Welcome to the blog tour of The Scent Keeper!
About the Book:
Erica Bauermeister, the national bestselling author of The School of Essential Ingredients, presents a moving and evocative coming-of-age novel about childhood stories, families lost and found, and how a fragrance conjures memories capable of shaping the course of our lives.
Emmeline lives an enchanted childhood on a remote island with her father, who teaches her about the natural world through her senses. What he won’t explain are the mysterious scents stored in the drawers that line the walls of their cabin, or the origin of the machine that creates them. As Emmeline grows, however, so too does her curiosity, until one day the unforeseen happens, and Emmeline is vaulted out into the real world–a place of love, betrayal, ambition, and revenge. To understand her past, Emmeline must unlock the clues to her identity, a quest that challenges the limits of her heart and imagination.
Lyrical and immersive, The Scent Keeper explores the provocative beauty of scent, the way it can reveal hidden truths, lead us to the person we seek, and even help us find our way back home.
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Excerpt:
I don’t remember arriving on the island myself; I was too young. I only remember living there. I remember the paths that wandered through those watchful trees, the odor of the dirt beneath our feet, as dark and complicated as fairy tales. I remember our one-room cabin, the big chair by the woodstove, and our collection of stories and science books. I remember the smell of wood smoke and pine pitch in my father’s beard as he read to me at night, and the ghostly aroma of the runaway’s pipe tobacco, an olfactory reminder that had sunk into the walls and never quite disappeared. I remember the way the rain seemed to talk to the roof as I fell asleep, and how the fire would snap and tell it to be quiet.The Scent Keeper – Bauermeister
Review:
4/5
As someone who has always tied memories to scents, I was immediately captured by the descriptive writing of this book.
Broken into three parts, this coming of age story wove scent into the plotline but it didn’t overpower the characters – a concern of mine when I started the book.
I thoroughly enjoyed the magical elements of part one. It was easy to imagine living on the island as a girl and I appreciated the way that Emmeline’s father did his best to make her childhood rich and imaginative, even on a remote island.
Part two began the coming of age story as Emmeline is thrust into the real world. With such strong writing, I got a Where the Crawdads Sing vibe – which I loved as that was one of my favorite books last year.
Part three was the only part I struggled a bit with but I’ll let the individual readers decide that for themselves. The end felt somewhat rushed but because the writing was so well done and the strong character development, I didn’t have an issue drawing my own conclusions.
All in all, I was pleasantly surprised with where this book took me. Putting scents into words is not an easy thing to do and that alone makes this book a unique experience. Even as I opened the package containing this book, I swear there was a scent other than a new book scent. Probably just my imagination but if not, then well played by the publisher and their marketing group.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this book and participate in this blog tour!
If you enjoyed Where the Crawdads Sing, The Hazel Wood, or The Rules of Magic – The Scent Keeper is definitely a book worth adding to your To-Be-Read list.
About the Author:
Erica Bauermeister is the author of the bestselling novel The School of Essential Ingredients, Joy for Beginners, and The Lost Art of Mixing. She is also the co-author of the non-fiction works, 500 Great Books by Women: A Reader’s Guide and Let’s Hear It For the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. She has a PhD in literature from the University of Washington, and has taught there and at Antioch University. She is a founding member of the Seattle7Writers and currently lives in Port Townsend, Washington.
