The Little Perfume Shop Off The Champs-Elysee by Rebecca Raisin

Initially I thought I was going to really dislike this book as it does take a while to really suck you in.  Once I was around 50 pages in I found that I was becoming more and more absorbed by Del's story and was racing through the pages.  Although this is basically a love story, and a rather cliched obvious one the setting is evoked well (I now feel I've been to Paris) and the background of the competition works well - although, it's obvious that Del will get to the Grand Finale or else there wouldn't be much of a book.

The supporting cast are well drawn and I particularly enjoyed the character of Lex.  Although, I did feel that he was a bit of a mole planted there by the perfume house to report back on how the contestants were behaving behind the scenes as it were.  Sadly this theory didn't pan out but I still think it would have made a nice twist.  Clementine and Lila are also quite strong characters within the book although a little two dimensional i their niche of, respectively, femme fatale and mouse.

There are little nods to previous books as we visit Once Upon A Time and also Anouk's Antique Shop.  It was nice to drop in on old characters and locations, however briefly.  There is, of course, plenty of information about the blending of perfume and it can become a little wearying in places as you get whole sentences that are nothing more than a list of ingredients.

I have still given this 4 Stars as I did enjoy the story very much despite having some major niggles with what appeared to be filler.  I now know why the publication date was pushed back again and again (yes, it was on my shopping list for an inordinate amount of time); it simply wasn't ready for publication and I do feel like it was compromised slightly to finally get the book out.  Sadly, this makes me wonder if we will see any further novels from Ms Raisin as it seems clear that she had issues fulfilling her Publishing Contract with this one.