"Seduction" by M. J. Rose

SUMMARY :

In 1843, novelist Victor Hugo’s beloved nineteen-year-old daughter drowned. Ten years later, Hugo began participating in hundreds of seances 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 seances—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.

PARTICULARS OF THE BOOK:

Published by:  Atria Books

Pages:

Genre:  Historical Fiction

More about the author here:  M. J. Rose
Preorder for May, 2013:  Barnes & Noble

 

 

 

SOMETHING ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

 

 

 

 

M.J. Rose, is the international bestselling author of 12 novels;Lip Service, In Fidelity, Flesh Tones, Sheet Music, Lying in Bed, The Halo Effect, The Delilah Complex, The Venus Fix,The Reincarnationist, The Memorist, The Hypnotist, and The Book of Lost Fragrances.
Rose is also the co-author with Angela Adair Hoy of How to Publish and Promote Online, and with Doug Clegg of Buzz Your Book.
She is a founding member and board member of International Thriller Writers and the founder of the first marketing company for authors: AuthorBuzz.com. She runs two popular blogs; Buzz, Balls & Hype and Backstory.
Getting published has been an adventure for Rose who self-published Lip Service late in 1998 after several traditional publishers turned it down. Editors had loved it, but didn't know how to position it or market it since it didn't fit into any one genre.
Frustrated, but curious and convinced that there was a readership for her work, she set up a web site where readers could download her book for $9.95 and began to seriously market the novel on the Internet.
After selling over 2500 copies (in both electronic and trade paper format) Lip Service became the first e-book and the first self-published novel chosen by the LiteraryGuild/Doubleday Book Club as well as being the first e-book to go on to be published by a mainstream New York publishing house.
Rose has been profiled in Time magazine, Forbes, The New York Times, Business 2.0, Working Woman, Newsweek and New York Magazine.
Rose has appeared on The Today Show, Fox News, The Jim Lehrer NewsHour, and features on her have appeared in dozens of magazines and newspapers in the U.S. and abroad, including USAToday, Stern, L'Official, Poets and Writers and Publishers Weekly.
Rose graduated from Syracuse University and spent the '80s in advertising. She was the Creative Director of Rosenfeld Sirowitz and Lawson and she has a commercial in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.
She lives in Connecticut with Doug Scofield, a composer, and their very spoiled dog, Winka

THIS IS A TRAILER ABOUT "THE BOOK OF LOST FRAGRANCES" but I thought it was a good introduction into the mind of MJ Rose:

 

THE BOOKISH DAME REVIEWS :

 

This is my first M.J. Rose book.  I say that because I know it will not be the last I read of her books.  I missed out on her first book, "...Lost Fragrances," and I hope to correct that asap.  Her style is heady and gothic and has just the right blend of the exotic to keep me on my toes.  I enjoyed reading "Seduction," but I don't think it's for everyone.

 

M.J. Rose is nothing if not a visual author.  Her story is beautifully painted with every note rising in technicolor off the pages.  In addition, her added pieces on fragrance and psychology just make her book a treasure trove.  I found the story somewhat an average one at times, but the magical details around it were just mesmerizing.  I stayed with it because I couldn't resist knowing about the seances, the ghosts, the tapestries, the perfumes, and the reincarnations!

 

A ghost story in nature, this one is edged with reincarnation and mysteries of druids and such.  There's a bit of the mystical for everyone.  I thought the sections on Victor Hugo were the most interesting in terms of his ghostly encounters.  And, the modern-day storyline of Jac searching for mythological proofs and connecting to her old boyfriend were very engaging.  However, the mix of the two sometimes was jarring, and didn't do much to enhance the story for me all together.  Two separate books would have worked better, I thought, though it was tied together as the book progressed.  Again, it was the surrounding and accompanying details that made the book most enjoyable for me.

 

All in all, though sometimes I found this book a mixed bag, there were some excellent parts...gothic and devilish! There was always the pull of the beautiful in aesthetic detail, as I've said.

 

At times I was reminded of a longish Poe novel. I found it too long for my tastes, truth be known. 

 

I have to recommend this book with reservations.  I enjoyed it, but I don't think it's for everyone.  The cover is beautiful, as you can see, and will draw people who collect!!

 

 

4 stars     Deborah/TheBookishDame