The Secret of a Heart Note
by Stacey Lee
December 27, 2016
384 pages
384 pages
Goodreads Summary:
An evocative novel about a teen aroma expert who uses her extrasensitive sense of smell to mix perfumes that help others fall in love while protecting her own heart at all costs.
Sometimes love is right under your nose. As one of only two aromateurs left on the planet, sixteen-year-old Mimosa knows what her future holds: a lifetime of weeding, mixing love elixirs, and matchmaking—all while remaining incurably alone. For Mim, the rules are clear: falling in love would render her nose useless, taking away her one great talent. Still, Mimosa doesn’t want to spend her life elbow-deep in soil and begonias. She dreams of a normal high school experience with friends, sports practices, debate club, and even a boyfriend. But when she accidentally gives an elixir to the wrong woman and has to rely on the lovesick woman’s son, the school soccer star, to help fix the situation, Mim quickly begins to realize that falling in love isn’t always a choice you can make.
At once hopeful, funny, and romantic, Stacey Lee’s The Secret of a Heart Note is a richly evocative coming-of-age story that gives a fresh perspective on falling in love and finding one’s place in the world.
Review
The Secret of a Heart Note was just what I needed. A flowery and cute book with a sort of surreal element to it. I stayed up way too late reading this book because I was fascinated with Mim's ability.
By far my favourite part of The Secret of a Heart Note is the scents and the emotions each is associated with. I loved learning about all the smells. Particularly the scent of burning tires and butterscotch pudding will forever stay with me. This book almost guarantees I'll be sniffing people (but not getting anything) when their emotions are heightened haha.
As aromateurs, Mimosa and her mother possess the very unique ability to smell emotions/feelings. Her ability (and her mom) pretty much dictates her life but Mim still dreams of possibilities. Being in her teen years, it's only sensible Mim would want to experience things. Though I didn't love seeing how much she feared her mother's reaction to her mistake, I am glad it happened so she could put herself out there and feel. She stumbles but stays true. Her journey mended old relationships and formed new bonds.
Court, Mim's love interest aka the most popular boy at school, was dreamy. Some of the things he says to Mim made me squeal for her *happy sighs*. He's a little quick to assume but I think it's understandable given his age and the troubles in his life. It's important that he was there when Mim needed him.
I have to be honest and say that I was slightly disappointed with the ending. It was what I expected but missing some key points. The progression of some events were skipped over; they went straight to the conclusions. I wanted to see the developments in play instead of assuming they happened. This didn't affect the overall story, just my personal enjoyment of the book.
In the end, I found The Secret of a Heart Note to be an unique and adorable read. Putting aside my gripe about the lack of some progressions, I had fun reading this story.
Sometimes love is right under your nose. As one of only two aromateurs left on the planet, sixteen-year-old Mimosa knows what her future holds: a lifetime of weeding, mixing love elixirs, and matchmaking—all while remaining incurably alone. For Mim, the rules are clear: falling in love would render her nose useless, taking away her one great talent. Still, Mimosa doesn’t want to spend her life elbow-deep in soil and begonias. She dreams of a normal high school experience with friends, sports practices, debate club, and even a boyfriend. But when she accidentally gives an elixir to the wrong woman and has to rely on the lovesick woman’s son, the school soccer star, to help fix the situation, Mim quickly begins to realize that falling in love isn’t always a choice you can make.
At once hopeful, funny, and romantic, Stacey Lee’s The Secret of a Heart Note is a richly evocative coming-of-age story that gives a fresh perspective on falling in love and finding one’s place in the world.
Review
The Secret of a Heart Note was just what I needed. A flowery and cute book with a sort of surreal element to it. I stayed up way too late reading this book because I was fascinated with Mim's ability.
By far my favourite part of The Secret of a Heart Note is the scents and the emotions each is associated with. I loved learning about all the smells. Particularly the scent of burning tires and butterscotch pudding will forever stay with me. This book almost guarantees I'll be sniffing people (but not getting anything) when their emotions are heightened haha.
As aromateurs, Mimosa and her mother possess the very unique ability to smell emotions/feelings. Her ability (and her mom) pretty much dictates her life but Mim still dreams of possibilities. Being in her teen years, it's only sensible Mim would want to experience things. Though I didn't love seeing how much she feared her mother's reaction to her mistake, I am glad it happened so she could put herself out there and feel. She stumbles but stays true. Her journey mended old relationships and formed new bonds.
Court, Mim's love interest aka the most popular boy at school, was dreamy. Some of the things he says to Mim made me squeal for her *happy sighs*. He's a little quick to assume but I think it's understandable given his age and the troubles in his life. It's important that he was there when Mim needed him.
I have to be honest and say that I was slightly disappointed with the ending. It was what I expected but missing some key points. The progression of some events were skipped over; they went straight to the conclusions. I wanted to see the developments in play instead of assuming they happened. This didn't affect the overall story, just my personal enjoyment of the book.
In the end, I found The Secret of a Heart Note to be an unique and adorable read. Putting aside my gripe about the lack of some progressions, I had fun reading this story.
*I was gifted an ARC of this book by a friend. All opinion are my own and not affected in any way.
I have seen this cover around but never stopped to actually pay attention to what it was about. This sounds really interesting! I have added it to my TBR pile.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad! It's a fun one!
DeleteHuh. For some reason I thought this was more of a standard contemporary but your review makes it sound more like Magical Realism. I am much more interested. I loved Stacey's historical fiction novels and this definitely sounds interesting. Great review!
ReplyDeleteCassi @ My Thoughts Literally
Hmm.. I think there's definitely some magical element involved with their love elixirs ;)
Delete