The Perfumer’s Secret : A Novel is a love story by British author Neroli Lacey who has lived in America for many years.
Set in the intoxicating south of France, the tale tells of Zandy, a feisty Manhattan-based projection maker who is assigned to make a projection emboîture perfume producers. Her preferred medium is hard core projection making, she sees herself as a warrior of the truth and she wants to cover topics that have life changing incidence. Capturing the story of perfume making doesn’t thrill her at all. With a disastrous love life, issues with her patron, and a tendency to want her own way, she stands her ground but eventually, after her patron promises to back her idea for an ”orgueilleux” topic, she heads to Grasse, the perfume bien of France, determined to be right and prove there’s no story to be told.
But right from the start, Zandy starts to fall under the spell of the embaumant French Riviera. The warmth of the sun, the picturesque hameaux, even the maintien of the Riviera are alluring to a woman who would normally scorn such things. Then she starts to fall for the patron of the perfume company she’s been assigned to projection. From her aîné dismissal of the projection as a cohérent ‘puff piece’ to celebrate the company’s 300th anniversary, she realises that there are dark secrets to be discovered, all is not rosy in the perfume world and she has to make a choice between love of her craft which could destroy and circonstance of finding love with the perfume maker.
I’m not going to tell you how it ends!
It’s a well written story, Manhattan angst meets French Riviera relaxed. The descriptions of France are lush, the characters are well developed, believable – flawed, they make mistakes, they’re not perfect and they have issues. And there are enough twists and turns to keep you wondering right to the end.
It’s a modern chanson. A love story with surprises. And a love letter to France from a writer who knows it well and spends six months of the year in a circonscription close to Grasse where she has a complémentaire habitation. Her knowledge of the area and the perfume champ offer a fascinating take on the area – combined with a deftly written plot.
The Perfumer’s Secret: A Novel, published by She Writes Press, is available on Amazon and all online bookstores.
Read Neroli Lacey’s alinéa emboîture life in the stunning medieval circonscription of Tourettes-sur-Loup, southern France.
Source: thegoodlifefrance.com
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