My Review
Lay back, kick your feet up and imagine the sun of the French Riviera on your face. Perfumes delight your senses and the warm sea breeze plays with your hair. This book will transport you to a time of Royal Weddings and exotic locales. Before the wedding of Meghan and Harry was the wedding of the famous movie star Grace Kelly to Prince Rainier of Monaco.
"Meet Me in Monaco" by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb is a story based on real events. Its main characters are Sophie Duval, a perfumer, and James Henderson, a press photographer. Through the eyes of these two we witness the royal wedding and the events leading up to it. I loved seeing Grace Kelly and learning more about her through Sophie and James’s eyes. There was truly wedding fever.
The stories of Sophie and James (fictional characters) are very beautiful as well. I especially love Sophie, learning about perfumes and how she creates them. It is fascinating how perfumers try to learn a person’s personality, favorite memories, etc., and match that to a scent or combination of scents. I appreciate Sophie’s love of beauty and her perfume work that she is very passionate about. However, I don’t like how Sophie cheats on her fiancé and I feel like the main character was condoning affairs at one point. Later Sophie does face the consequences for keeping secrets from James and realizes she was wrong in doing so, which I appreciate. James and Sophie learn that you must grasp life while you can. And the end, well, you have to see for yourself if they will get their own happy ending.
Lovers of history, Grace Kelly and Royal Weddings will love this book!
Content: reference to an alcoholic; alcohol is consumed; the word “hell” is used; a man smokes; the word “bloody” is used; the Lord’s name is taken in vain; the word “da**” is used; the word “a**” is used; there are a few fade-to-black sex scenes; there are some sexual innuendos.
Rating: I give this book 4 stars.
I want to thank Hazel Gaynor, Heather Webb, Harper Collins, William Morrow and LibraryThing Early Reviewers for the complimentary copy of this book for review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I express in this review are my own. This is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s CFR 16, Part 255.
About the Authors
HEATHER WEBB is the author of historical novels Becoming Josephine and Rodin’s Lover, and the anthology Fall of Poppies, which have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Cosmopolitan, Elle, France Magazine, and more, as well as received national starred reviews. RODIN’S LOVER was a Goodreads Top Pick in 2015. Up and coming, Last Christmas in Paris, an epistolary love story set during WWI will release October 3, 2017, and The Phantom’s Apprentice, a re-imagining of the Gothic classic Phantom of the Opera from Christine Daae’s point of view releases February 6, 2018. To date, her novels have sold in ten countries. Heather is also a professional freelance editor, foodie, and travel fiend.
HAZEL GAYNOR is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of A Memory of Violets and The Girl Who Came Home, for which she received the 2015 RNA Historical Novel of the Year award. Her third novel The Girl from the Savoy was an Irish Times and Globe & Mail Canada bestseller, and was shortlisted for the BGE Irish Book Awards Popular Fiction Book of the Year. The Cottingley Secret and Last Christmas in Paris will be published in 2017.Hazel was selected by US Library Journal as one of ‘Ten Big Breakout Authors’ for 2015 and her work has been translated into several languages. Originally from Yorkshire, England, Hazel now lives in Ireland.
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