The Collector of Dying Breaths

by M.J. Rose

"From one of America's most imaginative storytellers comes a passionate tale of love and treachery, spanning the days of Catherine de Medici's court to the twenty-first century and starring a woman drawn back, time and again, to the past. In 1533, an Italian orphan with an uncanny knack for creating fragrance is plucked from poverty to become Catherine de Medici's perfumer. To repay his debt, over the years Rene; le Florentine is occasionally called upon to put his vast knowledge to a darker purpose: the creation of deadly poisons used to dispatch the Queen's rivals. But it's Rene;'s other passion--a desire to reanimate a human breath, to bring back the lives of the two people whose deaths have devastated him--that incites a dangerous treasure hunt five centuries later. That's when Jac L'Etoile--suffering from a heartache of her own--becomes obsessed with the possibility of unlocking Rene's secret to immortality. Soon Jac's search reconnects her with Griffin North, a man she's loved her entire life. Together they confront an eccentric heiress whose art collection rivals many museums and who is determined to keep her treasures close at hand, not just in this life but in her next. Set in the forest of Fontainebleau, crisscrossing the lines between the past and the present, M.J. Rose has written a mesmerizing tale of passion and obsession. This is a gothic tale perfect for fans of Anne Rice, Deborah Harkness, and Diana Galbadon"--

• ISBN10: 1451621531
• ISBN13: 9781451621532
• Publish Date: 8 April 2014
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Atria Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 368
• 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.