The book was fairly predictable and didn’t have much mystery to it, which I don’t know that it was meant to do, but I started losing interest in it quickly without it. It was an interesting glimpse into a small period of Grace Kelly’s transition from being a star to being a princess from Sophie’s, the fictional perfumer’s point of view.

The description and detail of the smells and world Sophie lived in were lovely. I’ll be honest though, I didn’t care for Sophie’s character much. For a female business owner in the 50’s I find it hard to believe she’d be successful when she had very little spine with her personal and business relationships. She avoided confrontation, she wasn’t honest if it would potentially cause conflict, she didn’t fight for much other than her shop, and even that was only if it was easy and without personal conflict (eg: confrontation that was needed with her mother, boyfriend, buyer etc). I didn’t care for the ending in that respect either. The characters just let things happen to them. They didn’t fight for each other when they had ample opportunity without an enormous amount of effort until the very end, and only when it was convenient.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.