Review: A Wish Upon Jasmine by Laura Florand

Title: A Wish Upon Jasmine (La Vie en Roses #2)
Author: Laura Florand
Genre/Themes: Contemproary romance
Release Date: 1 August 2015

Author's links:
Website / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads
My rating: 4 Stars

Add on Goodreads

Synopsis

Ruthless. That was what they said about Damien Rosier. Handsome. Wealthy. Powerful. Merciless. No one messed with his family, because to do so they would have to get through him. No one thought he had a heart. Not even the woman he gave his to.

Cynical. That was what they said about Jasmin Bianchi. A top perfumer of her generation, Jess had achieved commercial success by growing a protective shell over a tender heart. The one time she cracked it open to let Damien in, he crushed it—after a night of unbelievable passion.

Lovers. That one magical night couldn’t survive the harsh light of dawn. When Jess woke up to discover the man in bed beside her had stolen her company, she fled.

Enemies. Now she’s come to the south of France with a threat to his family heritage. If he wants to reclaim both it and the woman who walked away from him, he’s going to have to fight as dirty as only Damien can.

But Jess knows how to fight dirty, too. And these days, she has nothing left to lose.

Certainly not her heart.

Review 

Laura Florand is one my favourite authors and I find her Amour et Chocolate series just delicious! This is book 2 in her new series, La Vie en Rose which take us in the world of high French perfemury. Book 1 was the perfect romance - a fairytale story of love, trust - very sensuos, very beautifully written

This is the story of one of the five cousins in the Rosier family - Damien - the business shark, the ruthless one who always achieves his goals. And the somewhat lonely and lost, perfume maker Jasmine (Jess). On the surface their story was very much similar to Matt and Layla's story from book 1 and it bothered me a lot initially. It felt like we have already been there, we have seen how this develops and comes to a HEA. But then Ms Florand turned things in a new direction.

I loved the cahracter of Damien and how he developed through the story. His internal cononflict was so strong and I could understand him so well. He was constantly battling expectations of everyone in his family had of him and his vision of himself. He felt obliged to perform a certain role in the family and he did it because this was his forte and he loved his family and wanted to care for them. Yet (he thought) they all saw him as ruthless, heartless and in fact he just felt too much, was as emotional and vulnerable as anyone else. He was a romantic at heart trying to do the right thing for everybody no matter what it cost him. There was so much going on with him.

Damien and Jasmine had had an affair/one-night stand before that ended in a lot of hurt and misunderstanding. I was not a big fan of basing the conflict of the story on miscommuniation though it was fitting to the characters, at least for Damien. Jasmine family situaiton aslo very much explained her distrust and jumping to conclusions. None of them had an easy time opening up about their true emotions, both were scared of revealing too much.

The process of perfume making had an improtant role in the story and I loved how the author used this metaphore to explore the characters' inner worlds.

Overall, this is another additon to a fabulous new series by a favourite author. A recommended read for fans of romance - sensual, powerful, life-changing!

Purchase Links: Amazon / B&N / iTunes / Kobo