Romance novel; a perfume set is all that's left when her house burns down. . . .

This novel may have been written in the 1990s or maybe the 2000s -- I listened to it on audiobook when my kids were babies. It was very much a better-than-average romance, with well-drawn characters. The novel opens when the heroine's house burns down; all that she can find in the wreckage is perfume-making set she's had for a long time and treasures (at the end of the novel, she's created a new career for herself as a perfumer, making signature scents for people). One notable feature of the novel is that the heroine, a white woman, is divorced from her husband, an African-American man, and the ex-husband and his new wife, who is also African-American, have persuaded the heroine that her biracial teenage daughter would be better off living with Dad and his new wife so she can have a woman of color to bond with, or something like that. The heroine agrees for her daughter's sake, but misses her child terribly. So, the book begins with the heroine having lost her husband, her daughter and, in the opening pages of the novel, her beloved house, which goes up in a gas explosion of something. All she's got is her perfume set and a small group of well-meaning friends as she attempt to launch a new life.

Too much info? If so, I'm sorry. The novel made quite an impression on me, and it's driving me nuts that I can't come up with the author title.

Thanks.

Nope, an excellent description. Which doesn't ring any bells for me, unfortunately. Good luck! (actually, I think I want to read this...)

Madame Mirabou's School of Love, by Barbara Samuel, seems to fit the bill.

From a Booklist review on amazon:

"Divorce is never easy, and fortysomething Nikki finds herself unwillingly thrust into a major identity crisis. She was happy being a housewife and mother in an upscale neighborhood of Colorado Springs and thought all was well until her husband takes off, and the family house blows up. ... As Nikki tries to find herself, her old dream of making perfume as a business instead of a hobby infuses her with purpose, but is she willing to take a risk?"

That's it! Thank you , thank you.

How did you find that? Did the description ring a bell for you, or do you have a great strategy for searching plot summaries?

It's much better book than the Booklist summary suggests, btw.

>4 samaxamom: You're welcome, and I'm glad it's the right book. I hope you enjoy the reread. And your description does make the book sound more complex than did the Booklist review.

I like being a member of this group because I get to channel my inner Nancy Drew. But most of the time, it's like that old Carmen Sandiego adage, "Your search is fruitless except for the banana peel you slip on." Nothing brilliant, I just got lucky with the right keywords this time. ;)

I searched on www.worldcat.org. At first, I used the keywords perfume and romance. That only pulled up Harlequin titles. Your description sounded more like what's labeled women's fiction, so I searched again with the keywords perfume and woman. Around 60 results were returned for the time period you gave, so I scrolled through, eliminating any that were mass market, Harlequin types. That only left a handful of books to research on amazon. It was a quick search, once I had the idea to change the keywords.

Yeah - I tried "romance fire perfume". Do you have any idea how many romances use the word "fire" in the title or short description? Sheesh.

I'll have to keep the idea of using "woman" instead in mind.

Brilliant!