MADAME MIRABOU'S HOUSE OF LOVE

Author: Barbara Samuel ISBN: 0345469143 4/2006 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: BALLANTINE

Sometimes real passion means living the life you've always wanted. Nicole Bridges still can't believe she's taken up residence in a Colorado apartment complex nicknamed "Splitsville." She's still reeling from her husband's affair, a divorce she never saw coming, and having to leave the upscale, comfortable world she helped make for her ex and their teenage daughter. With little money, even less work experience, and no idea what to do next, she takes tentative steps—if only to keep her head above water. Along the way, Nikki unexpectedly finds herself falling in with eccentric new neighbors—and being seduced out of her funk by a charming, elusive ex-Londoner. And through her delight in the sensual elements of perfume, she will discover the courage to form bonds she never imagined. When a discarded flyer printed with the name "Madame Mirabou" provides the spark of inspiration, Nikki dares to blend the fragments of her life into a fragrance that's uniquely and passionately her own.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

MADAME MIRABOU'S HOUSE OF LOVE is a novel of life's transitions after failed or damaged romances. Nikki Bridges is 43, a white homemaker abandoned by her successful African American husband, who has decided to renew his commitment to his heritage. He marries his African American secretary and takes Nikki's mixed heritage daughter far away.

He leaves Nikki with nothing but their house and her love of perfume. She manages to blow up the house, and then is left without shelter. Though he claims to have loved her independence, he had taken even that from her, and she doesn't know what to do next. Nearly broke, she moves into an apartment complex full of damaged people, making friends with a couple of them, and gets a job as a waitress, while she tries to figure out her next step.

Good friends, hard work, a new man, and a little shop available for rent in her town soon have her planning her next stage of existence. As secondary characters demonstrate, not everyone will be a survivor after a bad divorce, but by the end of the book we have faith in Nikki and her relationships.

Read MADAME MIRABOU'S HOUSE OF LOVE for Samuel's evocative language, love of Colorado and deep interest in women's experiences.

Heather Hiestand