Entertaining romance with a little angst. Nicole Marshall, business owner, artist, and healing from a shredded heart. Sophia Sweet, business owner, driven to uplift her struggling business, and not wanting or expecting a distraction. Nico sees Sophia on the L train every Thursday afternoon. She finds her attractive and enjoys the various scents that flow from her. She wants to approach her but is hesitant.

Sophia and Nico meet due to their businesses but Nico decides it is best to "hide" but continue to pursue her as a person she met on the L. As we wait for the unveil because we know it is coming but the how and from where is what was interesting. Although Nico is full of her self and especially how she dresses, she is not an unlikable person. Her sister, Patricia challenges and encourages her to be forthright. There is much to like about how the sisters interact with each other. Above all else, family is important and I liked that very much.

If you want sweet and happy with a little angst, this is the read for you.

Nico has been burned by past relationships and is hoping to find something lasting. Sophia is trying to keep her family's chocolate business alive. Every Thursday, Nico sees Sophia on the L train and is immediately drawn in by her scent. When they finally meet for the first time, Nico doesn't disclose the fact that she owns a part of the company that Sophia is doing business with. There were a lot of fluffy moments. The book is written in first person and we follow Nico's point of view. I would have liked to see Sophia's perspective too. I think the premise of the book was interesting, but I wasn't drawn into it as much as I wanted to be.

Very interesting premise on meeting your soul mate. I thought it was a really good story a little sad in some places but truly romantic and heartfelt in other spots. I loved the family dynamics, between Nico and her family, they tended to keep her grounded, in face of all the mistakes, she seemed to make throughout this story so, that she didn't go off the deep end to often. I can honestly say, that I would recommend this book, to anyone who loves a quirky romance, with a deep sense of family and love thrown in.

2.5 Stars

I’ve seen really mixed reviews of this and I honestly had no idea where I would fall. And I’m sad to say I didn’t like this one. The main character, Nico, is very unlikable to me and never really redeems herself. She wasn’t as bad in the last 20 percent, but it wasn’t enough for me in the end. She never won me over.

Nico lies, manipulates, and is probably one of the vainest characters I have ever read. Being confident can be sexy but when it turns into cocky, without any other redeeming qualities, it’s just gross. What I did like about her was that she was all about family. You could tell her family was important to her and I thought those scenes were nice.

Because this is told in first person from Nico’s point of view, I don’t have much to say about Sophia, her love interest. She seems very guarded at first but slowly opened up to Nico as time goes on. Nico’s lie hung over their relationship for me so it was hard for me to be invested in them.

A lot of others have said they really enjoyed this one. It’s all a matter of taste so if you’re a fan of Bryant’s previous books I’m sure you’ll like this one. I’ve liked Bryant’s books before this one just didn’t click with me.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books in exchange for an honest review.

A nice read, but Nico's lying really bothered me. Especially that she kept prolonging telling the truth and actually going out of her way to keep the lie.

Sophie on the other hand is hard-working, honest and takes care of her grandmother. I did wonder what happened to her brother? He was the source of the chocolate shop financial problems. A little detail I either overlooked or the author didn't address.

Not my favourite Kris Bryant book.

In the interest of transparency I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for a review. All opinions are 100% honest and my own.

This was a fun feel good romance, nothing too stressful. The main characters had amazing chemistry and I loved their sassy banter. It did strike me as a little odd how much Nico talked about Sophia’s scent but to each their own. Nico sometimes comes off as a little creepy and pushy, and I really didn’t like how there were multiple times that she should’ve told Sophia the truth but had sex with her instead, that felt like crossing a line. But overall it was a pretty good read!

This was a delightful, engaging read. People have flaws and certainly main character Nico has her share of them. But nevertheless, she is an interesting multidimensional character and the storyline between her, her family, and her encounters and relationship with Sophie is what runs throughout the book. The tension over her omissions was palpable and it certainly turned this into a page turner novel for me.

I liked all the characters and even the secondary characters were well fleshed out, multidimensional. and had their own individual contributions to the storyline.. "Scent" is one of those books that having read it I want to read it again. It was a good change too, to read a romance that started with a casual slow burn and there was no hurry to rush the chemistry. There is so much detail which propels the plot and storyline forward and on a second read I'm sure to find additional aspects to add to the enjoyment.5*

I really enjoyed this. Between all the horrors of the past week, and not feeling great, I was close to falling into a reading slump. I was so happy that this book had a fantastic pace and I was able to fly through it in one sitting. It really was the kind of easy read that I needed right now and it is just another example of a book that has lifted my spirits in the past year.

Now, I do have to mention that the reviews are all over the place for this book. This might be one of the most mixed reviews for a happy-go-lucky romance that I can remember. While I’m not on the same page with some of the more negative reviews, I do get some of the points since I agree with a few of them. I think what the difference for me is that I believe this is a lighthearted romance that is not to be taken too seriously. I mean I get it, there are certain books that little things will bother me and I’ll keep picking and eventually find even more to get even madder at, but I don’t think Bryant was going for romantic realism here, I think she just wanted us readers to have fun. So that is how I approached this book and I would suggest that others do the same.

Nico, Nico. Nico is where a lot of the complaints come from and I found that I had mixed feelings about her. Nico, who is slightly stalker-ish, vain, and is also a big fat liar. Two big no-go’s for me are liars and cheaters so it is surprising that I liked lying Nico at all. But really it was Bryant’s writing that accomplished it for me. Nico was a flawed character but being in her POV, in wonderfully written first person, Bryant got me to accept her and even start to understand her. It was hard reading at times because there was a lie hanging over the relationship. I normally don’t like romances that have the big lie and you just have to wait for the other shoe to drop. This did cause my rating to lose a star since it took away from my enjoyment, but I was so wrapped up in the romance that I didn’t care half as much as I normally would. I do have to say that Bryant made Nico too vain. The amount of times she worried about her hair and appearance were too many to count. I was surprised to see Bryant make a character like that, but I guess she wanted to make Nico a believable liar so she had to be a character with more flaws than normally. I just hope this vain thing is one and done since I want to easily like Bryant's characters and not have to work as I hard as I did to like them.

What I enjoyed so much about this book was the romance and just the everyday things. I loved that one character was a chocolatier and the other a welder artist. Two super cool jobs and I loved every page about them. I adored that their big date was to take a motorcycle ride and end up at a baseball game. That is like perfect date material in my eyes. And I also loved the chemistry the two characters had. From one character enjoying how the other smelled of different sweets every day, to the little kisses and physical touches that were spicy before we even got to any sex scenes. And, I appreciated an ending that felt rewarding and not rushed. I have had bad luck with rushed HEA's lately and I really appreciated the pace of this whole book including the ending. I just enjoyed a whole lot of this book.

If you can suspend disbelief a bit and just go with the flow, then I would absolutely recommend this. Yes, Nico is a tough character to like and deception is not a big favorite for many, but everything else was really enjoyable. This was a cute little romance with good chemistry, and it was just the kind of fun read that I really needed right now.

I really wanted to be able to say I loved this book. I was surprised to find that this was my first Bryant read and I’ve heard such great things, but the thing is I only liked this one, which I found really disappointing as it’s clear to me that Bryant is a great writer, I just couldn’t get into the characters or storyline. I read some early reviews of this and it seems to have been a polarising you either love it or hate, but I’m firmly in the middle.

Nico owns a packaging company with her sister. She’s the artistic director and an artist in her own right, mainly specialising in welding. She’s had some bad experiences in the past with girlfriends just wanting her for her money.

Sophia is a chocolatier, inheriting the family business that her brother is now attempting to run dry. She wants to branch out into higher end chocolates and for that she needs high-end packaging.

If that had been how the two had met, I would have been on board with that storyline, but in fact they meet because Nico notices Sophia on the train, somewhat stalking her in an attempt to get her to notice her. When they then run into each other at Nico’s place of work, she lies about her role in the company in an attempt to hide her money.

This was the second book based around deception that I read in a row, which may have coloured my opinion slightly as I felt the deception aspect of the storyline was handled in a way I was more comfortable in the other read. In Scent the deception goes on for a long time, with Nico’s family trying to encourage her to be truthful to Sophia throughout.

Again, I could somewhat understanding Nico’s reasoning for the deception, but the other problem I had was that I couldn’t relate to Nico as a character either, making the deception seem even more jarring for me. Nico is self-centred, making lots of decisions that don’t include Sophia and we’re lead to believe is self-assured in her looks as well.

All in all, I don’t hate this like some, but I don’t love it either. Some have described this as having a 90’s rom-com feel and I completely agree. They all have elements to them that probably shouldn’t sit well, but you end up getting swept away in the love at the end, and for many this will be what they feel about this book - so I encourage you to take a chance on this one and see how you feel.

I received an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Nico is a liar, semi-stalker, a slack off who coasts by on her older sister’s leniency, comes off as a player, almost-alcoholic and I still find myself liking her.

It must be the unapologetic butch vibe she gives off while slipping some tiny bits of femininity like rare ventures into wearing makeup and a bit of strategic tears. She is fit and muscular without ever having to work out, she has terrible meal patterns and drinks far too much but she is always smokin’ hot, slim, and buff.

I love how she obsessed about the product in her slicked-back (probably) sweetly duckass butch hair and how she lovingly gives names to all her vehicles and loves them as individuals. Nico is a flawed person but she manages to not be a bad person, even though she does some seriously questionable things in this book.

It’s told in first person (thank god not switching although I think Bryant could pull it off, she’s that great a writer and really nails the individual voice) so we see everything through Nico’s eyes. Sometimes she’s all too perceptive, to the point where I think the FBI wants to put her in one of their profiler shows.

The story flows according to accepted patterns, including the blow-up at exactly the 80% mark and the hetero married sibling for over sharing purposes.

Side note, I have a hetero married sibling and I have *never* shared or even wanted to share even the slightest bit of bedroom antics with them, and if they tried to slip in their penis-centered adventures to our conversations I would immediately run far FAR away and wash my brain out with as much alcohol as I could legally appropriate. Okay, back to the review.

I liked the relationship between Nico and Sophia a lot after the blow-up. Nico became a lot nicer and not so much a manipulative liar, and I liked how Sophie was honest and strong.

Overall, pretty cookie-cutter with a bit of obligatory geek culture shoehorned in, epilogue follows the typical hetero lifescript, good sex scenes and a nicely tied up story where I’m just waiting for these two and their 2.5 kids to pop up in some unrelated story in the future.

My rating. 3.5 stars

I had a hard time at first getting into this read but boy was it worth sticking with it. What a great romance. I love this ebook and some good chocolate.

This story is just like the last name of one of its main characters- sweet. This love story made my heart flutter. Butch lesbian Nico, part creator of owner of packaging business Tuft & Finley, and visual artist, has been pining for a beautiful woman she sees on the L once a week and has nicknamed in her head "Thursday". When ice queen femme Sophia, aka Thursday, becomes a client of Tuft & Finley, Nico decides to finally make her move on the L. But unbeknownst to Sophia, who thinks Nico is a welder who works in the warehouse, is the fact that Nico is the business' rich owner.

Why Nico hides her actual role in the company, where she lives, and how much money has is somewhat understandable given her past and what her ex-wife put her through. But it was annoying that she didn't come clean to Sophia on one of their first dates; or at the very least once she realized they were more than casual. I didn't fully understand why she would do that. It could have passed for lying by omission at first, but then Nico kept plugging the business and talking about how wonderful it was, and I just didn't understand her motives there.

While this major plot point annoyed me, I was able to overlook because Nico and Sophia's entire dynamic was just wonderful. I kind of fell in love with Nico myself while reading this: butch, a bit rugged, knows how to treat a lady, respectful, not afraid to make a move... *swoon*. Sophia is also swoon-worthy in a femme way, and I definitely have a crush on her too. And the scene of their first motorcycle ride? *SWOON*

Their flirting killed me... agh I just loved the author's writing style and the dialogue was so believable compared to most romances. Also I absolutely adore butch/femme romances and was so happy to read something with a butch MC. And the sex scenes were just perfect. If you go into this with the mentality that it checks all the 90s RomCom boxes, then I think it's easy to love! One of the best lesfics I've read in a while.

Sometimes to get what you want, you take little different road than you should. Not intentionally someone gets hurt, yet you hope for happy ending. I am so glad this one got it. I love both characters and the way they met. Love how they evolved in their relationship. I think it was absolutely perfect. Sometimes you have to take the risk and it in the end it is so worth it.
Loved this book!

I gotta be honest, my expectations with this book weren't high. I had never heard about Kris Bryant for whatever reason and the cover didn't even get the vibes of what I usually enjoy reading, but everyone who knows me also knows that I can't say no to sapphic romance. So, since this book seemed a bit more... well, simple than the other on my list, a lighthearted cheesy romance in modern days, so no need to get used to world-building, lore, and all that jazz, I decided to pick it up for my January TBR. Totally not because I'd requested it on NetGalley and it was due in about a week. Pfft, of course not.
But there I was today, with my Kindle in hand and my lower back aching, the perfect situation to eat up a book, and... I finished it in less than 24 hours, I tell you. The story is highly attention-grabbing and the characters are flawed. Like, really flawed. There were parts where I even stopped to think why was I cheering for the protagonist because she did mess things up, and I'm not used to characters who do so, but! It makes them relatable! I'm sure that you, at least once, were watching a romantic comedy or something of the sort and thought to yourself that the major mess up was just.... human behavior in the common, daily life. That isn't the case in this story.
Something that also got me (and got me HARD) is that the main character is a butch lesbian. As a lesbian who's totally weak for muscular butches, I was craving that representation. The plot is also satisfactory: Nico is observing a pretty woman who's in the same subway as her every Thursday for weeks, but she's never gotten the courage to talk to her, until one day when the woman unexpectedly appears in her office as one of the clients of the company Nico owns and pegs her as a worker from the warehouse.
The thing is, Nico doesn't correct her: she'd been in a turbulent divorce two years before, where her ex-wife was in it for the money and took the worth of years of Nico's work from her, and since that was the first time she tried something out since then, she wanted Sophie, said woman, to like her for who she is instead of her financial condition and social status. It's a perfect romcom receipt, is my first observation, and the way Bryant works with it is amazing. the 'will she find out or won't she find out' tension is built up at every moment, making the reader nervous. We sympathize with Nico's reasoning and feel bad for her guilt, but it's undeniable she messed up (and she knows it).
The romance between Nico and Sophie is also very well developed: when Nico talks about seeing Thursday, how she'd call Sophie before she knew her name, in the subway, you cheer for her; but when something actually starts to happen, when the spark is there, you try not to cheer for them, because you can feel the conflict approaches, slowly and yet menacingly, but you can't stop yourself from getting attached. It's the usual nerve-wracking tension that's so common and appreciated in a romantic comedy. The predictability of it all, while comforting, still makes you tense. You know the happy ending will come and that it'll happen after the also mandatory conflict, but there's always the 'what if'. What if the happy ending doesn't come? And what if the conflict doesn't come and this book is just dozens of pages of pure fluff? You know it isn't, but... what if?
I find that feeling of doubt and tension that's part of the experience of consuming a well-handled romantic comedy simply magical and if you share this enthusiasm with me (and if you're also a butch lesbian enthusiast - again, like me), then mark the date, January 12, and get this book!

When I pick up a Kris Bryant book I know she will give me everything I want in a book. And she didn't disappoint with this one. I know she will pull on my heartstrings, make me cry and write really good sex. Scent is the 4th book in the sensory collection. I expected this would be about perfume but I was happily surprised that it was about chocolate. This is a wonderfully written romance about two women who live in Chicago. Nico owns a successful packaging company with her sister Trish. She is also an inspiring metal artist. Nico sees a woman she is interested in on the L, only on Thursdays, but she is too shy to talk to her. She is recovering from a bad relationship and not sure she wants to start a romance. Sophia is part owner of a struggling chocolate shop that had been in her family for generations. Sophia has some new ideas for specialty chocolates but wants special packaging for them. Sophia meets Nico while she is on a forklift at the plant. And they start working together. Even though Sophia seems a bit on the cold side, they start a friendship and then a romance not knowing who Nico actually is. Nico tries to tell what kind of chocolate she is making by the scent Sophie gives off. The romance is sweet and sex scenes are believable and hot. This book was beautifully written and gave a me warm feeling.

This book is getting such a mixed bag of reviews I really was hesitant to pick it up, but I loved it. I think I know why some people struggle with it, they take it too seriously, which is not something the author intended, in my opinion. This book reminds me of those rom-coms that are just super ridiculous, movies like Date Night, The Proposal, Date Movie and You've Got Mail. You either see the humour in them, or you don't and the same goes for this book.

Nico is a successful business owner who has a crush on a woman who she sees on Thursdays on the L. When this woman turns up at her business looking for packaging and logo design Nico makes a foo of herself. The next time Nico sees Thursday (aka Sopha) on the L she apologises and strikes up a conversation. Sophia thinks Nico is a welder who works in the warehouse of the company Nico actually owns. Instead of pointing this out, Nico says nothing. Scorched by women in her past she wants one to like her for who she is, not her money.

The story is told in the first person from Nico's POV, which is a bit of a shame seeing as I don't really like this character. She is a bit too superficial for me, always going on about her hair and how it looks. The tone of the book to me is very light and really don't-take-me-seriously, but these parts where Nico is checking herself out are a bit too much for me. All the lies she tells to hide her identity are see-through and you can't believe Sophia doesn't pick up on them. I'd say that is a bit a weak point of the book as well, it makes Sophia look stupid for believing the obvious lies, or just plain ignoring them. But as mentioned, all should be taken with a grain of salt, or maybe a bag of it, I think this book was meant to be a light and fluffy rom-com type of thing and you either see the humour in it, and appreciate it for what it is, or you don't like it at all. I liked it, because I didn't take it too seriously. The only serious parts for me where the chocolate talks, one doesn't joke about chocolate. And in my household, we have sworn off chocolate in the second month of the first lockdown, so it was extremely difficult to read about all this deliciousness and not being able to enjoy it.

4.5 stars I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Honestly, I really dislike books told in the first person, but I found the characters and storyline engaging enough that I often forgot it was written that way. Typically, I won't get past a page. I kept feeling a building anxiety as the book progressed worrying about how long Nico would delay telling the truth. At one point in the book I stopped reading to give my wife the run down on the story and how there was going to be big trouble ahead, lol. I love the classic trope in this book and can't wait for more from this author! I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’m rating Scent one star because I am not happy with the main relationship, and since this is a romance novel, I’m supposed to root for said relationship. In my opinion, Nico is a very unlikeable character and has shown countless red flags throughout the book. I’m going to attempt to list them all here:

1. The Big Lie.Nico’s exes were horrible people who used her for her money, so I understand that Nico is wary about the possibility of starting a new relationship. However, after a brief misunderstanding that is much too convenient (more on “convenient” later), Nico decides that pretending to be poorer than she really is (a warehouse worker, instead of an artist-slash-business-owner) would be the perfect way to assess the purity of Sophia’s intentions. But this makes no sense to me: she wants Sophia to like her for who she really is, but she’s going to lie about MAJOR parts of her life, including art, her supposed life’s passion? What?Now, back to convenience: there are so many convenient little events that make it easier for Nico to keep up the lie (e.g. Nico forgetting that her Audi was in the repair shop and having to drive her old truck to the date). At a certain point, it becomes contrived and eyeroll-worthy.
2. Insensitivity. Ethics of lying aside, pretending to be poor is just plain insensitive. Income levels are not costumes to don only when it’s convenient. And on top of it all, Nico is just plain bad at pretending to be poor. She says so many things that reek of privilege.
3. Stalking. I got a stalker vibe from Nico at the end of the first chapter, but I dismissed the idea and tried to think of Nico as just a bit overzealous. Unfortunately, Nico shows stalker behavior several times throughout the book. Sophia briefly calls Nico out on this, but her concerns are not taken seriously.
4. Dismissiveness. Nico is constantly condescending toward Sophia and repeatedly fails to take Sophia’s feelings into account. Nico shows up at Sophia’s place on a motorcycle, fully expecting Sophia to hop on the back without ever having discussed the topic. Nico is also rude about Sophia’s introversion. At one point, she asks Sophia, “Wow, you actually have a best friend?” And during another conversation, Nico brushes away Sophia’s concerns about interacting with people she doesn’t know. (As an introvert who’s suffered from severe social anxiety in the past and who has had countless people make snide comments or try to “fix” me, this was so aggravating to read.) Also, at one point, Nico dismisses the idea that Sophia could possibly be feeling any angst about their relationship, which reinforces a common theme throughout the book: that Nico lowkey thinks she’s the only person who’s suffered in life.
5. Forcefulness. Nico has a complete inability to take no for an answer. She does not accept Sophia’s hesitation toward dating (which is a bit hypocritical, since Nico has her own dating issues and couldn’t bear to be in a relationship for months after her divorce), and amends Sophia’s sentences with “not yet.”
During the inevitable end-of-book conflict, Nico’s actions to um…get Sophia back…are extremely troubling. For example, she knocks on Sophia’s door for twenty minutes at three in the morning until Sophia’s neighbors threaten to call the police. I’m sorry, what??
6. Vanity. Okay, so this is probably the least problematic Nico-related gripe I have, but oh my god. How many times does Nico have to tell us she looks good?? Like, we get it Nico. You’re hot, you’re strong, you’re tan, you’re hella fashionable, whatever. I stopped caring after the second time it was mentioned.

With all this being said, I cannot understand why Sophia would want a HEA with Nico. Sophia is a lovely character who I would have loved getting to know more, but unfortunately, we only get to see her as Nico’s umm…conquest. Nico’s sister Trish, Nico’s parents, and Sophia’s grandmother were all wonderful as well, but any joy they added to the story was greatly overshadowed by the issues I had with Nico.
It’s obvious that Kris Bryant can write, and I’m sure that there will be books of hers that I will enjoy more than this one. Scent was just not the book for me.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

𝗔 𝟵𝟬𝘀 𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗰𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝗲𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝘀𝗼 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵!

Nico boards the train every Thursday just to catch the glimpse of a beautiful stranger with the sweetest scent. Six weeks later, she is still not ready to make the first move until this stranger shows up unexpectedly at her workplace. That is when Nico finally takes the first step but chooses to hide the identity as an up-and-coming business owner and almost-world renowned artist. Nico pursues Sophia but Sophia has only one goal in mind and that is to save her family’s chocolate business. She has no time for, who she thinks is, a humble warehouse worker Nico. But Nico’s charm wins her over until the truth spills.

Does anyone remember the romantic comedies of the 1990s? The ones that were cheesy and illogical but we never really questioned? This book is 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝘁 but in 2020. This book has all the clichés of the 1990s rom coms. First, we have Sophia Sweet (lol, come on!), the chocolatier who’s a workaholic in need of ‘saving’. We have Nico who stalks Sophia for six weeks straight on the train, a move considered romantic in the 90s but criminal behaviour today. We have a Nico who has been so emotionally hurt before that she chooses to keep her 'prince charming' status a secret. And we have Sophia, so clueless about being lied to by Nico that its absurd considering how many rookie mistakes Nico makes along the way and hello, google. Well, the list goes on.

In all honesty, if I were to review this book rationally or by what is considered acceptable today, it would have been shredded apart in minutes considering the illogicality of things and the blatant loopholes. But I really don’t think that was what the author was going for. So I tossed my notes aside and enjoyed this book for what it was worth and it brought back memories. And I loved it so much I found myself smiling from cover to cover. One bonus point is that this book features an ice queen and I love ice queens.

Kris Bryant is that type of author that’s your go to for a solid romance. Sadly this wasn’t one of them..
The story is told in first person in the MC Nico’s point of view and I wish it was told in both of the MC’s because Nico was seemed shallow, all about her hair and just not likable to me. Also she stalks Sophia and then lied and manipulated her for close to the whole book. Her reasons behind it are due to a couple of bad relationships where all they wanted Nico for was her money yet even with this past experience in many ways she is treating Sophia the same way. If I was Sophia I would’ve run far away.
Ms. Bryant is an amazing writer and I will always be a fan but this book just wasn’t for me. I give it 2.5 stars but round up to 3 because it’s Ms. Bryant and she’s awesome.
I was given this ARC review via NetGalley and publisher for an honest review. Many Thanks!