Kristin Billerbeck

I received The Scent of Rain from Thomas Nelson via Booksneeze in exchange for an honest review – thank you to them.

The synopsis: Daphne arrives at the church in her Monique Lhuillier gown to marry her beloved Mark, for whom she has given up her job as a perfumer, a professional "nose" – in Paris. He was unable to find work in France – for various reasons which become clear later – and so she has flown home to marry in the US and go to work at the same company as Mark, a small show more chemical company in Dayton, Ohio. However nice Dayton is, giving up a plum job in Paris for it (and for him) is a tremendous sacrifice, but she has herself convinced (or he has her convinced) that this is what she wants. She arrives at the church … and leaves again a little while after with her best maid Sophie, because Mark has stood her up at the altar. Crushed, and with, she believes, no way back, she has no choice but to go forward and excel at her new job with Gibraltar Products. The problem with that plan is that, suddenly, her sense of smell has deserted her. Before she even has the chance to take off her wedding gown she discovers that she has gone from having a highly trained nose capable of distinguishing thousands of unique scents to … having a nose capable of distinguishing not even her wedding bouquet.

I had a good time with the writing here. It's breezy and warm and funny, and very sweet. It is a Christian novel, but even when the Bible is quoted it is in context and with a comparatively light hand.

"God's in control, right?"
[edited for clarity]"Right now it feels like SpongeBob is in control."

None of the characters are perfect or consistently sweetness-and-light, which is never a bad thing.

Something like this would never happen to [Sophie], because the singing birds that flew around her head like a happy halo would never allow it.

It's a quick read, yet with a bit of heart to it. The widower with the adorable son is not exploited for pathos nearly as badly as a lesser writer might have done: their situation is in fact understated and touching.

However … This author's God takes a much more direct hand in folks' lives than anything I've ever experienced. The idea that if you turn away from what you're Supposed To Be Doing, what you're Meant To Be Doing, God will let you know with the clarity of a slap upside the head… In my life, God has never given any appearance of giving a flying fig that I'm under-employed at a dull office instead of writing or drawing or sitting up to my ears in books in some research library. So how am I supposed to interpret that in light of this book, to apply this book to my life? I'm not good enough at anything? Great. Thanks, Kristin Billerbeck's God. Suddenly what was a light, sweet book becomes really depressing.

Still, I liked it. It was sweet, and though the end was never in any doubt how it would come about was. I liked the main characters; they weren't perfect, but they were pretty believably human. The hateful are (somewhat) redeemed or punished; the good are rewarded. One of the best lines of the book was this, from the sister of the widower: "Now you're judging people by what they wear and they drive? If Spike doesn't drive a sedan, he's not husband material? Seriously, that's Christian?" That's a wonderful thing to find here.

And this book gave me the phrase "everyone and their turtle", which I have yet to use – but I will.

Other quotes I couldn't resist making note of:

As if Kensie would believe Daphne had any nightlife to speak of. On a Friday night, Daphne was either at the archery range or testing scents in her home office – maybe if she was really feeling wild, she'd knit.

He wouldn't blame Daphne if she wouldn't give him the hot air off her breakfast after the way he'd treated her.

"I have developed an aversion to all things tulle." show less

To put it plain and simple—The Theory of Happily Ever After, by Kristin Billerbeck, is So. Much. Fun. It’s been quite a while since a book has made me laugh this much. The wit is superb, yet doesn’t take away the depth of its meaningful spiritual message.

Dr. Maggie Maguire is a unique and intriguing character. She is the author of a successful book revealing the science behind happiness, yet her tumultuous love life makes her feel like a fraud. Who is she to tell anyone anything about show more happiness when she’s reduced herself to a broken-hearted, gelato-eating, cat-stealing, cheesy-movie-watching couch potato?

Maggie’s two best friends, Haley and Kathleen, secretly book her on a singles cruise where she learns that she must give a speech on her scientific happiness theory. That’s when things go completely awry. Two men show interest in her when she doesn’t want or trust the attention, her publisher has looming expectations, she’s lying to her parents, and her ex is determined to dump a second helping of misery on her plate.

This book is an entertaining rom-com that’s sure to penetrate your heart while offering plenty of high jinks and giggles.

I was blessed to receive a complimentary copy from Revell. show less

Our hilarious, smart and complicated protagonist, Dr. Maggie McGuire is the author a book called The Science of Bliss. She is not a shrink – she is thoroughly a scientist, her book is researched and based on empirical data. We first meet her after a breakup with her fiancé, as she hiding out in her pitiful excuse for an apartment in grubby clothes, binge-watching sappy movies and binge-eating gelato – and apparently feeling like a fraud in light of her well researched and successful show more book.

This could have gone the way of all the usual breakup tales, but author Billerbeck doesn’t take the expected way of laying it all on the pathetic, traitorous boyfriend. She reveals, gradually (as she works through her own issues, egged on by a fellow shipmate’s comment that smart girls aren’t capable of happiness), that Maggie and her issues are a whole lot more complicated than you might expect, and those reasons turn into a bit of an epiphany – for both Maggie, and maybe even for the reader.

If you’ve ever been through a bad breakup, Maggie’s character is thoroughly relatable in her misery. Honestly, the woman is a hot mess, and she owns it, and every bit of her crazy – and it all makes for a delightfully fun read. She’s clumsy, self-deprecating at times and funny smart at others, fellow passengers on the boat enter her life and push her out of her comfort zone, and into revealing some pretty deep truths and closely held secrets.

There is a great balance here between the fun, the funny, awkwardness and grief, and the author does a wonderful job at making Maggie a fully human character and not a caricature. Supporting characters are equally delightful, a bit maddening, and quite honestly, you may find yourself googling “cruise vacations” by the end of it all. I was not expecting to find a light Christian element to the book, but it added to the complexity that is Maggie the scientist, and even if this isn’t your thing, do not let it dissuade you, because it fits into the storyline in its own way.

As I mentioned above, while I couldn’t put this book down, I struggled to slow down my reading, since I had fallen in love with the characters and didn’t want the story to end. This is a book with a lot of heart and honesty. I highly recommend it if you are looking for a book with a little bit of everything.

Author Kristen Billerbeck has written more than thirty novels, and I don’t know how this could be my first encounter with her but it definitely won’t be my last.

I was provided a copy of the book to read for review but all thoughts and opinions are my own. show less

Sometimes reading a book is like eating a thick, juicy steak. The language is meaty and rich, the ideas are complex and require some time to be properly digested, and the only other thing you need for a perfect evening is a comfy chair and a glass of good wine.

In between those books, I sometimes find I need a palate cleanser. Light, easy reading that takes very little effort or time to enjoy. This book filled that role admirably.

Daphne Sweeten (the sweetly punny last name was a little show more unnecessary, in my opinion) is a professional scent developer who gave up her dream job in Paris so that she could move with her new husband to Ohio. He left her at the altar, though, so suddenly she's in a new town, with a new job, and no friends. To make matters worse, the stress and humiliation have caused her to lose her sense of smell.

This is classic chick lit with a refreshing perfume-industry angle and sliver of Christian goodness built in. My last brushes with the perfume industry were the much-darker [b:Perfume: The Story of a Murderer|343|Perfume The Story of a Murderer|Patrick Süskind|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328815062s/343.jpg|2977727] and the delightful non-fiction tome [b:The Emperor of Scent: A True Story of Perfume and Obsession|14546|The Emperor of Scent A True Story of Perfume and Obsession|Chandler Burr|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320545327s/14546.jpg|49010], both of which I highly recommend. The Scent of Rain does not deal with scents or science in any great detail, but its treatment seemed informed without being overdone, so my mild interest in the subject matter was satisfied. For 85% of the book, I felt the same way about the religion. Without the Christianity angle, I'm not sure you'd be able to convince me that a group of strangers would pitch in to refurbish a dangerously decrepit house for the new girl in town. But it's a church group, being encouraged by the pastor's wife, so it fits the story just fine. I appreciated that, because a lot of times overt religion in fiction feels heavy-handed and wholly unnecessary.

Unfortunately, the book went on to prove my point. The last few pages are forced and do the rest of the book an injustice. First, there's a hospital scene where the book's Mean Girl gets all weepy and repent-y because good girl Daphne visits her. I don't disallow that being in a car accident can cause you to rethink your life, but I found her 180-degree turnaround and teary confession to a bitter enemy a little difficult to swallow. Second, the love story had a long, slow, fairly believable buildup. But the climactic scene where Daphne and the reticent widower realize they have feelings for each other (that part's not a spoiler -- you see it coming from a mile away) ends with (here's the spoiler part) the widower proposing marriage and offering to move to Paris with her. I think a more appropriate question would have been, "Hey, would you like to have dinner with me sometime?" Not that everyone has to follow conventional dating structure, but it seemed a little crazy to me -- not least because, you know, she just got left at the altar by another guy a few months before. Maybe give her a little time to make sure she's worked through all of that?

Speaking of the ex-fiancé, whom we never meet, I was left with some minor confusion. When Daphne moves to Dayton, she tells the widower that her ex is "a brilliant chemist."

She turned in her seat to face Jesse, who looked skeptical. "He really is. But he grew up poor, and he had this deep need to follow the money."

A couple of chapters later, Daphne's visiting best friend reminds her,

He may have been a brilliant chemist, but there are laws for a reason. He always thought himself above the rules.

So, I may not know much about the ex-fiancé, but I do know he's a brilliant but unscrupulous chemist. Got it. But then,

Mark was a terrible chemist... He wasn't careful about ratios, not until he understood that ratios and chemistry could make him wealthy.

So was he a brilliant chemist or a terrible one? Or was he a terrible chemist until his greed made him brilliant?

I suppose that's possible. Just like I was a terrible writer until I got greedy and wanted people to read my writing. Now that I have a blog, I am brilliant.

Please feel free to agree with me by commenting below.

Disclosure: I received this book free through booksneeze.com. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. show less