“The fairy tales my father read had made sense when i was young. Within their pages, the lines of the world were simple. Stepmothers and queens and little crooked men were evil. Children triumphed, and there was invigorating clarity to the way things ended. But how did it work when you were the one who’d left others behind in the woods? When you crafted the potions? Did it matter that you didn’t mean to? That you were sorry?”

I’ve heard so many mixed reviews about this one but I have to say that I absolutely loved it from start to finish! (With a few minor details that really irked me but overall loved it)

Emmeline lives on a secluded island with her father - a man that creates scents and puts them in jars. Emmeline grew up with scents being her greatest sense! Living her life with fairytales her father tells her, believing mermaids are the ones that brings them their monthly food deliveries and not knowing anything about the real world, when tragedy strikes, it’s extremely overwhelming when she’s suddenly plunged back into reality and in modern times off the island.

Can she fit in with this modern world, where her sense of smell is mocked by her peers? Can she find out about her family and why she was raised in such isolation? What does family really mean?

I really loved reading about scents being memories and thinking how good would it be to have all your scents stored in a jar! The smell of your family members, Christmas time, a holiday you took! To be transported back in time for a brief moment and to remember someone without looking at a picture.