Thursday, April 9, 2015

Win a Copy of The Perfume Garden novel: Perfume Book Draw

Several authors have chosen to incorporate perfume in their fiction lately, some of which have been featured on Perfume Shrine before. The Perfume Garden by Kate Lord Brown is a very leaf-able, flowing romance taking place in the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War with "lost love, family secrets and the art of creating the perfect scent".

I have 5 hardcover copies for 5 US shipping addresses holders that I will draw on Thursday. Please enter a comment and you will be eligible. Prizes will be shipped by the publisher directly to winners.

Here is small excerpt from the The Perfume Garden novel to give you an idea:

"Emma took a deep breath, and gazed out of the bus window. It was almost her stop. Perhaps it’s time to stop saving the best till last, she thought. She folded the note and slipped it into her mother’s Moleskine notebook on her lap, flicking on through the pages illuminated with Liberty’s flamboyant handwriting. Words leaped out at her—“neroli,” “duende,” “passion.” Her mother had pasted in cuttings alongside the notes and formulas for the new perfume she had been working on—pictures of orange groves, searing blue skies, a yellowed newspaper advert for a Robert Capa exhibition. It was the famous “falling soldier” picture. Emma traced her finger over the soldier’s face, wondered what he was thinking at the moment when death caught him running down that hill. She wondered what he saw as he fell. As she touched the paper, she felt the contours of something beneath. She flipped to the next page and laid her hand on the smallest envelope Liberty had left in the box with the letters. On it, her mother had written an address: Villa del Valle, La Pobla, Valencia, Spain. Inside, there was just an old key. I must ask Freya if she knows anything about this, she thought. Emma had lain awake the night she opened that envelope, turning the key over in her hand, her mind full of possibilities. Typical Mum, she thought, remembering all the magical mystery tours Liberty had taken her on as a child, the trails of clues she had laid for Emma to follow to hidden presents. The chase, the anticipation, was always more fun than the present itself.

Emma turned the pages, glimpsed the melancholy, serene face of a Madonna, a photo of a whitewashed wall with flaming bougainvillea spilling over it. The notes became sparser, the hand less sure toward the end. She sensed Liberty had been looking back, as well as forward. Next to a pasted label from Chérie Farouche, the perfume Liberty had created for Emma on her eighteenth birthday, she had written: “Some perfumes are, like children, innocent, as sweet as oboes, green as meadow sward—Baudelaire.” It was still Emma’s signature scent. On her it smelled like rain in a garden at first, fresh and intoxicating; then as the green top notes evaporated Emma always thought of the earth, of picking flowers in a forest with her mother. The heart note of lily of the valley and jasmine melded perfectly with the base of sandalwood and musk. Liberty always said the scent was like her—shy but surprisingly fierce. A photograph of Liberty with Emma as a baby was tucked into that page. She flicked on, unbearable longing piercing her as she looked at her mother’s beautiful, open smile. Emma paused at her mother’s final sketch of a new Liberty Temple perfume bottle, her hurried scrawl: “Jasmine? Orange blossom, yes!”

Copyright © 2015 by Kate Lord Brown

11 comments:

  1. I would love to read this book!

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  2. This sounds like a great book! Love the cover as well! :) Thank you for the giveaway!

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  3. I would love to read this book! I am a writer as well and have written a book about perfume called "The Scent of Success". It was first published in 2013 and republished again as an E-book in February this year. If you are interested in reading it Elena, I would be delighted to send you a copy for a review :) Please visit my website where an excerpt is available http://evabooks.weebly.com

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    1. Please email me if you like so we can be in touch! Thanks!

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  4. If not too late, I would love to participate in this draw. Just this morning I was reading from a mystery novel, and I smiled as the heroine of the story dressed for dinner, beginning her toilette with Lancome Poeme body lotion. Such a small detail, but so lovely

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  5. Perfume in the title, I'm on board. I would love to read this book. I recently read "The Perfume Collector" and it was a great story. Thank you for this opportunity.

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  6. Anonymous14:34

    As a lover of Spanish history, literature, and perfume this book holds great interest for me. Thank you for providing this opportunity.
    Kayceebee

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  7. With just reading two paragraphs of this book, I know I would enjoy it.
    Thank you for the opportunity.

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  8. Sounds marvelous! right up my alley!
    Many Thanks!

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  9. 30 Roses05:29

    This definitely sounds like a fun read! Thank you for offering this draw.

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  10. This sounds beautiful!

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