Customer Reviews

Madame Mirabou's School of Love: A Novel

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This novel tells a really lovely story about a recently-divorced woman reluctantly being forced to start her life over and find happiness and fulfillment.

All the characters are very well-written and well thought-out. Each one has a meaning and is not there for filler. I found all the emotions of the main character to be authentic, and her growing in fits and starts true to her situation - someone who did not want a divorce and grappled with so many emotions for her ex-husband (continuing love, anger, confusion), her daughter, her new friends, and eventually her promising new love.

The title of this novel suggests that it's some kind of quirky chick-lit story, but I think that is misleading. It is a novel of humor, yes, but not without lots of layers of other emotions. It even touches on depression and anorexia in the context of a secondary character in a thoughtful way.

I really enjoyed reading this book and was dreading the last page. It was a very satisfying reading experience.

For all the women who have loved, sacrificed themselves to that love and then lost it, Madame Mirabou's School of Love will resonate deep in their souls.

Nicole (Nikki) Carrington's house exploded due to an old and faulty furnace. It was the only thing of value that she received from her eighteen-year marriage to Daniel. Daniel even got custody of their fifteen-year-old daughter Giselle, who he has taken to London on vacation with his new wife. It's a trip Nikki always wanted to take and now she's homeless and "the other woman" is living her life.

At forty-three Nikki is firmly ensconced in a land called panic, fear and anxiety. But without the comfort of the family home, she is forced to leave her neighborhood and friends and find a new home in an apartment complex nicknamed Splitsville.

Without Nikki's insurance settlement she is low on cash, not to mention self-esteem. She takes a job as a waitress in a popular Colorado organic restaurant. There she learns to enjoy her work, the other employees and meets a dark, handsome and mysterious man from England.

Nikki takes stock of her life, explores the unrealized dream of owning a perfumery and realizes that her new eccentric neighbors are more real and a much better fit for her than those from the old neighborhood. Along the way she finds herself and learns that she can be happy and love again, if that is what she chooses.

Barbara Samuel's writing is complex, poignant, humorous and at times lyrical. Her story could be every woman's story and will touch your heart as the reader examines their life and the choices they make.

This is the first Barbara Samuel novel I have read--and it won't be the last.

Armchair Interviews says: Her characters are so real, you feel like you know them and when the last page is turned, you don't want to say good-bye.

I absolutely drooled all over Barbara Samuel's MADAME MIRABOU'S SCHOOL OF LOVE. I've been a Barbara Samuel (Who's also known as Ruth Wind when she writes for Harlequin.)fan for a long, long time. There's something about the rich flow of her language and her close-to-the-bone insight into her characters that fascinates me. I love that her books are about life, not necessarily as neat and pretty as we wish it was, but as it is. She writes about the struggles regular people face with eloquence and compassion. MADAME MIRABOU'S SCHOOL OF LOVE tells another one of these wonderful, rich, fabulous stories.

Nikki Carrington is recently divorced and unwilling or unable to let go of her former life until her house blows up. Left with nothing, she is homeless, jobless, and out of sync with who she used to be. To try to recover from the loss and rediscover the woman within, Nikki gets an apartment that happens to be in a building with another divorced woman and a soldier's wife, left behind when her husband is deployed. It is these women, and the women in the restaurant where Nikki gets a waitressing job, who encourage her and help her develop the courage to pursue dreams long set aside. As Nikki moves toward a life beyond her divorce and into a the tender beginnings of a new relationship, her neighbor Wanda, who helped Nikki regain her perspective, reveals the devastation that can occur when a woman refuses to grow and change.

Samuel recently won the Romance Writers of America® coveted Rita Award for her last book LADY LUCK'S MAP OF LAS VEGAS; I look for MADAME MIRABOUS SCHOOL OF LOVE to be a hot contender for next year's Rita.

Betrayal, from a friend, co-worker or even worse--your spouse is devastating. The whole process of one step forward and two steps back can seem so pointless unless you persist long enough to finally turn around and see how far you've come. This author
handles the horrible process of spouse betrayal and the recovery process with wisdom and sensual writing. Her use of perfumes
and their descriptions create a safe spot for the female lead to retreat to as well as create an entire new category to learn about. Discussions of essences and beautiful bottles, work in a fragant restaurant bring in food and menus and when the greatest new guy shows up! I almost held my breath all the way through the courtship! This is a delightful book about love, recovery, healing and could be enjoyed by everyone from teen to senior.

I always know when it comes time for a new Barbara Samuel book that I'll be entering a magical world of beauty and poignancy, populated with characters who allow themselves to hope and love, despite what life has brought them.

This latest release holds true to that tradition. Barbara Samuel's been an automatic buy for me since 1995, when I read Lucien's Fall, and I've enjoyed the ride since. Her sensual writing style serves her extremely well in this story of Nikki, who dreams about opening her own perfumerie while coping with a divorce she didn't see coming, and the subsequent out-of-state move of her daughter. Not to mention the little matter of a blown-up house resulting in Nikki's arrival at an apartment complex that would not be her first choice of residency, if she only had a choice.

The people she meets there will change her life, as will those she meets at her new job, including the deliciously self-contained Niraj. As with many of Ms. Samuel's books, the characters in Madame Mirabou are from all walks of life, all ethnic backgrounds. All are treated with the warmth and compassion that makes this author's works stand out for me, and her insights into how life is, or how it can be if we only allow it, often bring me to tears.

Add to that a gorgeous cover in a matte finish that makes just holding the book a lush experience, and this is my favorite release of 2006. Fabulous.

Nicole Bridges is this story's protaganist and the story revolves around her attempts to renew herself after her divorce.

Nicole "Nikki" has had a life long passion for creating perfumes so each chapter begins with an entry for her perfume diary where she reminisces about the different smells she has enjoyed throughout the years and where she enters recipes for different perfumes she has concocted.

Nikki is totally out of her element because she never sees her husband's betrayal and subsequent divorce and because her daughter has chosen to live with her father. The father is black and Nikki is white; the father feels that his daughter needs to be more immersed in black culture, hence, Giselle lives in Los Angeles with the black father. Nikki is alone in a small Colorado town trying to reshape her life while being newly single.

The story develops around Nikki meeting and making new friends who are also going through divorce and loneliness. All of the characters handle their single lifestyles in different ways. The story revolves around Nikki's interaction with a new man, her new friends, and a new job and a new perfume business. This is an interesting story about how different people manage change and crisis in their lives.

This is the story of a recently divorced woman named Nikki, who tries to find her way in the world while feeling bitter and bewildered. After (accidentally) blowing up her house, she moves to an apartment complex she dubs "Splitsville," and makes new friends. Her ex-husband and teenaged daughter are in London, living with his new wife.

Nikki's passion is perfume. Each chapter opens with notes from a journal she's kept all her life, outlining various scents and feelings brought about by those scents. Her dream is to one day open a perfume shop; however, she has to move through her bitterness and pain before realizing she is entitled to her dreams.

The story is well written and the characters are colorful and well drawn. The sense of smell is so strong, it comes through on each page. Anyone with the slightest interest in perfumes or the art/chemistry of making perfume will enjoy and appreciate the way this rather unremarkable story is crafted.

Overall, it was a quick read and I enjoyed experiencing Nikki's growth from page one to page three-hundred and seven. It also made me really appreciate the author's talent for sensory writing.

Michele Cozzens is the author of It's Not Your Mother's Bridge Club and A Line Between Friends

I just finished reading this work and thoroughly enjoyed it. I can't think of any detail of the novel that wasn't satisfying or that I found lacking in any way. Well thought and executed. I would certainly reread it.

Madame Mirabou's School of love is mistitled -- it is hardly at all about the character who plays acts at being Madame M. (but that does not detract from the novel). Instead it is about a wholly believable character, Nikki Bridges, who is newly divorced and wobbling around trying to figure out what kind of life she now wants to live. Her hobby is that of making perfume, and she has the nose for it. This novel is very redolent and sensual, in that Nikki's memories are always linked to very distinct scents and aromas. Nikki becomes a waitress and finds a little shop she'd like to turn into a perfumery, and of course, she also begins to find love with a beguiling tall dark stranger. I have read all of Barbara Samuels now and very much appreciate her female characters. They usually have a healthy streak of creativity and quirkiness. I also love her western settings. I am a total devotee, starved for her next title.

It came as a complete shock to Nikki Carrington when her husband of almost two decades left her for a younger woman of his own race. Their daughter Giselle moves to California with her dad and his new wife because the schools are better there for someone wanting to become a doctor than in Manitou, Colorado. Nikki lets her ex Daniel convince her that it would be better for her to be part of an African-American family.

Nikki's house, which she received as part of the divorce settlement, caught fire when the furnace blew up so she takes an apartment in a complex with many residents divorced or separated. Roxanne stalks her ex-husband who she still loves and his second wife while also having indiscriminate one night stands. Wanda anxiously waits for her spouse to come home from his tour of duty in Iraq. Nikki obtains work as a waitress while hoping to open up a perfume shop selling her own creations. There is a man who wants to forge a future with Nikki, but she cannot commit as she still needs to make peace with her past especially in light of observing her neighbors.

Hearts will go out to bewildered heroine lost in a world she no longer understands as all the rules of relationships have changed. She struggles to adapt to being single which is made more difficult by the insurance company taking its time on her claim. She knows her prime priority is to discover just who she is since she can no longer hide behind the comfort cloaks of wife and mother. This is a great character study with a sizzling romantic subplot augmenting the deep look at a stunned woman trying to find herself.

Harriet Klausner