Heaven Scent by Sasha Wagstaff
Publisher: Headline Review
Release Date: 21st July 2011
Rating: 5/5
Source: Received from publisher for review.

Amazon Summary:

When Cat Hayes impulsively married a handsome, penniless French waiter in St Tropez, she didn’t realise she’d be widowed in just a few weeks. Neither did she know that her late husband was actually Oliver Ducasse, heir to the Ducasse perfume empire. Invited by the Ducasse family to their glamorous French mansion, Cat finds a family in chaos. What’s more she’s regarded with suspicion and hostility, especially by Olivier’s playboy cousin Xavier. Will she run for the hills as fast as her high heels can carry her? Or will she realise that she is exactly what this mixed-up family truly needs?

Heaven Scent is author Sasha Wagstaff’s third novel, but it’s the first I’ve read. For ages, I steered clear of the big, blockbuster novels because I liked my Chick Lit to be a bit more ‘real’ (yes, I read fiction and like some normalcy to it, what of it?) but instead of just writing off these novels without even giving them a chance, I’ve been reading a few this year and I’ve changed my opinions vastly. Tilly Bagshawe, Victoria Fox, JJ Salem and I’ve found them all to be brilliant reads. So when I received a copy of Heaven Scent I was intrigued. It’s a beautiful looking novel with it’s white and purple cover and the title - Heaven Scent (geddit?) fascinated me. I’m a big fan of titles that play on words and phrases so I picked it up, and decided to give it a read.

If you aren’t already aware, the main focus of Heaven Scent is perfume. It’s set in the South of France and focuses on the Ducasse family who have a large perfume empire. I’m not a big perfume fan. I don’t like the smells - they’re too heavy for me and cloying, but I buy a lot of it for my mam who loves perfume so I’m pretty au fait with the people who make perfumes. I don’t know so much about heart notes or base notes or anything, well, I didn’t until I read Heaven Scent. Because the Ducasse family own their own perfume empire, and they’re trying to stop Cat from ‘stealing’ it, there’s obviously a lot of perfume talk through the novel and I learnt a lot. For someone like me with no knowledge of perfume, reading Heaven Scent was enlightening. I learnt how a perfume is made, how each perfume maker has a ‘nose’ that’s able to blend the perfect ingredients to make a scent, all about the history of the fictional Ducasse-LaFleurie perfumes which must be similar to the Chanel’s and Givenchy’s of the world. Even though I’ve never found perfume interesting, nor would I think I’d enjoy reading about it, I found it enjoyable and if any one has doubts about a novel all about perfume, I’d say put them to one side because it’s a fascinating business.

I’ve said previously in another review that I don’t particularly like France (in fact I inadvertently offended someone with my comment, so much so that I won’t repeat it here). I know lots of people love France and find it romantic, but for some reason I never have. However the setting of the South of France for Heaven Scent is brilliant, and with each new France-centered novel I read, I am appreciating the country a tad bit more. I did wonder how the plot was going to work - the Ducasse family are so against Cat at the beginning that I was perplexed as to the strap line (“For a family in need of rescue, she’s the perfect remedy”) because it took a long, long time for Cat to even be treated with the teeniest bit of respect from the family seemingly allergic to allow anybody into their chateau and into their life. However, the plot kept me hooked as Cat tries to show the family that she isn’t some horrible gold-digger and that she truly loved the recently deceased Olivier. Eventually the strap line makes sense, and although it may seem wrong, I liked that the Ducasse family first wanted to look after their own rather than just let Cat swan into the family when they knew nothing about her (and her them, in fact).

The characters are mainly made up of the Ducasse family, as you might expect, along with Cat and Olivier’s best friend Ashton. I found them all fascinating characters. Cat’s raw love for Olivier and her shock at his fortune and his wealth was portrayed very sympathetically, and I did feel sad the way the family treated her (though as I said above, I understood their reticence). I liked seeing how Cat and the Ducasse family came together as strangers, bound by Olivier whom we never know but whom we hear a lot about (my thoughts on Olivier? Ew.). I found the Ducasse family fascinating. Delphine, the matriarch of the family and the one who seemingly weilds all of the power, her son Guy, his son Xavier and his twins Max and Seraphina and Leoni, Xavier and the twin’s cousin. It took me a while to warm to them properly, but I soon did and I became so involved in their family that I was sad to leave them at the end. Xavier in particular left a lasting impression. He sounded absolutely gorgeous. I’d love to know who Sasha based him on. I also liked Leoni, despite the fact she’s constantly cold towards Cat. I thought they were a fascinating bunch of characters, the only character I didn’t like was the hateful Angelique, a French actress who wiggles her way into the family.

I thoroughly enjoyed Heaven Scent. It was a gripping family read, but it moved at a good pace so I never got bored. It had romance, which made me happy, I like having couples I can root for in a novel. Wagstaff is a brilliant writer, the story just flows so easily and the 500 pages just whizzed by for me. I loved the book. There was a slight twist at the end, which I guessed. I didn’t see it coming, but once there was an inkling there was something afoot, I knew what it was. Which is a shame, I suppose, but it didn’t spoil it for me. At this point, I’m used to guessing any surprises in Chick Lit, not because Chick Lit is so predictable, just because I’m perceptive. OK, so maybe Chick Lit is a bit predictable. I would thoroughly recommend Heaven Scent, it was a wonderful read, filled to bursting with a good plot and brilliant characters - characters you care about. Usually in these massive novels, the characters are cold and detached but that’s not the case here and I for one am eagerly awaiting Sasha’s fourth novel and I hope it’s just as wonderful as Heaven Scent.

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