Scent of a Garden

A Novel

De: Namrata Patel

Narrado por: Soneela Nankani

A perfumer in Paris is forced to return to her California roots in an exhilarating novel about family, self-discovery, and taking risks by the author of The Candid Life of Meena Dave.

The daughter of proud Napa Valley hoteliers, Asha “Poppy” Patel chose a different line as a Paris perfumer, gifted with a nose for fragrances and business. Until her heightened sense of smell disappears. Her career in jeopardy, her world now muted, Poppy returns home. Maybe tending to her grandmother’s massive aromatic garden, where Poppy’s gift first flowered, will bring restorative hope.

But when she arrives, Poppy discovers that the land upon which the beautiful garden once thrived has been uprooted and destroyed. She realizes that the years she spent away from her home have loosened so many ties with the past. Torn between a mother who lives vicariously through her and a father who wants her to embrace her family’s legacy, Poppy is determined to chart her own path of rediscovery.

Poppy must juggle family drama, childhood friendships, and a former love to forge a future of her own choosing and, in time, heal an unscented life.

©2023 Namrata Patel (P)2023 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Patel has written a touching tale of one young woman’s reckoning with her family’s generational legacy, staying true to her roots and traditions while at the same time forging a path for herself. Full of warmth and humor, this book is recommended for all fiction collections.”—Booklist

“Full of softly beautiful descriptions and remarkably rendered characters, Patel’s sophomore novel grapples with familial pressures and legacies. It’s a sensual read, full of details pertaining not only to scents, as might be expected, but also to foods and visual descriptors.”—BookRiot.com

Great summer read

Loved this book especially the descriptions of plants and flowers. And the scent of the garden.

Happy, easy read

This book made my heart so happy, which made it easy to read. I loved the characters and the family ties. A story about a perfume was an interesting plot, but it was so much more. The narrator did a phenomenal job and this is a book I would read again and again!

Love story for Independent women

It was more than I expected from the first chapter. I love the family dynamics and the Nani’s are fun characters! Author depicts strong female characters and loving male characters. Excellent work

Stretched thin

Story was mediocre, and information was repeated several times in different chapters. Heroine came across as a little pathetic – I wanted to smack her. Plot and storyline were OK but predictable

Arrested Development

I kept waiting for Asha to become likeable—it didn’t happen. Her grudges against her mother, father, boss, old boyfriend were longstanding and Asha expressed her resentment often. She left home at 17 and it seems like she stayed at that age emotionally. The big mystery was why her family continued to like her. Usually by the end of a book I have more sympathy for a character but not this time. After living in Paris for 15 years Asha felt she had the right to be enraged about the sale of a garden her family owned. The fact that her father needed the money for his hotel was irrelevant. At 32, Asha had yet to develop empathy and continued to wallow in self-pity.

Another world?

Seriously? Are there people this entitled and THIS self-centered in the world. The young man was the only redeemable character in the story. Pray for him…

Beautiful

Audiobook
Asha Patel, daughter of prominent hoteliers in California, finds herself forced out of the position of her lifelong dream of being a cutting edge perfumer by the unfortunate twist of fate of losing her incredible gift of smell due to covid. As she takes a break, after having blown a huge opportunity, she returns home to her family and their hotel business to sort out her life.
I loved this view of an Indian family, their traditions and successes in American culture, while maintaining the beauty of their own culture.
Once home Asha has to face her family with her failure, and then learn how to embrace her family once again. Lovely story.

Garden and scents.

The ending tied it all together. Their love and family bond that they have always shared!

Good Story but…

I enjoyed this story and learned some about the perfume and hospitality business but I could not give it five stars because I just felt the main character was an immature brat. She seemed so upset about life going on without her while she was in France for about 15 years and the fact that she was upset about things and places were going to change without her being consulted even though she had been gone for so long really made me not like her very much. Neal and his sister were my two favorite characters in this story.

Independent Women

A story of parental expectations, children living their own life, and importance of family. Loved the strong women from 3 generations each strong in their own way and each struggling to pass on wisdom or figuring out how much to accept wisdom. Interestersting because these are immigrants from India where men and women have strong gender roles. A beautiful love story and coming of age story and a melding of generational and gender expectations.