The Collector of
Dying Breaths
MJ Rose
Genre: Historical Suspense
ISBN13: 9781451621532
also available as an ebook
Hardcover, 384 pages
Synopsis
From one of America’s most imaginative storytellers comes a
passionate tale of love and treachery, spanning the days of Catherine de
Medici’s court to the twenty-first century and starring a woman drawn back,
time and again, to the past.
In 1533, an Italian orphan with an uncanny knack for
creating fragrance is plucked from poverty to become Catherine de Medici’s
perfumer. To repay his debt, over the years René le Florentine is occasionally
called upon to put his vast knowledge to a darker purpose: the creation of
deadly poisons used to dispatch the Queen’s rivals.
But it’s René’s other passion—a desire to reanimate a human
breath, to bring back the lives of the two people whose deaths have devastated
him—that incites a dangerous treasure hunt five centuries later. That’s when
Jac L’Etoile—suffering from a heartache of her own—becomes obsessed with the
possibility of unlocking Rene’s secret to immortality.
Soon Jac’s search reconnects her with Griffin North, a man
she’s loved her entire life. Together they confront an eccentric heiress whose
art collection rivals many museums and who is determined to keep her treasures
close at hand, not just in this life but in her next.
Set in the forest of Fontainebleau, crisscrossing the lines
between the past and the present, M.J. Rose has written a mesmerizing tale of
passion and obsession. This is a Gothic tale perfect for fans of Anne Rice,
Deborah Harkness, and Diana Galbadon. [from the publisher]
My thoughts
My first encounter with M.J. Rose was after reading Seduction (read my review here). Since that time she has become one of my favorite authors and I have set about devouring everything she has written one by one. Needless to say I was over the moon to hear that M.J. Rose had a new release and immersed myself the very moment it arrived. dived into it the moment it arrived.
The Reincarnationist Series
by M.J. Rose is a popular set of stand-alone adult fantasy novels and The Collector of Dying Breaths is the sixth
installment. The aforementioned, Seduction, was the fifth installment and
trust me they are truly standalone individual works, the collection in its
entirety is a treat wholly onto itself, more than a collection of novels; it is
a tour de force.
I've regressed, in her latest, The Collector of Dying Breaths; Rose again presents two overlapping
narratives which are wholly mingled one with the other even though they are separated
by time. The first of these the reader
encounters is set in a sixteenth century Italian monastery. René is the apprentice to Serapino, the monk
who administers to the ill by concocting remedies from nature. René is a
capable and gifted student and soon Serapino tells him of his belief that life
can be reanimated by capturing the last breath of the dying and combining it
with a herbal recipe that Serapino is working on, but has yet to come up with
the right mixture.
Serapino passes away and the monks accuse René, who never
joined their order, of his murder. So
while René is falsely accused his situation looks hopeless. That is until none other than Catherine de
Medici arrives to request his services to her court as she is soon to marry the
Dauphine of France. René assumes his
role as the official royal perfumer in Catherine’s new French court. While at the monastery training in potions
and herbs he discovered that he also had a nose to identify and create perfumes. Of course, Catherine was also aware that he
was knowledgeable in the art of poison, an art the Medici's were known to
especially appreciate.
Soon René Le Florentine becomes a popular fixture at court
for his gift for creating not only unique scents for the women but aphrodisiacs
for lovers and crèmes for the face and body.
Catherine meanwhile is feeling very insecure in her marriage as she is
unable to seduce the Dauphine, who prefers his mistress. René cleverly devises a remedy, a crèmes that
will induce her to extreme sleepiness and a scent for Catherine to drive her
husband wild. Catherine is also
resorting to consulting with a man knowledgeable in the black arts, but in
winning her husband to her bed it is René that provides the cure. All the while he is still carrying on the
work of Serapino; trying to reanimate souls from their dying breaths.
True to form, even with this rich multi layered intriguing narrative
surrounding René and Catherine de Medici she gives her reader another, just as
mesmerizing modern day tale that is tied in many ways to the first. Fans of the Reincarnationist series will
remember Jac L’Etoile who has returned to Paris to the bedside of her beloved
brother who is mysteriously dying. Just
before falling ill Robbie was working on an important project which he wants to
inform Jac of and encourage her to complete his last project; sadly he passes
away before he is able to reveal many details.
The L'Etoile family business is perfumery and though Robbie
had operated the company it is Jack who possesses "the nose." Jac is also plagued by what she calls memory
lurches brought on by scents. During
these lurches she sees her own past lives and remembers her own past memories. Jac does not welcome this ability but feels
it is a barrier to her living a happy life.
From the little information gathered from Robbie Jack makes
her way to an estate outside Paris where Robbie had been working on a project
for a very eccentric heiress. The reader
discovers that the estate had belonged to René Le Florentine, royal perfumer
for Catherine de Medici. His collection
of vials of dying breaths has been discovered and his quest revealed and Jac
discovers that her brother had taken up the task of creating the formula to
reanimate a dying a breath.
Jac is shocked by the project, but compelled to complete
Robbie's last project, she is also intrigued by the heiress as well as her
estate which contains enough mysteries to intrigue the myth hunting Jac to
accept the project. Jac, with her
ability to detect scent draws the reader and the modern characters back to the
world of René Le Florentine through her lurches as well as a sense of
familiarity Jac feels for the estate and to René himself.
The Collector of Dying
Breaths is a magically constructed tale that weaves the past and the
present in such a mesmerizing and entirely convincing way. I loved the addition of Catherine de Medici
to the novel and felt she truly added something special to The Collector of Dying Breaths. Truly it was genius to weave Catherine, her
court perfumer into a series that already revolved around Jac L'Etoile and the
multi-generational family perfumery was nothing short of magic.
M.J Rose has truly granted the literary world a wonderfully
unique series, which includes The
Collector of Dying Breaths. Indeed
almost every time my mind remarks on a smell I remember something from one of
the novels. Indeed, The Reincarnationist Series has infiltrated my life, has made me
think of things, such as smells, with a bit more depth and often ponder the
notion of reincarnation itself. I assure
you if you are a skeptic on that topic Rose will go a long way in convincing
you otherwise.
The Collector of Dying Breaths truly captures your
imagination and pulls you inside its pages.
The novel is filled to the brim with unique characters which each evoke a
gamut of emotions that make the novel, despite its array of characters,
wonderful imaginative provoking descriptions of scenery as well as a fairly
complex dual narrative that is subtly weaved one around the other and despite
all of this it is a novel you cannot put down, indeed I read it cover to cover
without breaking so transported I was by the wonder that is the imagination and
the written word of M.J. Rose.
Of course, I recommend it without hesitation, indeed if you
miss it you wouldn't know a good novel if it smacked you in the face!
Advanced Praise for the Collector of Dying Breaths
“Mysterious, magical, and mythical, this book is as heady as
the fragrances, potions and elixirs that saturate the pages.Twists and turns
abound in this book. It had me guessing to the very end. What a joy to read!” New
York Times Bestselling author Sara Gruen, Water For
Elephants
“History, mystery, ambition, lust, love, death and the
timeless quest for immortality—a riveting tale of suspense.” —B. A. Shapiro, New
York Times bestselling author of The Art Forger
“From the labyrinthine alleyways of 16th century
Paris to the danger-infused woodlands of 21st century
Fontainebleau, M.J. Rose has crafted a superb, mesmerizing tale of two people
separated by centuries yet linked by a haunting secret. Poison, obsession and
undying love have never been so enticing—or so lethal. I could not stop reading
it!” – C.W. Gortner, The Confessions of Catherine de Medici
“With an alchemist’s skill, M.J. Rose mixes present and past
with the dark scent of love and an intricate mystery, creating a blend that is
splendidly, spookily magical.” —New York Times bestseller, Susanna
Kearsley
About the Author
M.J. Rose, is the international bestselling author of 13
novels: Lip Service,In Fidelity, Flesh Tones, Sheet Music, Lying in Bed, The Halo Effect, The Delilah Complex, The Venus Fix,The Reincarnationist, The Memorist,The Hypnotist, The Book of Lost
Fragrances, and Seduction. Rose is also the co-author with Angela Adair Hoy of How to Publish and Promote Online and with Randy Susan
Meyers of What to Do Before Your Book Launch.
She is a founding member and board member of International
Thriller Writers and the founder of the first marketing company for authors: AuthorBuzz.com. She runs
the popular blog; Buzz, Balls & Hype.
Getting published has been an adventure for Rose who
self-published Lip Service late in 1998 after several traditional publishers
turned it down. Editors had loved it, but didn’t know how to position it or
market it since it didn’t fit into any one genre.
Frustrated, but curious and convinced that there was a
readership for her work, she set up a web site where readers could download her
book for $9.95 and began to seriously market the novel on the Internet.
After selling over 2500 copies (in both electronic and trade
paper format) Lip Service became
the first e-book and the first self-published novel chosen by the
LiteraryGuild/Doubleday Book Club as well as being the first e-book to go on to
be published by a mainstream New York publishing house.
Rose has been profiled in Time magazine, Forbes, The
New York Times, Business 2.0, Working Woman, Newsweek and New York Magazine.
Rose has appeared on The Today Show, Fox News, The Jim Lehrer
NewsHour, and features on her have appeared in dozens of magazines and
newspapers in the U.S. and abroad, including USAToday, Stern,
L’Official, Poets and Writers and Publishers Weekly.
Rose graduated from Syracuse University and spent the ’80s
in advertising. She was the Creative Director of Rosenfeld Sirowitz and Lawson
and she has a commercial in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.
She lives in Connecticut with Doug Scofield, a composer, and
their very spoiled dog, Winka. [from her website]
Giveaway: $25 amazon gift card (INT)
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Review + Giveaway at Making My
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Meet the Author 
