Scent of Darkness

I wasn't sure what to think about this book when it arrived on my doorstep some weeks back. I was worried that it was one of those books, like Chocolat, that goes so heavy on the senses, that bombards you with tastes or sounds or smells, that you almost feel the need to rinse your mouth or sit in a quiet chapel or spray some air freshener around.

It was a sensory experience, reading this book. Happily, it wasn't overload.

On her eighteenth birthday, Eva's grandmother places a drop of an amazing scent created just for her on Eva's neck, and suddenly everyone is compulsively drawn to Eva.

It's a mixed blessing, as most blessing are, and Eva, though at first thrilled with this new power, gradually comes to want others to be drawn to her in spite of, rather than because of, her scent.