Review: The Secret of a Heart Note by Stacey Lee

Collaborative feature with Alexa. We read ARCs together and post our reviews on the same date.

The Secret of a Heart Note
by Stacey Lee
pub 12/27/16 by Katherine Tegen Books
Young Adult - Magical Realism
Received from pub via Edelweiss

Plot • It's about Mimosa (Mim), a sixteen-year-old aromateurs whose abilities are passed down through the family. It's just her and her mom now carrying the tradition of mixing love elixirs for those looking for love. But they cannot fall in love because it would render their noses useless. Then one day, Mim gives a love potion to the wrong woman and when she enlists that woman's son to help her fix the situation, she's finds herself in a romantic situation of her own.

Characters • It's definitely a story where you have to suspend your disbelief and I admittedly found that hard to do because the situation would get so comical at times. But what grounded the story were the characters. Mim is a not-so-typical girl who craves normal and I got that. She has a complicated relationship with her mom (got that too) but I wish she had stood up for herself more. I did like getting to know her family though and her own romance was quite sweet. It didn't reel me in but it was cute.

Writing • The writing was engaging enough that I could fly through it but I didn't love it as much as her first book, Under a Painted Sky.

Overall feelings • It's a cute, fluffy story that very much reminds me of a rom-com. For some reason, it made me think of Simply Irresistble with Sarah Michelle Gellar.

What's your favorite smell/scent? • In general, I love the smell of coffee. But if it was in the context of perfumes, my favorite is jasmine, followed closely by rose.