My mom always wore Chanel No. 5. Every Christmas my dad gave her a new bottle of her favorite fragrance. Sentimental memories were the reason this book, The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Intimate History of the World’s Most Famous Perfume by Tilar J. Maze, peaked my interest. I was hoping to learn more about Coco Chanel too. I’m intrigued by the lifestyles during…well, actually any time period before mine.

I’m sticking to my self-permission of bailing on any books that aren’t satisfying my interests. Unfortunately, I bailed on Chanel No. 5 16% of the way in. The writing and narration of the audiobook are fine. There was historical information about Coco Chanel that was interesting. The dullness crept in for me when the focus shifted to the creation of the perfume and other fancy players in the fragrance market. I’ve got no complaints; the title of the book clearly indicates I’m going to be reading about perfume after all. This is a case of, it’s not the book, it’s me.

Hopefully, I’ll get to learn more about Coco Chanel another time, in another book. Come to think of it, I believe I have a historical fiction on my gigantic TBR list somewhere!

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