And yes, this is day five by now of our advent calendar. Yesterday’s winner is Hotlanda Linda. (please send me your address at: perfumer(at)tauerperfumes.com)  I thank you all for your comments, a big thank you to all of you. I appreciate a lot.

Today , I am a Boudoir kind of a sales event. A first, an experiment, all day, and it is a tie versus notie question thing. I say: T-shirt, no tie.
And today …well guess what: we celebrate the next 4 star fragrance in the newest newsletter from Perfumes, the guide: Incense extrême.
Thus, today I pick one out of you who leaves a comment and send the winner a bottle of Incense extrême. It got four star by Luca Turin who said among other things…..“Incense Extrême is less incense and less extrême than you’d think. ”

And if you leave a comment here, you might win the Incense extrême and judge for yourself…

This is a new series that will review aromatics information found in the print media. When possible a web link will be provided. Items that have broader information available may stimulate a full blog post as a followup.

• Plants and People: Society for Economic Botany Newsletter, Volume 22, Fall 2008 announced a meeting held in Vietnam November 1-4, 2008: Cultivated Agarwood in Vietnam: A Guided Field Tour of Successful Agarwood Production in the Mekong Delta.  The seminar was organized by Seven Mountain Co. and presenters were Robert Blanchette, Univeristy of Minnesota, and Henry Heuveling van Beek.  For more information about Cultivated Agarwood (Aquilaria crassna) see this link. Plants and People is posted online in PDF format. We've blogged about agarwood in Vietnam earlier.
• This issue also included (p 15) a list of "Recent Publications on Medicinal Plants from India."
• The Herb Companion (January 2009) reviews the book: The Unlikely Lavender Queen by Jeannie Ralston, which is available at amazon.com.
• Herb Companion also a short piece on home distillation of "Herbal Waters" and suggests that the distillation process destroys the antioxidant properties of the herbs distilled. They cite an article from the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 55:8436-8443, "Antioxidant Activity and Phenolic Composition of Lavandin (Lavandula x intermedia Emeric ex Loiseleur) Waste (Abstract available but they still charge for the article).
• Herb Companion also discusses and links to the new International Standard for Sustainable Wild Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (ISSC-MAP) which, in my understanding, is still a work in progress. They also link to a newly formed Fairwild Foundation which will have responsibility for final implementation and the quality of the standard.
• The December issue of perfumer&flavorist leads off with and editorial: "Everyone's a Critic: Are Fragrance Bloggers and Critics Good for the Industry?" Jeb Gleason-Allured, the Editor concludes that "yes, fragrance criticism and bloggers are ultimately good for the industry. A lively and devoted discourse is the lifeblood of any art form, and fragrance has for too long been ignored. . ."
• In the same issue of p&f, there are a number of articles addressing the subject of naturals in the Fragrance industry: "(Not) Lost in Translation", p. 41; a sidebar on p. 42 on "the Challenge of Organics and Natural Material Sourcing"; "Defining 'Natural'" [a discussion of the Natural Products Association's Seal] on pp 44-46; "Natural Stories: Ylang-ylang" pp 47-51. There is also a review of a recent talk by New York Times scent critic Chandler Burr on "The Future of Naturals in Perfumery", p. 20. The editorial direction of P&F seems to be moving in the direction of accepting and using Natural products, probably under the Editorship of the (relatively) young Jeb Gleason-Allured, and Natural Products Editor Brian Lawrence.
• The November 2008 issue of the AARP Bulletin has a piece in its Health Section (p. 26) entitled "The Scent of Roses for Rosy Dreams." It references a study done in Germany in which researchers administered the scent of roses, rotten eggs, or an unscented control to 15 women after they entered REM sleep. When awakened one minute later, they reported their dreams. The rose resulted in dreams with a positive emotional tone, while the rotten eggs produced the opposite. A more detailed report on the study is online in Health News.

The following video is the ultimate expression of love not only in gaming but from one geek to another. Not only is the song cute, so is our singer BlinkTwice4Y. He’s 26 years old and lives in the Bay Area of California. One day he’d like to be a professional singer, but even if he never aspires to that dream, BlinkTwice4Y has entered pop culture with his lyrics and music, especially with Mario Kart: Love Song. This video was featured December 2008 on YouTube. Unfortunately for gamer chicks everywhere he’s in a relationship and therefore unavailable to be our Toad.

Follow BlinkTwice4Y on Twitter.

Here are the lyrics:

Just in case you miss a word…

Verse One:
You be my princess
I’ll be your toad
I’ll follow behind you
on rainbow road
Protect you from red shells
wherever we go
I promise.

Verse Two:
Noone will touch us
if we pick up a star
If you spin out
you can ride in my car
When we slide together
we generate sparks
in our wheels and our hearts

Chorus:
The finish line
is just around the bend
I’ll pause this game
so our love will never end
Let’s go again

Verse Three:
The blue shell is coming
so I’ll go ahead
If you hang behind
it’ll hit me instead
but never look back
cause I’m down but not dead
I’ll catch up to you

Bridge:
Don’t worry about
Bowser or DK
Eat this glowing mushroom
and they’ll all fade away

Chorusx2

to the mushroom cup
and the flower cup
and the star cup
and the reverse cup

walalalalala
walalalalalawaluigiiiiii

Welcome back again, Karin! Today’s review is a fun little contemporary novel that mixes hijinks and thrills. Check it out!

Love You to Death by Melissa Senate is a light, summer read.

Who is turning Abby Foote’s life upside down? Abby has had the unfortunate (or fortunate) experience of loving and losing a number of truly unsuitable men.

Her latest is unable to attend the bris of her nephew and deserts her in LL Bean. But he is substantially better than her last love. While serious about him, she found him in intimate circumstances with the woman who is now about to become his wife. Or is he?

His engagement picture hits the paper the day of the bris.

Then he is found murdered. In the course of the investigation, it is learned that two other of her former lovers have had attempts on their lives.

Enter Detective Benjamin Orr, the best thing that has ever happened to her. She is the police’s number one suspect, but if she isn’t the one who has committed these crimes, then someone close to her is liable to harm her also.

To the author’s credit, the family dynamics, the fiance to her ex-love, and the co-workers are all developed well. There is a lot of humor as those close to her suck up to her, while claiming they don’t believe it, because they think she is capable of murder and who knows if they might be next on the list.

Then again, it is a serious subject and in real life it might not tie up as neatly. It’s a lucky thing for her that she is believed and the real murderer is found out.

I give it a 2.5.

Writing a review for a novel is easy! Check out RRN’s submission guidelines for more information on how you can be a guest writer for this blog.

Alec Greven is a 4th grader who began to write his book on dating advice when he was eight. He spent time observing boys and girls on the playground at school and wrote down things he saw that worked and also things that didn’t. The book is full of little pearls of wisdom. For instance:

“Whatever happens, just don’t act desperate. Girls don’t like desperate boys.”

Desperation never looks good on anyone. Desperation also translates to needy, clingy, whiny, and exceedingly urgent. Think sweaty palms, babbling, mumbling, shifty features, and occasionally a mean comment or too. This leads into this next gem:

“Many boys who have crushes don’t know how to act around a girl. Some boys tease girls they like and are mean to them. Some boys say silly things to girls and act goofy. Some boys think they are acting cool by showing off.”

Who is the book for?

Wives have given it to husbands as a joke. Alec Grevan says it’s for anyone and others say it’s for ages eight to eighty. He says boys should start young. I say if you’re eighty and started at eight and still haven’t figured out girls to some extent then something is wrong! The inside has cute little black and white line drawings and covers forty-eight pages.

And before you ask this little heartbreaker doesn’t have a girlfriend or even a crush at the moment. Grevan is currently on tour for his book as has two other books written about talking to moms and dads.

Abigail Reynolds writes Pemberley Variations. For the uninitiated this means that she takes the classic story of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and plays a what-if scenario. For instance in From Lambton to Longbourn the what-if is what if Darcy and Elizabeth disclosed their feelings before parting ways after Lydia’s fall from grace? The characters in this what-if scenario all bear the same names, and read fairly familiar, but ultimately are recreated and reintroduced. Attraction is played up and scenes Jane Austen would never write appear involving kissing – great kissing, but a staunch Austen fan will probably feel that even this small break in propriety is too much.

Elizabeth finds out to her dismay how deeply in love with Mr. Darcy she is when the news of Lydia’s foolishness breaks. How could she in all good consciousness expose his sister to her family? She worries a lot about Darcy’s good opinion of her and how the current affairs will certainly provide him with enough ammunition to dislike her from hereafter. To her surprise, Darcy is not at all inclined to think ill of her. He wants her to keep correspondence with his sister, Georgiana, as it his only way to communicate with her. He would marry her tomorrow, no today, if only he could be certain of her regard.

Some provocation on both their parts leads to them sharing their first kiss, part comfort, part passion. One kiss melds into the next and then the worst happens – Elizabeth’s aunt and uncle discover them! Elizabeth does not want to trick Darcy into a connection with her family and he is once again unsure of himself in her affections. This happens a lot actually throughout the novel as they go along their tangent journey toward love and ultimate happiness.

Their insecurities are a little over the top, but ultimately are not distracting from the tale. Reynolds has a way with words and I look forward to reading another Pemberley Variation soon.

Rating: 3.5-4 Stars

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RRN would like to welcome back guest reviewer Karin! It is my pleasure to have her again. Today’s post is a review she has submitted on one of Janet Evanovich’s lighthearted romances. For your pleasure the full review is listed below.

Janet Evanovich is one of my favorite writers. I really enjoy her Stephanie Plum series. So when I saw Wife for Hire, I figured I’d give one of her other books a whirl. It’s quite lightweight and fairly short (especially since the print is larger, which is a bit annoying to me.)

I give it a 2.5-3.

It was a fun and fast read, not nearly so complex in characters or plot as the Plum novels. But it was a good diversion.

Hank Malone, from Vermont, and Maggie Toone, from New Jersey, are made for each other. Both were trouble in their childhoods, neither wants a life that is particularly predictable.

Malone has advertised for a pretend wife in order to look stable enough to qualify for a bank loan to run his apple orchard. Malone is also hoping to avoid the women who are chasing him. What he advertises for and what Toone is are two different things.

Toone is in process of writing the memoirs of an aunt, who just happened to be a madam.

Throw in assorted characters, such as Elsie, the housekeeper, who is particularly funny, a bit like the grandma in the Plum novels, but different; both sets of parents, who in their own ways are characters themselves; long time friends and small town busybodies, and you have a recipe for a lot of fun along with some twists and turns.

Of course, they fall in love, getting involved very quickly, maybe a bit too quickly for me. Throw in some assorted (funny) kidnappings, due to a misunderstanding, and things get complicated, but are eventually sorted out.

All’s well that ends well. And it leaves you with a smile on your face.

If you would like to write RRN a review, we would love to have you. It is our goal to review novels across the genre in an attempt to provide a pretty thorough archive of romance stories. Your participation would greatly help out RRN. Look here for submission guidelines.

• X-Mas Shopping Part I/Compras de Natal Parte I
• Book of the month/livro do mês
• Blog comemora 6 meses em Dezembro!
• Q Perfume celebrates half a year anniversary!
• Drag Frag Allure!
• Lalique - Bottles of art/Lalique garrafas de arte
• Cocktail anyone? Um coquetél?

And yes, this is day four already of our advent calendar. Yesterday’s winner is Patricia Schneider. Congratulations!
And today we celebrate without any questions the newest newsletter and perfume critics from Perfumes: The guide.

You can download -if you want and are willing to pay 10 $ US- the latest additions to the guide by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez as pdf. I did, because I was curious. And I am not disappointed.
Thus, today I pick one out of you who leaves a comment and send the winner a bottle of Incense rosé. It is a four star fragrance by Luca Turin, who said among other things “The combination of rose, cardamom, and mandarin is so warm, so welcoming, you feel as if you’ve just heard a piece of good news you cannot quite remember.” The guide extension features some 129 additions and you can download it here on perfumes: the guide.

And if you leave a comment here, you might win the Incense rosé…