I was excited to read an ARC of Scent of a Garden, because, like the main character I delight in the scents that surround us in this world, both of nature and from a bottle! I was curious to read about the life of a perfumer.

Asha returns to her family home in Napa when a bout of Covid derails her profession as a perfumer, after she loses her sense of smell.

I enjoyed the premise of Scent of a Garden, but I found the beginning of the story moved very slowly. I also had a hard time keeping the characters straight, and how they were all related to each other. I finally got that straight about a quarter of the way in, which is also when the story began to really capture my attention. There was a lot of fraught family drama and dynamics, which kept the story moving along.

Ultimately I enjoyed reading Scent of a Garden and seeing how the character's lives worked out. It was a slow start but a rewarding pay off in the end!

Asha “Poppy” was born into a family who have owned a legacy hotel in the Napa Valley for generations, and she is the sole heir to inherit. But with the encouragement of her Mom and Grandma she fulfilled her dream of being a perfumer in Paris. When her sense of smell is affected and she loses a huge assignment at work, she goes back home with her tail between her legs. At home her family helps her get her sense of smell back but also push her to examine her life, and maybe being a master perfumer is not her true dream after all

I love me and story of finding yourself, but this one did not work for me. I could not get myself to like or relate to the characters at all. All the relationships seemed so toxic. And 60% of the book was the same thing over and over in different words. The characters were all terrible at communicating, and were all whiney. The pacing needed a lot of work. I was so excited about having a perfumer main character, but her growth did not feel organic at all. Overall I was just left feeling very disappointed.

I loved this book! Namrata Patel has written a beautiful story that portrays the complicated relationships of a fun, multi-generational family. I always enjoy a book that explores realistic family dynamics and has realistic characters, flaws and all. This book had the added dimension of different cultural norms as well! I loved the descriptions of the different scents, from flowers and herbs, city smells and especially the food. Great book! Thanks #NetGalley #LakeUnion

I read this book and immediately started Daisy Darker after finishing this one. The only thing they had in common, was that a character in that book was a children's author and had a book named Poppy Patel, the name of the main character in this book. It was such an odd coincidence.

Anyway, I loved this book. The author did her research about the perfume industry and also tea blends. This was the second book I read about a "nose", the first one being about Madame Clicquot, the champagne magnate. I did not find any aspect of it boring, although I could see where someone might.

I loved the grandmothers in this book. I loved the culture and the whole story. I was cheering all along for Poppy and the other characters. I look forward to reading more books by this author.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the chance to read and review this book. All opinions expressed are mine and freely given.

4.25⭐️

Asha has a prestigious job working for a luxury perfumer in Paris- until, that is, she loses her sense of smell after dealing with Covid. She retreats to her family home in California, where she finds herself back amidst all the unresolved family tensions, until, working her way through them towards healing, she finds herself.

This is a lovely tale of someone’s personal journey, underpinned by a nice balance of familial, friend, and romantic love.

Thank you Namrata Patel, Lake Union Publishing, and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

An Indian family will always remain Indian no matter where it lives. And Namrata Patel has definitely captured this perfectly in her book. The grandparents and parents who are more invested in their child's career, who don't mind pushing them to get their dreams and the children who try hard to keep up the expectations of their parents. At the heart of it, this book is a family story and will give you some very warm vibes. However it is also about following your heart and working hard to realize your dreams no matter what your parents or the world tell you. A beautifully written book. I loved the fact that in spite having spent the better part of their lives in America, the family is so Indian and has a modern yet traditional outlook towards everything.

I enjoyed this book. A young woman with gifted sense of smell loses this gift after getting covid. She loses a large account with the Paris perfume developer for which she works and goes home to Napa Valley to recover. Her Indian-American grandmothers help her regain her sense of smell, and she explores where her life might go next.

This was nice, relaxing reading. The characteristics were well drawn and interesting. The plot meandered but kept my interest. The denouement needed to happen a bit more quickly than it did. Overall, I learned a lot about perfume and was glad I read the book.

"That's how history works. That's what being part of a family is. You can go on and on about being an individual, but we are who we've come from. We must honor the past, preserve it for the future."

Scent of a Garden is the story of Asha Patel, an American descended from immigrants. She is a perfumer but is unsure if she became a perfumer because she chose it or she was doing it due to expectations of her family.

This is a relatively medium paced novel, and what I loved is the cultural representation of the three generations of the family. A generation dreams, the next generation continues the tradition, and the next starts thinking whether they feel comfortable with the legacy. The beauty of this novel lies in that the author has embraced this diversity in this story. There's no right or wrong, and therein lies the difference between embracing our own culture. I went back to the time when I and my grandma discussed jasmine plants with Leela and Asha's scenes.

I just wish that Asha and Neel's story had a little more spotlight rather than the abrupt ending. Hopefully, we get to read Millie's story. I loved the Nani's club so much. I really enjoyed this novel. Thank you, Lake Union Publishing and Netgalley, for this book.

I really enjoyed this novel. I wasn't sure what to expect having read some of the reviews but i'm glad i gave it a chance.
Loved the two romantic leads and how they interacted with the other characters.
Would definitely recommend to friends as a summer read!

“Scent of a garden” is a contemporary fiction written by Namrata Patel which follows a story a daughter of proud Napa Valley hoteliers, Asha "Poppy" Patel chose a different line as a Paris perfumer, gifted with a nose for fragrances and business. Until her heightened sense of smell disappears and decides to return home. Torn between a mother who lives vicariously through her and a father who wants her to embrace her family's legacy, Poppy is determined to chart her own path of rediscovery. Poppy must juggle family drama, childhood friendships, and a former love to forge a future of her own choosing and, in time, heal an unscented life.

One thing that I liked is that it offer realistic portrayals of characters and situations, devoid of overly romanticized moments.Despite her exceptional sense of smell, she faces numerous challenges and struggles, mirroring the complexities of real life.

But the huge drawback was that this story was way to repetitive!! Many chapters began in the same manner, recounting Poppy's morning routine, same conversations leading to a monotonous reading experience. This repetition persisted until the story was nearly 80% complete, detracting from the pacing and creating a sense of stagnation. Additionally, I struggled to develop a genuine connection with the characters. They lacked depth, making it difficult to empathize with them. Furthermore, the interactions between the characters, particularly their relationships with Poppy, felt stilted and lacked a natural flow (one time they expresses their feelings and then again they do the same thing all over again).

The idea of this book was unique and I truly felt that this story had potential but badly executed. I’m disappointed.

At last, I extend my sincere gratitude to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing ,for providing me with an advance reading copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 2 stars out of 5.

I enjoyed this, but it felt a bit slow! I feel like the story had a great base, and interesting concept and a unique take, but I kept wondering what was coming in the last chunk I hadn't finished when it seemed like things could be wrapped up quickly. All in all, a good read, great representation and a fun story, but I wish it had been a shorter.

Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an advanced copy to review!

Rating: 3.75/5⭐️

Publication Date: June 13th 2023

Author: Namrata Patel

Review: Asha is living the Emily in Paris dream. Having an amazing life and being the best perfumer ( didn’t realize this was even a thing) until her very heightened smell is affected by Covid. Her whole life is sort of flipped upside down. Her father wants her to go into her legacy of being a hotelier.

I really enjoyed all the characters in this book sometimes I have a couple that I can go without but this book needed them all to get through the book it holds the backstory

It’s weird for me reading about Covid but I’m sure it will be making its way into books now.

Thank you netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the eARC in exchange for an honest review #NetGalley #bookstagram #kindle #kindleedition #eread

Asha Patel is living the dream, living in paris and working on becoming a master perfumer at her company. Ever since her grandmother discovered her “special gift” – her heightened sense of smell – she and Asha's mother have nurtured Asha to follow that career path. But then she loses her gift and even after months of seeing specialists, she's about to give up hope. Her career in jeopardy, Asha returns home to San Francisco in a last-ditch effort to restore the one thing that her life goal depends on. But once she arrives, she realizes that a lot has changed in her years away. She feels detached from the life she once knew. Scent of a Garden by Namrata Patel follows Asha as she faces the reality of letting go of her life path – one that was forged for her – and realizing that for once, she has a chance to discover her own trajectory.

Asha's family owns a luxury hotel in Napa Valley. Because of Asha's gift, she is not in line to inherit the business after her father Sanjay moves on. Asha's mother Sapna shipped her off to the best perfuming schools once she graduated high school. Before then, she cultivated her gift by arranging special lessons and exposing her to the life she wanted for her daughter. And Asha's grandmother Leela, the one who discovered her gift, all but encouraged it. After all, it was Leela's impressive four-acre garden that allowed Asha's superpower to reveal itself. It's all Asha has ever known. So when her gift disappears, she must figure out what to do next. But also how she will break the news to the two people who are just as invested – if not more so – in her career. And now her father might see this as an opportunity to pass on his legacy to Asha as an alternative.

Asha also reunites with her high school sweetheart and family friend, Neel. There's history and unfinished business between the two, which distracts Asha from her current predicament. And the more time she spends rekindling her family relationships, the more she learns how their lives moved on without her. Including her grandmother's garden, which might be uprooted to make way for other family endeavors.

Scent of a Garden is Patel's second standalone after her debut (The Candid Life of Meena Dave). While I absolutely loved her first book, this second one fell a bit short for me. The pacing was a bit slow and I wanted more closure and hope among Asha's family relationships. Even so, Patel's research into the process of perfume development, plants and herbs, and the chemistry of it all was evident. I could easily picture the vibrance of the family's land and scents. I also appreciated the idea of a main character having an identity crisis after losing the one sense that her life depends on. And Patel does a great job of incorporating cultural expectations and assimilating to Western ideals. Even so, my expectations for this book were high after loving Patel's debut. Unfortunately this one didn't quite hit the same way.

Rating: 3.75 stars

Scent of a Garden was truly a one of a kind read! The story follows Asha Patel, a perfumer in Paris, who is struggling with her job because she has partially lost her sense of smell after recovering from COVID. She is told to take some time off so she heads home to visit her family in Napa Valley. Asha hasn't lived at home or in the US in 15 years and as the only person in her family who is not a hotelier, she feels the strain on her relationships with not only her parents, but Neel, her high school sweetheart who she might still love. Now, Asha has four weeks to get her sense of smell back or find a new career while also repairing all of these strained relationships.

So much of this story is about Asha discovering things about herself, her parents, and her heritage. However, there is a little second chance romance with Neel, the boy she dated in high school who now lives with her parents and seems to work at her dad's hotel.

I thought it was very interesting how the author made it very clear that each character had a life outside of their relationship with Asha. No one just dropped everything the minute she got home. In fact, she ended up joining fer family and friends at their jobs or plans. The biggest indicator of this was the family group chat Asha wasn't a part of that made appearances throughout the novel. This idea that life stops when a main character isn't around is so unrealistic and it was refreshing to see that wasn't the case here.

I loved that Asha has a different job! I knew next to nothing about the fragrance industry and really enjoyed reading about it, but also the layers of different scents. Asha isn't the only one with a cool job, her parents are hoteliers, her best friend, Millie, is basically running a company, and her grandmother is an incredible gardener (informally). Not to mention the rich Gujarati cultural references throughout the book.

I'm not going to lie, it was a bit of a slow start for me. So many of Asha's relationship are tangled and made more complicated by her career. However, I feel like the pace matched the story very well and it all tied together perfectly at the end.

If you're looking for general fiction that's unique while relatable, this just might be the book for you!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Lake Union Publishing, for an advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are wholly my own.

A story of a perfumer (Asha Patel) who is living the dream in Paris. After losing her sense of smell, Asha takes an extended holiday, returns home and struggles with accepting "who she is, was or who she will become." Asha travels back home to Napa Valley reuniting with her parents, bff Millie, grandmothers Leela and Mimi and her long time family friend Neel, who she may or may not be falling for. An interesting read incorporating the pressures of career choices and life choices that come from family expectations to keep the "generation legacies" going. I definitely related to this part. Read if you like: perfurmes, slow burn romance, book settings in SF, Napa Valley and Paris, family and cultural expectations discussed, and stories written by South Asian authors. Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

The daughter of proud Napa Valley hoteliers, Asha “Poppy” Patel chose a different line as a Paris perfumer. Until her heightened sense of smell disappears. Her career in jeopardy, Poppy returns home. Torn between a mother who lives vicariously through her and a father who wants her to embrace her family’s legacy, Poppy is determined to chart her own path of rediscovery.

I love it when the main character has a unique profession. Poppy was a perfurmer in Paris, with a heightened sense of smell that naturally led to that profession. When it disappeared due to covid, she had to go back to the drawing board. Going home, she was hopeful that her grandmother's rose garden would cure her, but it wasn't as straightforward.

All kinds of remedies were explored, and while at home she reconnected with her childhood friends, one of which happened to be Neel, her ex. She went on an introspection journey, understanding herself and those around her, mending broken relationships. It was lovely to see.

Thank you so much Netgalley and Publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"She was in a different place than her grandmother or even her mother had been. She had the privilege of their sacrifice. Leela had to survive in a new country; for her, acceptance had been the only option. Her mom had to toil because shed been sheltered and had been raised to obey her family’s choices. Asha only had the burden of expectation."

Asha Patel is asked by her boss at the Paris perfumery to take a long break after there’s a mess-up with an important scent she was developing. Little do her bosses know that Asha has almost totally lost her sense of smell after a bout of Covid (this is the first time I’ve seen this aspect covered; it’s intersting how Covid is weaving its way into fiction and non-fiction in different ways). What else can she do but return home to California – but will she choose the easy (her grandmother), medium (her best friend, who she’s become distant from during her Paris sojourn, or hard, her mum, who really only communicates with her about the career she and grandma have pushed onto Asha? Oh, there’s also Neel, her first love, still around, and still, she thinks, the same, with little ambition.

Set interestingly to a backdrop of the hotel world, where Indian immigrants to America have thrived thanks to some creative working early on, taking inspiration from real-life stories, we see the effects on the third generation as they prepare to take on – or not – roles in the family businesses. Will Asha regain her sense of smell in her family’s garden, Sonamum, with her grandmother’s help? Will the garden even survive? Will the parent-child relationships in the two families heal? Will Asha return to work for further glory?

There are lots of good details in here, when Asha works in the family hotel, and when she’s interacting with the garden, nice portrayals of older, multicultural women in the two families’ friendship group, and some casual LGBTQIA+ representation that’s not made a fuss of. There’s also powerful discussion of the expectations of different generations of immigrants to America and the paths people have taken because of them. However, the quotation above is not the only part of that story: both her mother and grandmother have carved out their own areas of joy and expertise, which Asha slowly learns to see. An interesting read.

I very rarely give 1 star ratings so for me to do so is a biggie. I don’t consider myself to be a fast reader, but it generally takes me an average of 3 days to read a book, with the exception of long books so the fact that it took me an entire week for this shows why it’s a 1 star book in my opinion.
Asha Patel has always had a super sensitive nose, or as her family calls it “a super nose”. She puts her talent of being able to smell layers of scents in an item to use by becoming a perfumer, working for one of the most prestigious companies in Paris. She’s working hard to become a Master Perfumer, but all of that is halted when she loses her sense of smell after a mild a case of Covid. After losing a big client for getting the scent wrong, she flies home to Napa, Ca to figure out what do to next. Her grandmother refuses to believe this is the end to Asha’s super nose and tries different remedies. In addition, Asha reconnects with her past love and tries to figure out who she is without her powerful sense of smell.
The premise of this must have sounded good to me in order for me to have picked it, but I found the entire thing to be one big bore. It didn’t hold my attention in the slightest and I found the best character to be Mimi, Asha’s grandmother’s best friend. The writing was not only not entertaining, but I found the whole premise of getting backstory in by having the characters talk about the past as memories to each other to be lacking and added to the boredom. The moments they were reliving did nothing to move the story and could have been left out. This entire book felt very flat and I couldn’t wait for it to be finished. Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for an advanced copy of this. This hits shelves on June 13th.

Thank you Netgalley, author Namrata Patel, and publisher Lake Union Publishing for providing an ARC in exchange for a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own :)
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Maybe I'm a sucker for women's fiction, but I loved Scent of a Garden. The characters all felt rich and alive; not just the main character, Asha, but her family and her friends and her coworkers, too. Even if a coworker just stopped by her cubicle for a quick chat, I felt like they had a full life outside of that interaction. One character was never even seen directly on page, as he was the fairly new significant-other of Asha's friend, and he was referred to only as "The Man", i.e. "I'm with the man right now, he's making dinner," and he still managed to feel three dimensional.

My favorite part about this book, though, was how life did not simply stop around Asha. Asha's lived in Paris for the last decade and a half, with her family back in California. Her family has a group chat, her grandmothers are part of a gang of grannies that terrorize local wineries, her best friend is climbing the ranks of a hotel corporation, her high school sweetheart is dating other people. Life goes on without Asha there, because that's how it works in the real world. Many fiction novels will have life seemingly stop because the main character isn't around, "We were waiting for you!" but that does not happen here and I love it. And when Asha goes home to California, her friends in Paris don't stop living, either. The company Asha works for keeps gaining clients even though she's not there, her friends in Paris make plans and socialize without her. Asha may be the main character of Scent of a Garden, but she doesn't have "main character energy" in the best way possible. She's just a person, like any of us, and that makes her relatable.

This book definitely ends with a "Happy For Now" ending. It's not a "Happily Ever After", because things aren't perfect. Some things don't get resolved by the end of the book, some relationships are still strained, and probably always will be. But some things do get resolved, maybe not how Asha wanted, but resolved in a way she can accept and be happy. I feel like that just makes this book that much more powerful: Asha doesn't get everything she wants, and at times, she's outright told no! But she makes do, perseveres, and finds alternatives, and there's definitely a kind of strength to that. I think it takes a talented author to deliver a story that isn't all rainbows and roses, but is still deeply satisfying.

My one critique, if I have to have one, is this book is a bit predictable. Some situations lined up in such a way that, while reading, I couldn't help but think that something was too big of a coincidence, or that something was a real convenient solution or opportunity. In some cases, I was about 40% through the book and thought to myself "You know, I bet..." and when I got to 99%, I'd been right. Every single time. This wasn't disappointing enough to deter me from enjoying the story line, it was just an observation I was able to make from miles away.

Upon further reflection, that could be the reason Scent of a Garden, for me, fell a little shy of 5 stars. I wasn't surprised at any point, and didn't have any really strong emotional reactions, just a few moments of "Yeah, that's relatable. Oh girl, I been there. Ha! Mangos!" *IYKYK*. But it was still enjoyable, and still, in my opinion, masterfully written. I've got some more of Patel's works on my TBR and if they're anything like this, I know I'm gonna love 'em.

With a unique setting, Scent of a Garden by Namrata Patel tells a story about self-discovery. The book touches on the topics of dreams, passion, family and having a sense of belonging, topped with a sprinkle of second-chance romance.

Summary: Asha “Poppy” Patel is a perfumer gifted with a heightened sense of smell. However, she partially lost it after getting infected with COVID. She is made to take a vacation from work after making a mistake and returns home to Napa Valley, where she reconnects with her family and friends.

Tropes/Genres:
• general fiction
• second-chance romance
• small town (hometown)
• asian american (Gujarati, Indian)
• family legacy
• perfume

Review: As I’ve mentioned above, this book has a unique setting. I haven’t read a book that has a perfumer MC. I also haven’t read a book with an MC who’s lost her sense of smell. AND I haven’t read a book that’s set in a world where COVID exists. And this book did a great job integrating it because it feels so legitimate. It’s involved in a major plot point of the story.

A part of this book that didn’t work for me was the romance. I mean, it was fine. But I was more interested in Asha’s personal growth and whether she would continue pursuing her perfuming career. It feels like this book could’ve done without a love line. I also didn’t have any particular attachment towards the characters. I can tell that they’re well-developed and unique, but I couldn’t feel connected to them.

I think the story could’ve been more succinct, as it felt a bit repetitive. You can summarise the entire book with these few points: Asha is back in California. Her mother wants her to go back to Paris to pursue her perfuming career. Her father wants her to stay in Napa Valley and take over the hotel. Neel doesn’t show enough affection, and Asha is sad, but she’s the one who pushed him away in the first place. That’s basically the whole essence of the story, and it doesn’t move anywhere for at least half of the book.

However, the author did a great job describing how Asha’s super nose works! I like the way the fragrances were described. I also gained a bit of insight into how the fragrance industry works. She also showed a family dynamic that’s realistic and familiar to many. Asha’s dad annoyed me. But it’s nice how the author showed her parents’ points of view, so readers can see that they didn’t mean anything harmful. Children often don’t understand their parents until they become one themselves (or, well, talk to them), and I’m glad they did.

Readers with Gujarati backgrounds would certainly enjoy this story a lot. I think it’s quite uncommon to see this culture in the literary world, so I’m sure they’ll be elated to see the representation. I think readers who want to read a book focusing on a character’s personal growth would like this too!

Thank you, NetGalley, for this book.