Kahlil Gibran is one of my favorite authors.

Kahlil Gibran is one of my favorite authors. Everything that I have

read written by him is amazing. This book is sectioned off into many

short stories, poems, and beautiful sayings. His works impress upon

me deeply, simple truths that bring light to the heart. One of my

favorite quotes in the book is: "God has placed in each soul a true

guide to the great light, but man struggles to find life outside himself,

unaware that the life he is seeking is within him."Definitely not my

favorite work by Gibran and I have adored all of what I've read by

him. Although The Secrets of the Heart maintains the similar poetic

language of Gibran's style of writing, I feel it was a bit lackluster in

power and evocation. These stories, I felt, paled in comparison to

such works as Broken Wings and The Prophet. Much of these stories

presented a similar call to action to renounce worldly possessions

and embrace inner strength a theme prevalent throughout all his

works howe The Prophet. Much of these stories presented a similar

call to action to renounce worldly possessions and embrace inner

strength a theme prevalent throughout all his works however, I felt

that The Secrets of the Heart was a bit less convincing. I have reread

all of the works I own by Gibran, but I have a feeling this one might

sit a bit longer on the shelf Just a little book filled with a lot of

inspiration by one of the world's special human beings. His time here

was too short but he left behind beautiful writings that are a joy to

An evocative novel about a teen aroma expert who uses her extrasensitive sense of smell to mix perfumes that help others fall in love while protecting her own heart at all costs

Sometimes love is right under your nose. As one of only two aromateurs left on the planet, sixteen-year-old Mimosa knows what her future holds: a lifetime of weeding, mixing love elixirs, and matchmaking—all while remaining incurably alone. For Mim, the rules are clear: falling in love would render her nose useless, taking away her one great talent. Still, Mimosa doesn’t want to spend her life elbow-deep in soil and begonias. She dreams of a normal high school experience with friends, sports practices, debate club, and even a boyfriend. But when she accidentally gives an elixir to the wrong woman and has to rely on the lovesick woman’s son, the school soccer star, to help fix the situation, Mim quickly begins to realize that falling in love isn’t always a choice you can make.

At once hopeful, funny, and romantic, Stacey Lee’s The Secret of a Heart Note is a richly evocative coming-of-age story that gives a fresh perspective on falling in love and finding one’s place in the world. It’s incredibly difficult to find a light book about people of color, where we experience racism, but it’s not the entire plot of the novel. I’m not discrediting stories that feature our struggles, but sometimes you just want to unwind, and read something that doesn’t show the hard truths of our lives. That’s rightfully justified. Reading stories with characters of color and seeing them fall in love, be happy, be successful are such a beautiful experience. It’s a protest to this publishing industry that continues to support harmful books. I want a variety of representation, most especially uplifting stories. The Secret of a Heart Note perfectly captured the essence that we are selfish,,,,,,,,,,,,,egotist and servile. the chance to attend a regular high school, she finds herself getting in tangled in a web of precarious situations. She accidentally gave an elixir to a heartbroken mother, who happened to be the mother of the school’s soccer star, who might or might not like her.

The Secret of a Heart Note immediately hooked me in. I love the swirling details, and the unique story-telling technique.

My heart does a backflip, and a dozen different scents bursts from me, the sugar maple of happiness, the chicory of regret, and more rambling sunflower, a plant notable for its tendency to change directions several times during the day.

How many books have you read that employ the aroma of flowers, and Mother Nature as a writing style? Nothing came to mind. The lovely descriptions evoke a sense of belonging and uniqueness. I find it eerily comforting. It reminds me of my Lola’s ancestral house.

The mother-daughter relationship of the protagonist, Mimosa and Dahlia resonate with me more. The story tackles family expectation and the burden that comes along with it. In addition to their dynamics, Lee also made a point to establish the family history of aromatuers. The supporting characters’ family woes are included in the plot as well.

The friendship is so heartwarming. It showcases high school’s meanness. How being different than your peers will make you a target. The only valid concern I have is there’s a token mean girl. That’s it, but as I said there’s also supportive friends

The romance is so cute. It’s one of my favorite things about it. Truthfully, I get giddy whenever I read a love interest that isn’t a stereotyped asshole. I love the awkward fumbling sincerity of it.

This book is made for YA contemporary readers. We have an unconventional gripping writing, well-crafted characters, family and friend’s dynamics, and a love story that would make you dizzy. If you’re looking for a YA book with an exceptional plot, that is fun and heartwarming. I hope you’d consider picking The Secret of a Heart Note. The recipe for this story is enticing. You won’t regret it.

Her writing style is descriptive and vibrant. It almost felt like I could smell what she was describing. The main character was lovely and incredibly bright. I was happy at the fact although she is younger I never felt like she was in any way immature, it was refreshing.

I loved the idea of Mim and her mother being aromateurs, I had no knowledge before reading this novel but I found Stacey Lee incorporated it beautifully into the book. I found I enjoyed learning more about it and in my personal opinion, the idea of Mim and her mother being aromateurs made the book stand out as classic. the smells and how emotions are scented. If even half of the information about the flowers is correct, I'm seriously impressed. The writing is gorgeous and the story was an excellent mash up of decadence and whimsy. I'm sure it'll be one that I read again. author, pens a charming tale of young love and perfume in her new young adult book, The Secret of a Heart Note that revolves around a teenage perfume maker, who has a nose for each individual's scent and can customize that perfume into love elixir to make people fall in love with one another, but her magic comes with a price of never falling in love with anyone, but the girl desires of a normal life with a high school, boyfriend and social reputation. expert who uses her extrasensitive sense of smell to mix perfumes that help others fall in love while protecting her own heart at all costs

Sometimes love is right under your nose. As one of only two aromateurs left on the planet, sixteen-year-old Mimosa knows what her future holds: a lifetime of weeding, mixing love elixirs, and matchmaking—all while remaining incurably alone. For Mim, the rules are clear: falling in love would render her nose useless, taking away her one great talent. Still, Mimosa doesn’t want to spend her life elbow-deep in soil and begonias. She dreams of a normal high school experience with friends, sports practices, debate club, and even a boyfriend. But when she accidentally gives an elixir to the wrong woman and has to rely on the lovesick woman’s son, the school soccer star, to help fix the situation, Mim quickly begins to realize that falling in love isn’t always a choice you can makea young teenage girl, born with a magical nose of recognizing the unique scent of each individuals and then customizing them to make and help people fall in love with one another in the form of love elixirs (its very different from the concept of love potions). Although this hereditary and ancestral magical gift comes with a hefty price that tells her never to fall in love with any man, as that will make her lose her magical power of her nose. Reluctantly she devotes herself in this family business along with her mother and almost all the times, against her wishes, she keeps her mother happy by being an aromateur. Mimosa longs for a normal teenage life with a high school to attend to, a boyfriend whom she could love and with a few best friends to talk to. Her dreams come almost true through her committal of a grave mistake by wrongly delivering an elixir to a woman that is meant for someone else. Before her mother finds out about such a mistake, Mim must find out a way to rectify her error and even if she needs some help from the local school's soccer star, Court, she must take it. But love has no course and comes knocking suddenly, can Mim stop herself from falling in love with Court?

Being a fan of Stacey Lee's young adult historical fiction books, I could not pass up the opportunity to read and review her new contemporary fantasy novel. And boy, oh boy, this delectable book simply made my heart sing the notes of love that Mim and Court made me feel it so strikingly. The whole story is laced with beautiful and heart felt emotions that sync well with the course of the story line, and not only that the author has managed to set the mood of the readers through her lyrical prose. The author's love for beautiful scented flora of nature is very evident from the way she has described about those flowers and the process of extracting the scents from them is vivid and arresting enough to drown the readers into the depths of such a world.

The writing is evocative and easy to contemplate with. The books opens in an engaging manner, and never once loses its hold from the minds of the readers. Even though there are not many layers or twists to explore, yet the friendship, relationship and the magic will keep a firm grip in the minds of the readers. The narrative is extremely alluring and free flowing and the readers will find it easy to comprehend with the tale.

The author explores the world from a teenage girl's perspective and that is done flawlessly by the author, as she creates some of the distinct and magnificent characters in YA contemporary fiction. Meaning, the characters are not only well developed but also shine through whatever demeanor they portray in the story. The main character, Mimosa, is highly interesting young girl, whose desperation to make thing better so that her realtionship with her mother does not falter is quite exceptional. Her fight to make things right after committing a mistake is wonderful as well as inspiring enough. Her skills and magical abilities though make her unique, her ethnic background makes her even more compelling enough for the readers to keep rooting for her till the very end. The supporting cast are also depicted from diverse ethnicity, who are honest, somewhat flawed and extremely real enough to make the readers connect with them easily.

The love story developed in a gradual motion, devoid of any cliched or mushy-mushy moments, yet filled neck deep with compassion and respect for one another. The author's approach to this teenage love story is marvelous and something that holds the power to make the readers feel that sting of the first love.

In a nutshell, this is an entertaining novel with a touch of magic and perfumes that only sound better but also smell better and the novel is bound to leave a lasting fragrance in the minds of the readers. when you read a book that just makes you feel all warm and wonderful on the inside? That leaves you with an ear to ear grin when you finish? That was this book for me. I fell in love with this story that plays out exactly like a romantic comedy, which I love! I liked the aromateur aspect, which was something I've not truly thought about or read before. There are a very few minor quibbles I have, but all in all, this was an extremely fun reading experience for meWhat an adorably unique book! As my first novel by Stacey Lee, I can proudly say that I loved this book and I do hope more people read it. Lee combines a contemporary California (I forgot where exactly, it's been like a month, and this review itself is way overdue) with a fresh blend of magical realism that makes this book both adorable and intricate!

Mim was just a darling character. She was torn between wanting to be a regular teenager--who can eat salty foods and go to math class and fall in love--and being the aromateur her strict mother is.

I absolutely adored her and her inner monologues. Mim was such a relatable character, despite the fact she basically has a supernose. Anyway, Mim's narration was as wonderful as her character. She never gave up despite how, well, admittedly, odd her situation was. She was fun, adorable, and a refreshing character, and I enjoyed her from page one.

The mother-daughter dynamic in this book was a complex one. Mim's mother follows the old traditions of aromateurs to the book and she implements the rules onto Mim, which, in turn, make it hard for Mim. She disagrees with many of the rules, so having to live with them was a bit difficult. At times, it causes Mim to wonder if her mom loves her or just her nose, and that kind of insecurity was always a bit hard to read because Mim was such a sweet and brilliant young lady.

Stacey Lee is an amazing writer and while that definitely shows through her characters, her descriptions also shine. She included a variety of emotions throughout the books, but what was more was that she also included their smells. Their scents, whatever, you get what I mean. The whole idea behind aromateurs was incredibly interesting--they made "love" potions based on a person's heart notes and emotions, a concept that was new to me and wholly intriguing to read about.

There was an adorable and slow build-up of a romance in the book! Court and Mim were so cute and each interaction was just super, well, cute. A bit weird, but it totally fit their characters and situation. I loved how Court wouldn't give up on Mim and I loved how Mim tried not to fall for Court and awwwwww. They made such a cute couple.

The relationship between Mim and her best friend was also another great aspect of the book. While I loved seeing it, there was a point in the story where they weren't talking so understandably, their interactions were limited. I get it, I do, but I still wished I'd seen more of them!

Overall, I would highly recommend this book! Super cute, super fun, and completely unique! If you love contemporaries novels with a little bit of magic, and need something light-hearted, you definitely need to pick this up! helves: 2016, age-young-adult, genre-contemporary, genre-romance, genre-paranormal, arc-electronic, from-edelweiss, from-publishers, requested-for-review

Mim and her mother are the last two aromateurs on Earth. They use their divine sense of smell to mix love potions for other people. But Mim starts to fall in love and that is forbidden because she could lose her aromateur powers. Will she choose love or lose it all?

I really love Mim and her mother's relationship. That was a highlight of the book. I also just loved her best friend Kali. I thought she was just unstoppable and amazing, and kind of wished she was the main character instead. I felt Mim to be too focused on her relationship and felt bored. That was my major issue with this one. That the romance was just the largest focus and everything else just fell away, so naturally with my short attention span, I grew bored. The writing is definitely on point and I love how the scent of sniffing out someone's personalities played with their magical powers. Reading about her powers was the most unique and descriptive part of the book and owns up Stacey Lee's unique written treasure which moves heart and soul. an aromateur is a love witch who works with scents to create the perfect combination of scents that make people fall in love. They are hired by those seeking love, but have very strict rules of engagement and seeing their services through. They are scent witches with written rules spanning generations, after all. This unique environment, although completely natural, is elevated to an almost fantastical state. The Secret of a Heart Note was super unique and cute! it's a fairly solid contemporary novel and i couldn't find any problems i had with it. (but i also couldn't find anything super spectacular about it.. the characters were all underdeveloped - you never got a true gauge on who any of the characters were and the romance was lustreless. She pens stories that are real, raw and hopeful, the kind of stories that anyone can relate to no matter what cultural background they come from. Every time I pick up a book by her, I know I’m in for a treat. The Secret of A Heart Note is a veering from her past historical novels, but it was just as beautiful of a story as Under A Painted Sky and Outrun the Moon were. there are prevalent themes throughout The Secret of a Heart Note, one of them being family, as you can tell from the title of this post. She excels at developing relationships and at showing all the nuances and complexities there are to relationships. Here, we are privy to the complicated, yet heartfelt relationship between a mother and a daughter. Mim and her mother come from a long line of aromateurs – they can smell heart notes and figure out people’s personalities and make love potions for them. With that kind of family legacy, comes a lot of expectations. This story is about Mim’s struggles with these expectations. While she enjoys creating these potions, part of her desires a normal teenage experience and she battles with that throughout the story. Family expectations can be rough on teenagers and I loved how deeply Stacey Lee explored that here. There were tense moments between Mim and her mother, but there were also those scenes that portrayed the pure love and respect they had for each other. It was a complicated and messy relationship, but it was inherently very authentic.

Mim, herself as a protagonist, was more on the quiet side, her abilities not really allowing her to find her place in life. After a drastic mistake on her part, she goes on an incredibly journey, discovering her true self along the way. I loved her growth throughout The Secret of a Heart Note. She also finds love on her path, with a sweet-hearted boy who challenges her all the way. The romance, while very very subtle, was heartwarming. I would have liked to know Court a little better, but this was Mim’s story and I didn’t really mind that. The love story, while a crucial part of the story, wasn’t the main focus. I have never quite read a story like The Secret of a Heart Note. It was very quirky with all the elixir-making, and surprisingly, those were my favorite scenes of the book. I loved all the descriptions of the scents, the process of making the elixirs and the effect of using these potions. There was something very magical about the whole thing.

With the amount of books I’m lucky enough to read in a year, I don’t remember every story that I’ve read, but I can wholeheartedly say that The Secret of a Heart Note is going to be that exceptional book that I will remember for a long time. If you’re looking for a special YA story, then this magical realism book might be right up your alley. a couple reviews that called it a modern California fairy tale and it really feels like that; it sort of reminds me of Practical Magic and Chocolat in the charming, witchy love aspects, meets Clueless for the mix ups. The aromateurs had such an interesting history and I love that this book had a fresh concept. It felt really unique! The characters were rich and complex, and I especially loved Mim. She was so relatable in her wish to be a normal teenager while still having this amazing gift. And the writing! The descriptions were lush and inviting, so easy to imagine the scents and smells. I've always had a thing about smells btw, and how they relate to memories. It never felt overdone to me; it was whimsical but not cloying. And the book was romantic! So romantic, though I loved that it focused on familial love and friendship too. Highly recommended the personality of the people around her, her ability to do this allows her to create the non-