Genre: Chick Lit
Published: 2014
Pages: 352 plus bonus recipes
When Anna meets up with her former French teacher, Claire, after an accident, she finds herself receiving the French lessons she never paid attention to in school. The reason behind this is that Claire knows of an opportunity to work in a chocolate shop in Paris that would be perfect for the (English-speaking) Anna. But unbeknownst to Anna, Claire's motivation for sending her there is the owner of the chocolate shop- that is, her former lover. And with a little luck, maybe they'll meet again before Claire's health runs out.
But when disaster strikes, Anna finds herself in the position of needing to head up the chocolate shop even though she knows nothing about gourmet chocolate making. She's not even fluent in the language around her. Will she be able to rise to the challenges of meeting high expectations and of adjusting to Paris life?
Admittedly this book can be hard to get into. It's a bit drab and nothing much really happens until we meet Thierry, the shop's owner. But there's a lot to deal with- health crises, love stories for Anna and Claire, Anna figuring out what she's supposed to be doing, Thierry's evil wife Alice, father/son feuds, etc. There isn't really ONE singular plot problem; rather it's just daily life drama and the need to get the shop under control with all the STUFF going on. Hopefully, Anna will sharpen her skills enough to be able to do that.
I didn't know going in that Claire was such a big character in the story-almost more important than Anna- and the summary didn't let on about it at all, but I was pleasantly surprised. The book usually flips from 3rd person POV flashbacks (Claire) to first person POV (Anna), alternating the story of Claire's experience as an au pair with Anna's experiences in the shop. Colgan's style of storytelling, especially for Claire, is natural and makes it seem like a very plausible event.
The characters themselves are very human and I fell in love with them as time went by and as I got to know them. I especially enjoyed Sami, Anna's quirky roommate. Everyone is pretty much flawed, but yet decent at the same time, and it's hard to tell quite where everyone falls. I wished I could have learned more about Anna, though. She was a Nick Carraway of sorts- observing and telling us what happened. She seemed to lose her quirky voice as the book went on.
And the final 50 pages. How perfect...though they made me terribly nervous! Some may say "too perfect" but that's chick lit for you. I actually wish there was one more chapter in between the end and the epilogue just to wrap things up a bit more. But yeah, the fact that Claire was living on borrowed time and yet had so many experiences to cover make the book unputdownable and heart-wrenching at once.
A good book even if it's mildly flawed. It gets better as it goes on, so stick with it...if not for the delicious recipes in the back!
4/5 stars
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