Book Review: Scent of the Past by Erin Marie Bernardo

Title: Scent of the Past
Author: Erin Marie Bernardo
Genre: Historical Fiction
Age Group: Adult
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by Enchanted Book Promotions in exchange for an honest review.

Scent of the Past by Erin Marie Bernardo
A secret diary. A forgotten past. Another time.

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When people think of time travel, they think of the clichéd manufactured kind. Of giant electronic machines with flashing lights and buttons calibrated to shoot you into the past with one press. But it doesn’t work that way. You need a reason, a connection, and—most important—a link. But you can’t choose when and why you go. That would be too easy, and we’d all be snapping our fingers in hopes of seeing lost treasures of yesteryear. It must choose you.
Close cousins Addison and Elissa live in present day New York City and lead somewhat ordinary lives. When uncertain circumstances surrounding a set of antique perfume bottles sends them back to eighteenth-century France, they must uncover the truth behind their travel.

Disaster strikes when Addison finds herself in a nearly identical situation to a mishap she experienced in the present—the witnessing of a murder and release of a secret. Only this time the truth could destroy the entire French monarchy. With Addison’s head on the line, the young women search for answers before Addison suffers her unlucky fate twice. It is only when they discover the haunting connections to life in the present, that they understand why they both were sent, and why a repeating past…may not always be such a bad thing.

Scent of the Past isn’t an average time travel story. It focuses on two cousins with a rather unique bond, Addison and Elissa. They both live pretty ordinary life in modern day New York City. Elissa and Addison coudln’t be more different, yet they share an unique connection and they get along really well. When a set of antique perfume bottles sends the cousins back to eighteenth-century France, they must find out why they’ve been sent back in time, and what their puposes is, here in the folds of history. When the cousins discover haunting connections to life in present day, they start to understand their true purpose of having been sent there…

My favorite parts were the historical parts. The author described the setting well, and made me really feel like I was part of history. Obviously, a lot of research went into creating this book, and it shows.

There’s also some romance, and that too is intermixed with the time travel element, rebirth and past lives, and I really liked that, it made me think about things I hadn’t considered before when reading time travel book.

Along with engaging characters and a believable historical setting, this book also offers solid writing. Escape into the past for a while, and enjoy reading.
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