The Collector of Dying Breaths

by M.J. Rose

"This gothic tale zigzags from the violent days of Catherine de Medici's court to twenty-first-century France. Set in the forest of Fontainebleau, crisscrossing the lines between the past and the present, this mesmerizing tale of passion and obsession illuminates the true path to immortality: the legacies we leave behind."--

• ISBN10: 1628991186
• ISBN13: 9781628991185
• Publish Date: 1 June 2014 (first published 8 April 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Center Point
• Edition: Large type / large print edition
• Format: Hardcover (Library Binding)
• Pages: 495
• Language: English

Reviews

[elysium]

In 1500’s France, René le Florentine becomes perfumer to Catherine de Medici after she saves him after he’s been accused of murder. But being a royal perfumer isn’t his sole passion, it’s trying to capture person’s dying breath to make an elixir that will bring person back to life.
At present-day France Jac promises her dying brother to continue his work trying to figure out the dying breath mystery that he was doing for a wealthy couple. Even as Jac starts to have suspicions about the couple, she can’t leave the project that her brother was working on.

I haven’t read the previous books in the series, or any of author’s books, but this could be read as stand alone just fine.

I found the perfume making world much more interesting than I thought I would. There was lots of telling how it was made and some of it just flew over my head, but it was really interesting.

I loved René’s story and loved seeing how he grew and how he ended up doing some things he didn’t wan’t to do. He stayed loyal to the queen through everything and I was so sad to see where it led him and what it cost him.

It took more growing into Jac and I’m not sure why but I just didn’t feel that kind of connection with her that I felt with René. I don’t know if it would have been different if I had read the previous books and known her better. Her issues with Griffin was starting to annoy me but I felt like there’s something I don’t know about them.
I loved seeing how Jac’s and Rene’s lives were connected as well as their love lives.

I really liked this book and I’m sure to read the other books in the series too!

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

I read The Collector of Dying Breaths slowly, as if I was taking my last breath. The story was as intoxicating as the perfumes described in its pages.

When a story is told in two parts let alone two centuries I am usually drawn more towards one. This was not the case here. I was just as invested in Jac's story as I was Rene's. Throughout the novel's intertwining stories I was torn who I wanted to hear more from. Rene and Cathrine played off the royal intrigue and backstabbing well and kept my interest level up. From the start of the book it was obvious that Rene had nerve, but he played his hand well and Cathrine de Medici's devoted faith in him reminded me a bit of the Tsarina Alexandra and Rasputin. From an outsider looking in, it all appeared off kilter and as odd as some of the ingredients in the perfumes Rene created.

At the start of Jac's story with Robbie's death, Jac's darkness was my darkness and she brought me in. For not having actually lived in the 1500s Melinoe and Serge sure creept the hell out of me. They were dark and ominous; this along with the castle backdrop created the perfect Gothic palate.

I just watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, at the very end Indiana Jone's colleague Elsa Schneider gets greedy and tries to take the Holy Grail for herself. She pays with her life and Indy almost falls to the same fate if his father hadn't told Junior to let go. That is how I felt about the fantastic plot of The Collector of Dying Breaths, a temple of suspense, a seemingly unachievable goal that many have aspired to. This novel was wow, just wow, M.J. Rose's book was spellbinding and is a colossal work of fiction which I would highly recommend.