The Scent Keeper

So beautifully written a literary novel that kept me engrossed from first to last page.Another wonderful book by Erica Bauermeister .A book about coming of age family history and the part scent plays in our lives our memories. #netgalley #thescentkeeper #st.martinsbooks.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Scent Keeper. I was glued to the novel through the hard ans sensitive introductory chapters, to the middle growing pains of love and reality, and into the realization filled last chapters. It is a novel filled with a young girl’s growing, learning, collapsing and coming to terms with the realities of her entire life.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a digital ARC. Put this on your May TBR. Fans of Where The Crawdads Sing and The Great Alone will especially like this one. But while a coming of age story where a child lives alone in remote land (this one with her father), this is a uniquely original story. The writing is beautiful and vivid. I didn’t want this one to end.

A fully engrossing read that I couldn’t put down. Fell asleep reading this late at night then woke up in the morning and read nonstop to finish it. Have to say the ending was a bit of a let down after the rest of the book, seemed quite cut off and too harsh.

Other than the ending I’d say this was a perfect read for a winter. Greatly enjoyed the characters and tone of the book. The story was very original at first but devolved into something more common.

Still giving this five stars as it was one of those rare books I couldn’t put down.

I wanted to read this book because of the way that scent can transport us. The sense of smell is the most evocative of all the senses, just a whiff of perfume, cut grass or baking can transport us back to another place and time. Bauermeister centers her story on Emmeline, a girl growing up in an idyllic island setting, with a father keen to teach her about the marvels of nature by using her senses. She is obsessed with the scents that are stored in bottles in drawers in their home, but has no idea what they are or how they were made. Soon Emmeline is forced to leave her island home, along with its mermaids and magic. It’s how she attempts to understand her childhood as an adult that frames most of this magical, lyrical tale. A perfect read on a cold winter day

I've read all of Erica Bauermeister's books and this one was definitely my favorite. The power of scents to evoke emotion and memory is powerful and it is this idea that is at the core of this story. I was entranced by the life that Emmeline and her father live on an isolated island and then the power of love as this life unraveled. It was a beautifully told story.

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley, but all opinions are my own.

4.5 stars - Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I absolutely enjoyed this book. Bauermeister weaves this story so carefully that several times I caught myself holding my breath. Emmeline's idyllic childhood is narrated by a child who believes in mermaids, but doesn't know what a dog is. Her imagination, and the touch of fabulism, sweeps the reader along into her fairy-tale...until, with an agonizing thump, her world (and the reader's perception of her world) is turned on its head. The evolution of Emmeline's life into adulthood shapes both her understanding of the world and her narration of it, and I love that the story grows with her, but still retains its magic.

The characters are all incredibly dimensional. There aren't a ton of characters, which allowed Bauermeister to fully develop most of them, and the introduction of raw, vulnerable people into a story the revolves around fairy-tale magic was, to me, incredibly poignant. It's so easy to turn villains into something truly evil and the protagonists into Cinderella, but as Emmeline herself says,

"It's amazing how easily we can cast ourselves in the role of hero."


I really recommend you grab a copy of this book in May. It's simply lovely.


Pros:
-This story captures all of the wonder of childhood and the discomfort of growing up, without belittling the things that were important as a child.
-The fabulism of a machine that records scents has had me day-dreaming non-stop since I finished this book yesterday. Typically, I like to immerse myself in a book if I can by drinking a certain tea or burning a candle that reminds me of my book, but this story takes olfactory science to a level I had never considered before. Oh, to have a Nightingale.
-The narrative teeters just shy of "unreliable narrator"--not because she's innately untrustworthy, but because her understanding of her life is wholly informed by the fairy tales her father told her. As the reader, you and Emmeline embark on the journey of learning the truth of her past together. The story also explores how different perspectives change the telling of a story.
-Personally, I'm a sucker for any story that explores the power of grace. No spoilers, but there are several instances in the plot where unconditional love or undeserved forgiveness change the direction of the story (in a not-cheesy way).
-There were a couple of moments where I was really worried about the choices a character would make--You know what I mean, the "don't be an idiot, I know you're fictional but you are going to rui--annnnd, there they go." In every instance, I was worried for no reason. Granted, some of them make dumb decisions, but they were never throw-your-book-at-the-wall stupid.
-The ending doesn't wrap everything up nice and neatly with a bow. It's a wonderful ending, and it leaves you wanting more, but I think it's exactly what it needed to be.
-It's so lyrically lovely. You'll find gems such as,

"I listened, while the scents found their hiding places in the cracks in the floorboards, and the words of the story, and the rest of my life."

And,

"We sat in silence, letting the green in the air heal what it could."

Cons:
-There is an instance of abuse where outsiders knew something was happening, but didn't speak up about it, which I really don't love.
-Not a con for me, but I've seen a lot of complaints that the story takes a different direction or becomes more "common" after Part One. I think the difference in the narrative is intentional, as a child telling the story vs. a young woman, so I appreciated the shift, but some readers may not if they had different expectations for this story.


Triggers: death of a pet, death of family member, abandonment, physical and verbal abuse, sexual harassment, school bullying

I loved this book and the setting. I love the relationship between the father and daughter and I loved how they express their love through food.
This was a gem of a book.
Thanks for letting me review this book to the publisher and Netgalley

This coming of age book will stay with you long after you read the last page. It's a story of a daughter and father who live on a remote island together. Emmeline's father teaches her about the world through her senses, but he keeps some major secrets from her. One day, Emmeline's curiosity gets the best of her and she's thrown into the "real world," a place of love, ambition, betrayal and ambition. In order to figure out who she is, she needs to uncover her true identity, which takes her on a quest she'll never forget. 

This was an incredibly lovely story, that I loved reading. The lyrical writing is beautiful, and will make you feel like you live right there on the island with Emmeline and her father. You will quest for Emmeline's identity along with her. It's a fun read, and you should read it :)

The Scent Keeper kept me guessing what might happen from the beginning until the very last page. Erica Bauermeister totally captured the frustrations, hopes, and fears of each character in this book. I love the way the ending left me hanging, wondering what might happen next.

This is a fascinating novel that kept me turning the pages long after midnight. I especially loved the lush, descriptive writing, particularly in the sensory realm of scent and smell and aroma. As with all of Erica’s novels, the characters are real and seem to float right off the page and into my heart (except for Fisher’s father, of course).

With thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister is a rare treasures. This story follows Emmeline through adolescents, the loss of her father and her remove from the isolation that she grew up in. Emmeline and her father live on an island by themselves and she has never seen any other people. Her childhood is absolutely magical as her father teaches her all about smells and science. She learns to read the world around her and its changes by the smells that she encounters. The scent of the earth as it warms in the spring and the change in weather as the sea swells and the saltwater fills the air. Emmeline's father showed her love but never told her where they came from or where her mother was. He told her Fairy Tales and he told her "People Lie" but he never told her about himself.
He taught her about his captured scents and showed her how his special machine worked. Those little bottles that spoke to her without saying a word fascinated her. This scent machine was an interesting component in this first part of the story.
The story then follows Emmeline as she is torn from her island world and taken to a small town. It so overwhelming until she meets Fisher and everything changes. She eventually sets and to find her mother and finds herself in a big city with all its many and varied smells. She learns more about what happened that sent her father into isolation. She learns about herself and she learns and that "people lie".
This story was one of the best I have read lately. The book is more than about Emmiline; this story is about people. Relationships are difficult. Growing up is hard. Falling in love can be confusing. All of this is addressed beautifully in this magical story.

Erica Bauermeister is a masterful writer and storyteller. Her evocative descriptions and exquisite prose kept me fully engaged from beginning to end - something that I find not quite so common these days. I shall put her on my watch list.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This novel kept me up all night. Emmaline was raised by her eccentric father on a deserted island. He wove tales of mermaids and other mystical things and created a solitary but enchanted childhood for her. When she began coming of age, Emmaline challenged her father's authority with disastrous results. She then began a journey to find out who she was and why her father had taken her to the remote island.

Great characters and a compelling story line.

Captures a very realistic magic with the capturing of scent and the way scents can evoke such beautiful memories. Author writes with the detail of Sarah Addison Allen, using the sensory to draw the reader in. I was fully captivated until the abrupt ending, but that small disappointment is fully worth it to have taken the journey through such a descriptive and resonant experience.

This is a beautiful and mystical story. Words cannot due it justice; it can and must only be experienced by the reader.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Highly recommended.

One of my all time favorite books! the story is so compelling, I could not stop reading! MY house is a mess!!! An amazing journey through the life of a young woman.

A big thank you for the digital advanced copy of The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley. I received this ebook for a fair and honest review. I loved this story. It was brilliantly written with well developed characters. This was a novel of beautiful, magical-realism. A poignant, immersive coming-of-age story that explores the depths/boundaries of self-discovery and love. The book showed how scent can evoke memories, change and shape life. I didn’t want put this book down.

Book Synopsis: Emmeline lives an enchanted childhood on a remote island with her father, who teaches her about the natural world through her senses. What he won’t explain are the mysterious scents stored in the drawers that line the walls of their cabin, or the origin of the machine that creates them. As Emmeline grows, however, so too does her curiosity, until one day the unforeseen happens, and Emmeline is vaulted out into the real world--a place of love, betrayal, ambition, and revenge. To understand her past, Emmeline must unlock the clues to her identity, a quest that challenges the limits of her heart and imagination.
Lyrical and moving. The Scent Keeper explores the provocative beauty of scent, the way it can reveal hidden truths, lead us to the person we seek, and even help us find our way back home.

As Emmeline grows up with her father on an island all their own, she doesn’t even realize that there are other people outside their little world. As she grows up she learns from her father that smells can be nearly magical triggers for memories of all kinds, her own and others

After a tragedy changes her circumstances greatly she is suddenly thrust into a new world where she has to learn to trust others. As she seeks the truth about herself and her family she learns what really matters.

Certain smells can bring me immediately to long lost memories, so i was intrigued by this story and look forward to reading other stories by this author.

The Scent Keeper centers around a girl (Emmaline) who lives with her father on a remote island.

They spend their days foraging for food, telling stories and discussing scents. Once a season, Emmaline's father takes out a machine and creates a scent on paper with it. Emmaline loves when her father opens one of the many jars and lets her smell it.

Things go awry when Emmaline is close to age 13, and she ends up living with a couple who runs a seaside getaway business. Suddenly she's thrust into a world with people and it's hard for her to adjust.

As the story goes on, Emmaline starts learning more about who her father actually was, and makes a lot of discoveries about who she is along the way. I found this story to be enchanting. It felt magical when her father told her mermaids had parties on the beach and left them gifts (supplies they needed). Her father wove magical stories throughout her childhood and while she was enchanted by them, I was too. I can see why it'd be so hard to leave that life behind. And I can see why Emmaline would want to go back.

The scents in this book were described so beautifully, it was almost as if I could smell the scents right along with the characters in the story. I've never read a book before on the power and magic of scents and I found this to be such a unique read. There's a definite arc from magical to scientific concerning scents in this story. I loved how Emmaline approached understanding smells. She let the scents tell her their stories and I loved it.

The ending was felt pretty open for me. I wish I had a little bit more closure and I actually flipped the page a couple times trying to see if there was more story there.

The Scent Keeper is one of those magically unique books that I loved reading and can definitely recommend!