Seduction - M.J. Rose

Seduction

by M.J. Rose

Normally I don’t quote from ARCs but I decided it was worth it this time and I verified it against the finished work.  There was just something so painful and lovely about the opening paragraph of Seduction.  The story alternates between our old friend Jac L’Etole, from The Book of Lost Fragrances (review here) and Victor Hugo.  The following is how it begins with Victor Hugo.

“Every story begins with a tremble of anticipation. At the start we may have an idea of our point of arrival, but what lies before us and makes us shudder is the journey, for that is all discovery. This strange and curious story begins for me at the sea. Its sound and scent are my punctuation. Its movements are my verbs. As I write this, angry waves break upon the rocks, and when the water recedes, the rocks seem to be weeping. As if nature is expressing what is in my soul. Expressing what I cannot speak out loud but can only write, here, in secret, for you, Fantine.

This is the story of a lost man. An exile not just from his beloved country but also from his sanity. “

-Page 1

I can’t deny I loved this book from the first page.  I forgot how much I enjoyed Rose’s writing.  It flows with an elegance that sweeps me up into the story.  Seduction has all the drama, mystery, and fragrant mystique that I remember from The Book of Lost Fragrances but then there is also an added layer of “magical eccentricity” in the form of séances. 

On top of all this the characters have a wonderful mix of personalities.  I love the  various dispositions and the way they interact with each other.  They are extremely real and all too entertaining. 

SYNOPSIS: From the author of The Book of Lost Fragrances comes a haunting novel about a grieving woman who discovers the lost journal of novelist Victor Hugo, awakening a mystery that spans centuries.

In 1843, novelist Victor Hugo’s beloved nineteen-year-old daughter drowned. Ten years later, Hugo began participating in hundreds of séances to reestablish contact with her. In the process, he claimed to have communed with the likes of Plato, Galileo, Shakespeare, Dante, Jesus—and even the Devil himself. Hugo’s transcriptions of these conversations have all been published. Or so it was believed.

Recovering from her own losses, mythologist Jac L’Etoile arrives on the Isle of Jersey—where Hugo conducted the séances—hoping to uncover a secret about the island’s Celtic roots. But the man who’s invited her there, a troubled soul named Theo Gaspard, has hopes she’ll help him discover something quite different—Hugo’s lost conversations with someone called the Shadow of the Sepulcher.

What follows is an intricately plotted and atmospheric tale of suspense with a spellbinding ghost story at its heart, by one of America’s most gifted and imaginative novelists.

Come back May 22 for a guest post from M.J. Rose.  

For more information on the book tour check out:

Link to Tour Scheadule: http://hfvirtualbooktours.com/seductionvirtualtour/
Twitter Hashtag: #SeductionVirtualTour

**Thank you Amy at Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours for providing me with an ARC for review.