Seduction by M.J. Rose

Author: M. J. Rose
Publisher: Atria Books
Date of publication: May 2013

 In 1843, novelist Victor Hugo’s beloved nineteen-year-old daughter drowned. Ten years later, Hugo began participating in hundreds of séances to reestablish contact with her. In the process, he claimed to have communed with the likes of Plato, Galileo, Shakespeare, Dante, Jesus—and even the Devil himself. Hugo’s transcriptions of these conversations have all been published. Or so it was believed.

Recovering from her own losses, mythologist Jac L’Etoile arrives on the Isle of Jersey—where Hugo conducted the séances—hoping to uncover a secret about the island’s Celtic roots. But the man who’s invited her there, a troubled soul named Theo Gaspard, has hopes she’ll help him discover something quite different—Hugo’s lost conversations with someone called the Shadow of the Sepulcher.

Seduction takes place a few weeks after the events of The Book of Lost Fragrances.  There are a few mentions about the happenings of that book, but I think most people could get away with not reading it before this one.  I definitely liked this book a lot better than Lost Fragrances (my review).  It was more focused and moved along at a faster pace. 

Jac L'Etoile has traveled to Jersey to help an old friend.  As she uncovers the truth of the past, she continues to have visions about possible past lives. I liked how it all tied together with Theo and his brother. As more and more visions come to her, she realizes that they hold the key to things in the present.  I felt like I got to know more about Jac in this one.  I really liked the realization that she has about herself and her abilities in the end.  I thought it made a lot of sense. 

I definitely recommend this one.  I hope that Jac shows up again in the next book!

About the author:

M.J. Rose is the international best selling author of eleven novels and two non-fiction books on

marketing. Her fiction and non-fiction has appeared in many magazines and reviews including Oprah Magazine. She has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, Time, USA Today and on the Today Show, and

NPR radio.  Rose graduated from Syracuse University, spent the '80s in advertising, has a commercial in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and since 2005 has run the first marketing company for authors - Authorbuzz.com.  The television series PAST LIFE, was based on Rose's novels in the Renincarnationist series. She is one of the

founding board members of International Thriller Writers and runs the blog- Buzz, Balls & Hype.  She is also the co-founder of Peroozal.com and BookTrib.com.

Rose lives in CT with her husband the musician and composer, Doug Scofield, and their very spoiled and often photographed dog, Winka.

For more information on M.J. Rose and her novels, please visit her WEBSITE. You ca

n also find her on Facebook and Twitter.

Blog tour - Review:The Book of Lost Fragrances by M. J. Rose

Author: M. J. Rose
Publisher: Atria Books
Date of Publication: March 13, 2012

A sweeping and suspenseful tale of secrets, intrigue, and lovers separated by time, all connected through the mystical qualities of a perfume created in the days of Cleopatra—and lost for 2,000 years. 

Jac L’Etoile has always been haunted by the past, her memories infused with the exotic scents that she grew up surrounded by as the heir to a storied French perfume company. In order to flee the pain of those remembrances—and of her mother’s suicide—she moves to America, leaving the company in the hands of her brother Robbie. But when Robbie hints at an earth-shattering discovery in the family archives and then suddenly goes missing—leaving a dead body in his wake—Jac is plunged into a world she thought she’d left behind. 

Back in Paris to investigate her brother’s disappearance, Jac discovers a secret the House of L’Etoile has been hiding since 1799: a scent that unlocks the mysteries of reincarnation. The Book of Lost Fragrances fuses history, passion, and suspense, moving from Cleopatra’s Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet’s battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris. Jac’s quest for the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past.

The Book of Lost Fragrances is the latest in the reincarnation series.  I really enjoyed the last one, The Hypnotist and reviewed it last year.  I was really looking forward to this one.  The premise sounded intriguing.  I really wanted to love this one.  But in the end, it was just OK for me. 

I liked the premise of the story.  The idea of past lives has always been interesting to me and did tie into the whole story nicely.  I also liked the information about the history and art of making fragrances.   But the pacing was off for me and I had a hard time getting through the story. There were too many changes in point of view and it felt disjointed at times.   For me, there was too much packed into this book.  While it wasn't my favorite read, I think there are likable parts to the story. I did enjoy the end and felt satisfied with how it ended.  Try it out for yourself.

About the author:

M.J. Rose is the international best selling author of eleven novels and two non-fiction books on marketing. Her next novel THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES (Atria/S&S) will be published in March 2012.  Her fiction and non-fiction has appeared in many magazines and reviews including Oprah Magazine. She has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, Time, USA Today and on the Today Show, and NPR radio.  Rose graduated from Syracuse University, spent the '80s in advertising, has a commercial in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and since 2005 has run the first marketing company for authors - Authorbuzz.com.  The television series PAST LIFE, was based on Rose's novels in the Renincarnationist series. She is one of the founding board members of International Thriller Writers and runs the blog- Buzz, Balls & Hype.  She is also the co-founder of Peroozal.com and BookTrib.com.

Rose lives in CT with her husband the musician and composer, Doug Scofield, and their very spoiled and often photographed dog, Winka.

For more information on M.J. Rose and her novels, please visit her WEBSITE. You can also find her on Facebook.

Guest Blog: The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose

Today, we welcome author, M. J. Rose, who is promoting her new book, The Book of Lost Fragrances.  Come back on Friday (2/24/12) to read my review of the book!

Author: M. J. Rose
Publisher: Atria Books
Date of Publication: March 13, 2012

A sweeping and suspenseful tale of secrets, intrigue, and lovers separated by time, all connected through the mystical qualities of a perfume created in the days of Cleopatra—and lost for 2,000 years. 

Jac L’Etoile has always been haunted by the past, her memories infused with the exotic scents that she grew up surrounded by as the heir to a storied French perfume company. In order to flee the pain of those remembrances—and of her mother’s suicide—she moves to America, leaving the company in the hands of her brother Robbie. But when Robbie hints at an earth-shattering discovery in the family archives and then suddenly goes missing—leaving a dead body in his wake—Jac is plunged into a world she thought she’d left behind. 

Back in Paris to investigate her brother’s disappearance, Jac discovers a secret the House of L’Etoile has been hiding since 1799: a scent that unlocks the mysteries of reincarnation. The Book of Lost Fragrances fuses history, passion, and suspense, moving from Cleopatra’s Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet’s battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris. Jac’s quest for the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past.the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past.


M. J. Writes:

M.J. Rose:  I've been fascinated with lost fragrances since long before I started writing The Book of Lost Fragrances... since I found a bottle of perfume on my great grandmother's dresser that had belonged to her mother in Russia. Here is one of those lost fragrances that stirs the senses and the imagination... (reasearched and described  with the help of the perfume writer  Dimitrios Dimitriadis)

 GUERLAIN - CUIR DE RUSSIE

Created in 1875 by the house of Guerlain, Cuir de Russie is one of the very first olfactory interpretations of Russian Leather - a theme that would be revisited many times by many perfumers in the 20th century. A grey ribbon of smoke meanders up through a bright citrus/floral opening, bringing with it a coal-black parched quality. Birch tar, vetiver and oakmoss lend a bitter facet to this incredibly rare perfume which treads a fine line between being defiantly feminine and devoutly masculine. Guerlain not only succeeded in capturing the essence of true Russian leather in this striking composition, but also memorialized the essence of that age.

About the Author:

M.J. Rose is the international best selling author of eleven novels and two non-fiction books on marketing. Her next novel THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES (Atria/S&S) will be published in March 2012.  Her fiction and non-fiction has appeared in many magazines and reviews including Oprah Magazine. She has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, Time, USA Today and on the Today Show, and NPR radio.  Rose graduated from Syracuse University, spent the '80s in advertising, has a commercial in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and since 2005 has run the first marketing company for authors - Authorbuzz.com.  The television series PAST LIFE, was based on Rose's novels in the Renincarnationist series. She is one of the founding board members of International Thriller Writers and runs the blog- Buzz, Balls & Hype.  She is also the co-founder of Peroozal.com and BookTrib.com.

Rose lives in CT with her husband the musician and composer, Doug Scofield, and their very spoiled and often photographed dog, Winka.

For more information on M.J. Rose and her novels, please visit her WEBSITE. You can also find her on Facebook.

For tour details click on the tour button below:

Virtual Book Tour - The Hypnotist

Author: M. J. Rose
Publisher: Mira

An FBI agent, tormented by a death he wasn't able to prevent, a crime he's never been able to solve and a love he's never forgotten, discovers that his true conflict resides not in his past, but in a…Past Life.

Haunted by a twenty-year old murder of a beautiful young painter, Lucian Glass keeps his demons at bay through his fascinating work as a Special Agent with the FBI's Art Crime Team. Currently investigating a crazed art collector who has begun destroying prized masterworks, Glass is thrust into a bizarre hostage negotiation that takes him undercover at the Phoenix Foundation—dedicated to the science of past life study—where, in order to maintain his cover, he agrees to submit to the treatment of a hypnotist.

Under hypnosis, Glass travels from ancient Greece to 19th century Persia, while the case takes him from New York to Paris and the movie capital of world. These journeys will change his very understanding of reality, lead him to question his own sanity and land him at the center of perhaps the most audacious art heist in history: the theft of a 1,500 year old sculpture from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.


The Hypnotist is the third book in The Reincarnationist series by MJ Rose. This is the first of the series that I have read. I was told that each book can be read as a stand alone and I never had the feeling that I was missing information. I did enjoy this book, so I will be looking up the others in the series. The book was a bit slow in the beginning, but once Lucian Glass is introduced, the second time, the book really gets going. I'm glad I stuck with it. The plot is very well written with many twists and turns. I never really knew who to trust. I didn't figure out the end at all, which I always love in a book. The parts about past lives was interesting. This book has a little bit for everyone: mystery, intrigue, terrorism, and romance (a little bit). I definitely recommend this one and look forward to reading the others in the series.

--Kari


* note: I read a complimentary copy of The Hypnotist supplied courtesy of the author. I was not compensated in anyway for this review. By receiving a complimentary copy, I am in no way obligated to write a good or bad review. I am an honest reviewer and my reviews are based on my own opinion and only written by me.*