and the way she was. Despite it not engaging me until a lot into the story, the middle and ending really did make up for that.
Overall, The Scent Of You was a cloud of sweet fiction that I didn't know I needed. If I only read a few Adult reads this year, I'm definitely glad this was one of them. Maggie has a very unique and compelling way of storytelling and I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who loves women's fiction and heart-felt reads.
Polly's life is on the rocks. Well, technically, it's because of one thing: her husband. Before he just left abruptly, life was good. But perfume blogger Polly, who links different scents to different memories and other things, on her own little blog, hasn't seen her husband for months. Before he announces his need for space, Polly had an idyllic kind of normalcy. Her kids are away at university, her mother is still modelling and settled in a retirement village, she's loving being a perfume blogger among other things.
So with his vanishing from her every day life, she struggles to cling to what her life is without him there. She hangs on to her friends - some new, from her yoga class - and with the space in her life, finds herself being drawn to a man from her past and a striking new man with the same tastes in perfume as her. But the end of her trying to ignore her husbands vacancy comes too soon, and she's forced to face the reasons why he's left and who she wants to be in life.
I wasn't sure how I felt about The Scent Of You when I first started it. It did take me a little while to get into the world and get used to the character setting, but once I was mid-way in, something clicked. I became absorbed with the way Polly loved perfume (and as a candle maker, myself, I love scents just the same!) and the way she was. Despite it not engaging me until a lot into the story, the middle and ending really did make up for that.
Overall, The Scent Of You was a cloud of sweet fiction that I didn't know I needed. If I only read a few Adult reads this year, I'm definitely glad this was one of them. Maggie has a very unique and compelling way of storytelling and I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who loves women's fiction and heart-felt reads.