Makes me want to go to the South of France

Malorie Monsard returns to the south of France, where she grew up, having left on a hike after finishing high school and made enough money in Paris to put herself through business school. Having felt like an outcast while growing up, due to the legacy of her great-grandfather who betrayed resistance members to the Gestapo, and a narcissistic father who would manipulate her, her mother, her sisters and her grandmother, and charm, lie and steal his way until he finally met an unglamourous end in a car accident with another woman. After the women of the Monsard family left and scattered across the globe, Malorie’s grandmother remained and tried to keep up what little remained of the family’s once great fragrance business. Now she has died, Malorie is in charge of the inheritance, forcing her to return to her brittle roots. Will she sell off the near-dead family business or make a go of it in a town she’s wary about returning to?

Tristan Rosier is the youngest of five male cousins and always felt it was his job to see to the emotional well-being of all his family. He grew up with Malorie, having been placed next to the quiet, studious girl all the way through school as this seemed to be the only thing that could somewhat calm his own irrepressible, energetic and impulsive self. Nursing a crush on her since childhood, Tristan never could figure out why Malorie was the only woman who would never give him the time of day. Growing up with war hero relatives, privileged and loved constantly, Tristan nonetheless deeply felt the loss of his two oldest cousins who went off to join the armed forces, and Malorie, who simply never returned from her post graduation hike.

When he met her again a few years ago in New York, he was trying to pitch his most extravagant and brilliant perfume to the company where she worked, and she used her cold, logical accounting skills to ruin his dream. Now she is back in Grasse, and Tristan wants to do everything in his power to make sure she decides to stay around. He’ll help her restore the Monsard perfume house to its former glory, he’ll offer up his perfumes and heart on a plate, if only she’ll notice how much he adores her and decide to stay.

Full review here.