There have been quite a few perfume books released over the past few years.  Some have been great reference books for the serious collector and some have been auto-biographical journeys. The Reincarnation Series by M.J. Rose is in its own category; thoroughly researched, entertaining novels of suspense, mystery and passion with plenty of perfume to appeal to fragrance devotees and with enthralling historical plots that have broader appeal to a general audience.

Catherine De Medici as a young woman around the time she would have met Rene le Florentin

M.J. Rose spent two decades researching reincarnation and as in The Book of Lost Fragrances and Seduction, A Novel of Suspense it is central to the plot of The Collector of Dying Breaths. The book opens in a monastery, not just any monastery, but Santa Maria Novella in Florence, where René le Florentin, a perfumer and loyal apprentice to a dying monk who is the Chief of the Apothecary at SMN, has pledged to carry on his master’s alchemic experiments to collect, bottle and someday reanimate dying breaths. Accused of murder, he is locked away until his client, a young Catherine de Medici frees him and takes him away to France, where she would soon become Queen. Of course as a Medici, Catherine’s interest is in both perfume and poison, and her cunning manipulations to find the perfect scent puts any obsessed perfumista I ever met to shame.

Photo: From M.J. Rose's Pinterest board; a costume Melinoe might wear

Flash to the present, where we are reunited with Jac Etoile, the troubled mythologist and heir to The House of Etoile who has fought her visions of past lives since she was a young girl. Her brother Robbie (modeled after Perfumer Olivier Durbano who recently stayed at a monastery) is gravely ill (which upset me to no end and I know Managing Editor Tama Blough was also distraught although it's only fiction).   Robbie leaves a message for Jac that she must go meet the heiress Melinoe Cyprus in Barbizon France. The past meets the present as Jac learns that Melinoe, the daughter of a shipping magnate and a modern day “Medici” is intent on unlocking the secret of reanimating dying breaths centuries later. She is one of the most fascinating characters in the novel and while not quite evil, disturbing. She lives in an estate “Le Belle Fleur”, has a penchant for vintage fashion, jewelry and fragrances and dresses dramatically in costumes.

Entrance to the Dungeon at Le Belle Fleur

The Collector of Dying Breaths is fast paced and easier to follow than the past two novels, as there are only two time lines; 16th century France and the present day. Although Robbie isn't physically present for most of the novel, Jac catches whiffs of his scent and feels his presence. "Jac knew  that the olfactory center in the brain was next to the memory center.There was a scientific reason for scent and memory to be connected…And now, suddenly, in front of these strangers, not quite in the room, not quite in her mind, she heard her brother's voice. I haven't left you. I won't leave you".  For all of us who have raised a flacon of a lost one's perfume to our nose and felt as if  they were instantly with us, I found this particularly poignant; I teared up as I put the novel down and smelled my grandmother's Youth Dew bottle that I kept these years.

Throughout the novel, there are many olfactive twists and turns  including an alleged alchemical tutty from a momie taken from the brain of emblamed Egyptian corpse and aphrodisiac potions redolent of  King Henri II of France's mistress Diane de Poitier's underclothing (created so that Catherine De Medici could seduce her reluctant royal spouse).  I enjoyed references that only perfumistas would know, for example Jac has a friend named Octavian who writes a blog and that Melinoe wears JAR Golcanda. The novel is more erotic than in the past two books and the love scenes between René le Florentin and his beloved Isabeau are Rated R and at times explicit, which distracted me of course. As in past novels in this series, quite a bit of the action took place underground in catacombs, dungeons, hidden tunnels and cellars which I know M.J. Rose must have experienced herself and since I suffer from mild claustrophobia she has my respect.

 René le Florentin's potions and formulas Photo: M.J. Rose Pinterest

The line between passion, poison and potion blur as Jac finally uncovers the truth about reanimating dying breaths and fulfills her own romantic and karmic destiny.  As in the previous two novels, you can read this book out of sequence and The Collector of Dying Breaths  is a great summer read. It would be a spoiler to reveal the ending although all loose ends from previous novels are neatly tied and the wonderful idea that each of us have a soulmate, an âme sœur, is realized.  So is the alchemical reincarnation potion created? I won't spoil the ending, but if it is or is not, in M.J.’s words:"We don't need a magical elixir to reanimate a dying breath and bring someone back to life. We don't need meditation tools or ancient formulas or hypnosis. The secret, which is not so secret, after all, is that the people who we love live on in our hearts, in the beat of our blood. The dead live as long as someone who loves them lives."

M.J. Rose, Author

I asked M.J if this is the final book in the Reincarnation series and she wrote me, “The end is another beginning but not of a story that will tell right away… Jac and her family need some time before I go back to them. My next novel is a stand alone – THE WITCH OF PAINTED SORROWS. It takes place in 1894 Paris and will be out March 31, 2015”.

–Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief

The last breath of Thomas Edison was bottled as he passed away

Editor’s Note: While the idea of collecting dying breaths may seem fictional, M.J was inspired by the bottling of Thomas Edison’s dying breath with his friend Henry Ford at his bedside.

Thanks to M.J. Rose we have a signed hard cover copy or a kindle version of The Collector of Dying Breaths for one USA reader. To be eligible please leave a comment indicating why you want to read this book or if you have read any of M.J. Roses other novels. Draw ends 6/26/2014

We announce the winners on our site and on our Facebook page, so Like Cafleurebon and use our RSS option…or your dream prize wil be just spilled perfume