Book Review: Coming to my Senses
Katie 
Coming to my Senses is a book by Alyssa Harad. It is her autobiography. I am really not sure what it was in the excerpt that made me drawn to this book, as it is about Alyssa’s fascination with perfume, something I know nothing about. Alyssa gets hooked on perfume when stumbling across a blog about it (maybe that is what caught my eye). She ends up going to the mall and picking up some scents and storing them in her closet so that they will be in the dark and not affected by the elements.
At first it is all a secret, but then slowly her obsession is revealed and she ends up getting almost everyone around her interested in smelling oils and perfumes as well. (It is fun to go to the store and sniff all the samples. I did it a few months ago with a friend and accidentally sprayed myself instead of the card with Justin Bieber’s new fragrance and went around for the rest of the day saying I smelled like Bieber.)
Also included in the book is the planning of her wedding to her fiance V and picking out a dress and all that fun stuff that comes along with getting married.
The book was a bit tough for me to get through at times, but was quirky and fun all at the same time and I am glad that I made myself finish the whole thing (I am not one to stop reading a book midway through unless it is really, really dreadfully bad, and this one was definitely not in that category).
I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write my review from the publisher through Net Galley.
A sudden love affair with fragrance leads to sensual awakening, self-transformation, and an unexpected homecoming.
At thirty-six–earnest, bookish, terminally shopping averse–Alyssa Harad thinks she knows herself. Then one day she stumbles on a perfume review blog and, surprised by her seduction by such a girly extravagance, she reads in secret. But one trip to the mall and several dozen perfume samples later, she is happily obsessed with the seductive underworld of scent and the brilliant, quirky people she meets there. If only she could put off planning her wedding a little longer . . .