The Perfumist of Paris

I needed an audiobook and I didn't want to wait. The Perfumist of Paris, the third novel in The Jaipur Trilogy by Alka Joshi was available so I grabbed it. What's ironic, though, is that I ended up only getting halfway thru the audiobook when an audiobook with a lot of library patrons waiting came available so it was quicker to finish up by reading the ebook. 

The first in the series is The Henna Artist. The second installment was The Secret Keeper of Jaipur. Of the three, The Perfumist was my least favorite. Don't get me wrong. I still enjoyed it. A lot. I guess that says more about how much I enjoyed the first two books.

In this one, we meet up again with Radha, younger sister of Lakshmi, who had followed a young man that she thought as her future to Paris. Like many other books that I have read lately, it was about women's roles and women figuring out their places in the world. 

In Radha's early Paris days, a relative of a classmate from India hires her to work in his perfume shop. She realizes that she's grown up with scents and that this is something she could be really good at. It's something she can make a career of. Radha's husband, though, Pierre, considers it a job that keeps her busy. Radha and Pierre struggle over how to balance Radha's work with the care and upbringing of their two daughters. 

Because I'm not going to include any spoilers here, the secret of the previous two books comes into focus in this novel as well.

I highly recommend the series.