CBR14 Book 44: "Madam, Will You Talk?" by Mary Stewart

Page count: 264 pages

Rating: 3 stars

CBR14 Bingo: Question (the book's title is a question and there is a central murder mystery where the identity of the murderer is in question)

Young widow Charity Selborne is on holiday in the south of France with her friend Louise and they really have little planned except to enjoy the good food, nice drinks, beautiful scenery, and long drives. In Avignon, Charity befriends a young English boy who is also staying at the hotel, offering to take him with her on tours of the local tourist spots, as his stepmother doesn't seem inclined to do so. She certainly wouldn't have expected this act of friendship would get her embroiled in the final act of a complicated criminal conspiracy, involving attempted murder, actual murder, kidnapping, and more. 

Once Charity meets the boy's imperious and brooding father, who may very well be a psychotic murderer, she finds herself fleeing through multiple French towns to get away from the man, who is determinedly seeking the whereabouts of his son. Charity is worried for the safety of the boy and keeps trying to get away from the possible madman, who seems relentless in his pursuit of her. Once Charity gets sick of running and furiously confronts her pursuer instead, they actually sit down and talk and she realises just how much danger the boy and his arrogant father are in. Charity and the framed man begin to work together to find out exactly what the vast plot consists of, why someone tried to frame Richard Byron (the suspected murderer) for a crime he didn't commit and then when he was acquitted, murder him instead. Why are the conspirators now using Byron's son as bait to get him to come to France? Is Charity going to be their next victim, now that she's involuntarily gotten involved?

A while back, there were a ton of Mary Stewart's mystery novels on sale online. As any e-book under $2.99 that I haven't actively heard bad things about is more or less a must-buy for me, I now have a fairly large selection of her books. When I needed a book that fits into the Question square of this year's Bingo, it seemed like a good candidate. I hadn't realised that this was in fact Mary Stewart's debut novel, which has become somewhat of a classic and laid the groundwork for her long career as a mystery writer in the second half of the 20th Century.

For fear of spoiling a nearly 70-year-old book, the romance subplot in this book is absolutely bonkers. When Richard Byron first meets Charity Selborne and realises that she knows where his son is, he believes her to be part of the criminal conspiracy that has been plaguing him for ages. He manhandles her, threatens her, calls her a b*tch (so charming), and is in general very unpleasant. She outsmarts him, but their paths keep crossing until he literally chases her through the south of France for several days like some sort of post-World War Terminator. Charity, believing the rumours she's heard that Byron is most likely a psychotic murderer who got acquitted on a technicality, in France to possibly do his own son harm, has no intention of revealing his son's whereabouts to the lunatic. 

Charity is clever and plucky and drives like a fiend, so she escapes him several times until she gets fed up, stops being afraid, and gets angry instead. She yells at him for several minutes, then almost collapses with exhaustion, whereupon he apparently realises 1) that he's been an utter beast for chasing this woman for days and making her very afraid for her own safety and 2) that he totally and completely loves her. Remember, this is after three days of believing her to be part of a criminal plot against him and party in keeping his only child from him. How does her heroine react to his declarations of love? Does she slap him and tell him to get as far away from her as possible? Of course not, silly, she swoons in his arms and apparently returns the affections of a man she believed was an unhinged murderer until earlier the same day. So romantic. The 1950s, people, it was a different time. 

Another way in which it is clear that we have come a long way is how much the characters smoke. They pretty much chain-smoke their way through this story. I'm surprised the kid, David doesn't light up a cigarette when he's off gambolling with his dog. Seriously, when Byron first encounters Charity, and she's a bit out of sorts because of the hot afternoon and thinking about her dead husband (he was shot down during the War), he insists that she have a cigarette to feel better. Because obviously nicotine and tobacco are so healthful. There's mention of smoking with breakfast. At one point, there's a mention of an ashtray on the nightstand of a hotel bed. So glad this is not the norm anymore.

While the romance is preposterously insta-love (SPOILER! They get married less than two weeks after first meeting one another), the actual criminal conspiracy plot is pretty clever. I also really liked Stewart's writing style. David and his loyal pooch did smack quite a bit of plot moppetude, but the descriptions of the various Roman ruins and other interesting sites that Charity visits and the mention of the food were all great. My favourite thing about the novel was probably our heroine herself. Charity is an intelligent and capable woman. She mourns her husband, but not to an excessive degree. She's brave, clever, kind, and drives like an utter fiend. 

I also really liked her friendship with Louise, who accompanies her to France. The friendship between the two women reminded me a lot of myself and my BFF Lydia. Louise is described as plump and friendly, and while Charity is off in the sweltering heat of the French afternoons to explore Roman ruins and archeological sites, Louise prefers to stay back at the hotel, reading in the shade or relaxing by a river, painting. These are vacation goals I can get behind (although I wouldn't even bother with the painting. I would just laze about in a shady back garden, drinking iced grape juice and reading my books. Possibly while snacking on some sort of delicious French pastry). It's also highly likely that Lydia would drag me along with her when going off to visit ruins and other sites of note, exclaiming all the while about how much I'm enjoying myself (whether I am or not). 

I guess starting with the earliest of Mary Stewart's books is a good idea, I've been assured that a lot of her writing is very good, and with some reservations, I also enjoyed this one. So if her writing gets more polished and sophisticated as her career progresses, I suspect I will also enjoy the others of hers I now have waiting for me in my digital library. 

Judging a book by its cover: This very minimalist cover, where you barely even see the heroine (suitably seen behind the wheel of a car) appeals to me. The blue skies give a feeling of summer and I could do with some of that as each day gets progressively darker here up north. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR9 Book 92: "A Kiss in Lavender" by Laura Florand

Page count: 321 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Lucien Rosier grew up in a very tight knit group of cousins, with a strong sense of family. So when at eighteen, he discovered that he was in fact illegitimate, and not actually a Rosier, he ran away and joined the French Foreign Legion, where he crafted himself a new identity and support network of fellow soldiers. Fifteen years later, a determined woman has managed to locate him and figure out who he once used to be. His great-aunt wants to give him a legacy and his cousin is getting married. Can Lucien return to his childhood home or is the past lost forever?

Elena Lyon always looked up to Lucien Rosier growing up. He once saved her from bullies, and growing up in a long line of foster homes, few of them very good, she saw her fair share of unsavoury and untrustworthy men. One of the exceptions is Antoine Vallier, who was in the foster care system with her. They did their best to protect one another. Now Antoine seems determined to protect her from Lucien - who he believes will break Elena's heart worse than any of her former foster experiences did.

All Elena ever wanted was a stable family to love her. She needs Lucien to see that no matter what his DNA might say, all the Rosiers, who he grew up among, are his true family and he'd be absolutely mad to give them up a second time. There was no rescue for Elena growing up, so she wants it for Lucien instead. Yet he seems determined not to give up his life in the Foreign Legion. Of course she can't help but fall even harder for Lucien than when she was a teen, but can she give up the home and stability she has painstakingly built for herself to be a soldier's wife?

Family is a central concept in this novel. Lucien, the hero, fled into the Foreign Legion and created a new kind of family for himself when he discovered that the man he believed to be his father was in fact not. His loss has been strongly felt among the remaining Rosiers in the south of France, and while they may not technically be his family by blood, he is clearly the only one who seems to have a problem accepting this. When he finally does return for a family wedding, his grandfather and cousins embrace him with open arms and do their best to try to figure out ways in which he can return to the fold once more.

Elena Lyon had a troubled childhood. Her grandmother was one of several Jewish children rescued from the Nazis by the patriarch of the Rosier family, along with his step-sister. She had a daughter, Elena's mother, but committed suicide, which in turn negatively impacted on Elena's mother's life. When Elena was young, she would end up in foster care when her mother was too strung out on drugs to take care of her. She would return intermittently to her mother, but never for very long. Some of the foster families were good, some were dreadful. Elena has suffered a lot of abuse, mostly emotional, but occasionally also physical. She loves her mother, but their relationship is strained. She sees Antoine Vallier as the closest thing she has to a brother, but it's not entirely clear if he views her with less than fraternal feelings. He's got some kind of complicated history with the Rosiers, and seems especially jealous of Lucien.

Her entire life, Elena has tried to be the most agreeable and lovable, so she would find a permanent home, only to find herself abandoned again and again. She tried to get a degree studying her Jewish ancestry, only to find it to emotionally wrenching. Now she works as a curator at one of the perfume museums in Grasse, when she's doesn't work on special assignments to locate missing heirs for the Rosier's great-aunt. Having already tracked down several young ladies (who each ended up with handsome Rosier cousins in earlier books), her last job involves tracking down Lucien and trying to lure him home.

There is an instant attraction between Lucien and Elena. In Elena's case, it's not all that surprising, since she had a crush on him as a teenager and idolised him after he rescued her from some bullies. While they have sizzling chemistry, their differing backgrounds make a relationship difficult. Even after Lucien begins to realise that the family he thought he lost was there all along, just waiting for him to return, he has a strong sense of honour and loyalty to his men in the Foreign Legion and can't really picture himself in any other life than that of a soldier. Elena has carefully constructed a cozy and comfortable life for herself in Grasse. She has a job she loves and quite a few friends, and has already spent a lifetime desperately trying to find love and security, trying her best to change to adapt to what she thought others wanted of her. Her future dreams and plans just don't seem compatible with those of Lucien, and one of them will have to change their hopes and expectations if they are to find happiness together.

This is the fourth in Florand's La Vie en Roses series, set in the flowering valleys of the south of France. Early in the book, Damien and Jess from A Wish Upon Jasmine get married, and there are also appearances by the other male cousins who have already found their happy endings. They are all ridiculously happy to have Lucien back in their midst, and frankly rather baffled that he felt the need to run away and disappear so completely for so long. While I suspect the book works fine as a stand alone, long time readers of Florand's books will probably enjoy it even more, as it builds on themes set up earlier in the series.

While Elena and Lucien's romance is obviously central, Antoine Vallier plays an important supporting role, and not really as the third in a love triangle. He has appeared in all the earlier books in his role as the eccentric Rosier great-aunt, Colette Delatour's attorney and it's clear that there is something complicated in his relationship to the Rosiers. In this book, that comes more to the fore front, and it's strongly implied that he is a long lost relation of some sort. If I am not mistaken, one of the future books in the series will be about him and will no doubt reveal his connection to the rest of the perfume producing family.

In August, about a month before this book was released, Laura Florand declared on her blog that she would be taking an extended break from writing and publishing, because since her career took off in 2012 with The Chocolate Thief, she's been publishing about two books a year without any breaks and she is understandably quite in need of some rest and relaxation. I know her brand of romantic escapism doesn't work for every romance reader, but I find her books (with very few exceptions) to be delightful and always look forward to her new releases. So it makes me sad that I have to wait for new books by her, yet it's not like I haven't waited for more than six years for some authors to produce new books (Patrick Rothfuss and George R.R. Martin, I'm looking at you). So I hope Ms. Florand enjoys her well-earned writing break and will just have to comfort myself by re-reading some of my favourites of her books until she's ready to give us more hunky French men and the women who love them.

Judging a book by its cover: There seems to be little to no cover continuity when it comes to the books in this series. Since Once Upon a Rose came out in early 2015, there have been at least three different styles of covers, none of which match up all that well. The previous book in the series, A Crown of Bitter Orange, was published in early January, and at least these two books seem to match each other (not that I'm wildly enthused about either cover). The couple kissing in the top half of the picture just seem so incredibly staged. At least here the lavender is actually appropriate to the plot (as opposed to on the last cover, where they really should have incorporated orange blossoms instead).

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR9 Book 7: "A Crown of Bitter Orange" by Laura Florand

Page count: 323 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Malorie Monsard returns to the south of France, where she grew up, having left on a hike after finishing high school and made enough money in Paris to put herself through business school. Having felt like an outcast while growing up, due to the legacy of her great-grandfather who betrayed resistance members to the Gestapo, and a narcissistic father who would manipulate her, her mother, her sisters and her grandmother, and charm, lie and steal his way until he finally met an unglamourous end in a car accident with another woman. After the women of the Monsard family left and scattered across the globe, Malorie's grandmother remained and tried to keep up what little remained of the family's once great fragrance business. Now she has died, Malorie is in charge of the inheritance, forcing her to return to her brittle roots. Will she sell off the near-dead family business or make a go of it in a town she's wary about returning to?

Tristan Rosier is the youngest of five male cousins and always felt it was his job to see to the emotional well-being of all his family. He grew up with Malorie, having been placed next to the quiet, studious girl all the way through school as this seemed to be the only thing that could somewhat calm his own irrepressible, energetic and impulsive self. Nursing a crush on her since childhood, Tristan never could figure out why Malorie was the only woman who would never give him the time of day. Growing up with war hero relatives, privileged and loved constantly, Tristan nonetheless deeply felt the loss of his two oldest cousins who went off to join the armed forces, and Malorie, who simply never returned from her post graduation hike.

When he met her again a few years ago in New York, he was trying to pitch his most extravagant and brilliant perfume to the company where she worked, and she used her cold, logical accounting skills to ruin his dream. Now she is back in Grasse, and Tristan wants to do everything in his power to make sure she decides to stay around. He'll help her restore the Monsard perfume house to its former glory, he'll offer up his perfumes and heart on a plate, if only she'll notice how much he adores her and decide to stay.

Tristan and Malorie may be the same age, but they are also in many way a study of opposites. Tristan had a loving, supportive family, a proud family legacy, and while he may have suffered from something like ADHD while in school, when working with fragrances and creating world-class perfumes, he's an unsurpassed genius, making his family's company millions every year. Handsome, charming and confident, he always tried to gain Malorie's attention, but when she seemed to always ignore him and treat him with indifference, he would happily flirt with any of the other many girls in school. While being the youngest cousin has earned him his fair share of taunting and rough-housing from the older ones, and he deeply felt the sting when his cousins Raoul (who later returned) and Lucien (as of yet unaccounted for, he joined the Foreign Legion) left the village, and then Malorie took the chance to get the hell out of dodge as soon as she graduated from high school. While he's deeply proud of her for making the connections needed to get herself a job and put herself through business school, he's always been sad that she never said goodbye, and left just as he intended to declare his feelings for her.

Malorie, on the other hand, grew up ashamed, knowing that while the Rosier patriarch and his step-sister were Resistance heroes, her great-grandfather sold out one of their allies to the Gestapo, and her grandmother was left a pregnant, teenage scandal in the village. That her son, Malorie's father, grew up to be the most selfish, self-centred user imaginable was also the Monsard's misfortune. While Malorie's grandmother struggled to keep the once great pre-war perfume house of Monsard from completely collapsing, her father would steal whatever valuables weren't nailed down and sell to support his extravagant habits. He would manipulate his mother, his wife and his daughters and leave them all wary and distrustful of charming, glib men. Both amused and exasperated by Tristan as they grew up, Malorie was very aware that while on the surface he might resemble her father, he was really nothing like him. She was nonetheless not going to fall for his flirting, shoring up her heart and making sure she never revealed any of her infatuation to him, instead having to watch him flirt with everyone else in school (not realising that every time he clumsily knocked over her books, or squeezed down next to her or insisted on sitting next to her in school, it was to get her undivided attention).

At twenty-nine, Tristan is a passionate, creative genius - a fragrance-creating artist who makes best-selling perfumes for fragrance houses world-wide. Malorie is a top rate accountant, using her financial skills and logic to work herself into a very prominent position at a New York-based perfume house. When her grandmother dies, she returns to Grasse, the town she grew up in, and faces the memories of her childhood and mourns for the loving woman all of them (her mother, her sisters and herself) left behind, who worked tirelessly to retain something of the Monsard family legacy, even if it was just a small soap and perfume shop. Living in her grandmother's old house, in a garden of bitter orange trees, Malorie realises how little she appreciated her grandmother, who is now lost to her. Malorie and her sisters have twenty percent of the stocks of the Monard family business, and she needs to make some difficult decisions about what she wants to do with her future.

She's both amused and confused by Tristan's attentions, not to mention the scrutiny she faces from the various critical members of his family. While Tristan is now trying to convince her of his long-lasting devotion, she cannot believe that this handsome, brilliant man, who has always had women fall at her feet, isn't just trying to finally seduce "the one that got away". But as Tristan really starts pitching woo, and his entire family seems to be taking her measure to see if she can possibly be good enough for him, she starts to realise that he might in fact be serious, and his feelings for her may be more than just lustful.

Malorie is a great character and she's clearly not had an easy life of it. Tristan is an adorable puppydog of a man, but he did occasionally get on my nerves with his complete lack of empathy for the lives of others, considering the incredibly privileged life he himself has led. He, unlike many of his other family members, who seem perfectly capable of understanding why Malorie may be wary and insecure, cannot seem to understand why Malorie can't just get over her past and be happy about her future. He also insists on keeping a secret from her for the longest time, despite advice from pretty much literally every other member in his family, and seems absolutely baffled when the situation blows up in his face. Luckily, he doesn't take long to realise that he's been an idiot, and grovels appropriately.

While her Amour et Chocolat books were set in Paris with arrogant chocolate and pastry-creating geniuses, Laura Florand's books in Provence, with a large extended family involved in perfume creation is possibly even more comforting to me. I wasn't entirely wild on the previous book in the series, A Wish Upon Jasmine, the first book, Once Upon a Rose, is lovely and well worth checking out. In that one, there are several references to Goldilocks and the three bears, here the fairy tale references are to Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. I know some CBR romance readers recently have expressed an inability to tolerate Florand's more alphahole and arrogant heroes - I would recommend they try this or the first book in the series for slightly more sensitive beta heroes. I'm already looking forward to what's in store for the rest of the cousins.

Judging a book by its cover: OK, this cover drives me nuts with annoyance. I absolutely loathe generic covers that are clearly designed by someone who hasn't read or has any idea of what the content of the book are. Neither of the people on the cover look ANYTHING like the descriptions of Tristan or Malorie, and at the bottom there's a huge field of lavender, when the whole point of this book is ORANGE BLOSSOMS! I think lavender may be mentioned in one sentence in passing over the entire course of the book. How hard would it have been to find a stock photo of orange blossoms, people (I found one in a ten second Google search!), and a couple who at least nominally matched the descriptions of the protagonists? Grrr!

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR7 Book 20: "Once Upon a Rose" by Laura Florand

Page count: 300 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Layla "Belle Woods" Dubois has just won a Grammy for her Indie rock album, but is fleeing to the French countryside in a desperate hope that she will find some inspiration, or there won't be a second album any time soon. She's "accidentally" drowned her phone in a fountain and is hoping to stay away from press attention and the demands of her producers for long enough that she can write some new songs and rediscover her love of playing. Visiting the house she's inherited in Provence seems like the perfect plan.

Matthieu Rosier is one of five very competitive male cousins, and the appointed heir of their grandfather. While his other cousins have been able to go off into the world on adventures, Matt has stayed in the Rosier valley his entire life, devoting his life to taking care of its inhabitants and the precious roses that grow throughout, providing essences to the perfume industry. The valley is HIS, just as he considers his life a gift to the valley, occasionally envious of his other cousins, but all the same, content with his lot in life. So when he discovers that his great-aunt has gifted the house he has spent several months modernising and a part of the land of the valley to some petite American, he is not happy. His grandfather, one of the brave Resistance heroes of France, wants him to consider Layla as the enemy, doing everything in his power to drive her away and reclaim the family land.

Of course, when Layla and Matt first meet, neither know of the coming enmity. It's Matt's 30th birthday party and he's more than a little drunk. As Layla arrives, helplessly lost without her phone to provide GPS, he is instantly smitten and decides to introduce her to all his cousins as his girlfriend, just to make sure none of them lay claim to her first. At one point he actually bodily picks her up and carries her through the room. Layla is surprised, but quite charmed by his flirtatious behaviour. She eventually manages to get across to some of the more sober wedding guests that her car has broken down and she is lost, and is given a place to stay for the night. Of course, the next morning, the reason for her presence in the valley is revealed, and everything changes.

Laura Florand has a formula, and it's a wonderful one. Large, attractive Frenchmen falling in love with diminutive partially American women. In the Amour et Chocolat series, the men are usually emotionally vulnerable, yet professionally arrogant, brilliant masters in their fields. Here, the hero is not a chocolatier or a chef, but a rose farmer. Matt has tended to the roses on his family's land since he was a teenager. He's a handyman, able to fix engines, old plumbing, crumbling garden walls, you name it. He projects a gruff and growly exterior to hide that he's a complete softie inside. Having brawled with, teased and been teased by his cousins since they were young, he has learned not to show weakness. While he sometimes wonders what it would be like to go off and see the world like many of his other very attractive cousins (most of whom are clearly going to be heroes in upcoming books), he's also completely committed to his duty of making the valley and its roses thrive. His territorial grandfather has refused to split the land up, dividing it between the cousins, and Matt has come to think of himself as the embodiment of the valley. It hurts him deeply when he discovers that his beloved great-aunt has given away part of it to a stranger.

Layla, while absolutely loving the Rosier valley and just as smitten with its caretaker as he is with her, initially stubbornly refuses to even contemplate giving in to Matt's demands about returning the land. Yet as she observes his interaction with the workers during the rose harvest, his cousins, his elderly relatives and gets to know how caring, sensitive and considerate he is beneath his growly exterior, and how important a part the valley plays in his life, she's no longer certain she can keep the property. She discovers the reasons why she was given the land by Matt's great-aunt and gets some desperately needed time to relax and recharge, beginning to have new ideas for songs as she takes part in the rose harvest and quiet village life.

While Matt is probably too deeply rooted in his valley, needing to consider and accept the possibility of change, Layla has always been a nomad, never happy to settle too long in one place. She's been happily travelling the world, making a living from her music at various festivals the world over, long before she achieved fame with her album. She loves to play, but has come to hate the way touring and performing has exposed her and her feelings to the world. Her music and creativity has completely dried up. She hasn't allowed herself any time to rest and recuperate, and the little valley in France provides a safe haven, where she can remain anonymous and free.

Matt's many cousins are hilarious, and such a fun supporting cast. While the sequel bait was pretty obvious, I didn't mind, and I just hope that they are all as entertaining in future books as they are as secondary characters here. There is always a lovely sense of place and community in Florand's books, and here we get the French countryside and tiny villages instead of the bustling city life of Paris in her previous books. I liked how the cousins were competitive, but also deeply protective of one another. Matt's previous relationship was with a self-centred supermodel, who used him shamelessly and ended disastrously. When they discover that Layla is also famous, they are worried she will break his heart all over again. Layla, a genuinely decent person, understands their protective instinct and doesn't get offended.

In many of Florand's books, there is a strong fairytale feel, and this book is no different. There is the big gruff hero, constantly compared to a bear, the enchantingly beautiful valley full of roses, and a tiny curly-haired heroine who keeps being compared to Goldilocks. With less of the angst of some of Florand's earlier books, this is a thoroughly diverting piece of fluffy escapism. I shall have to go in search of the novella collection that features the story of how Matt's cousin Raoul and his girlfriend Allegra met, and am eagerly awaiting the sequels where Matt's three single cousins eventually find their matches.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR6 Book 7: "The Chocolate Temptation" by Laura Florand

Page count: 320 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Sarah Lin hates Patrick Chevalier. She hates his golden good looks, his charming manner, the way he seems to be able to create magic with his bare hands and does absolutely everything flawlessly, without seeming to expend even the slightest bit of effort. She hates him because every time he brushes past her, or winks at her, or jokingly flirts with her, her heart beats faster and she has trouble breathing. He is her boss, and he is godlike, and he would never even look twice at a lowly little intern who never seems to be able to do anything right.

Patrick Chevalier is madly in love with Sarah Lin, the intern in the world-famous French restaurant where they work. He is the second in command in the kitchen, he is her boss, and he knows that it is grossly inappropriate for him to even consider seducing her while she's under his tutelage. But she claims that she's going to go back to California once her internship is over in little over a month, and he might go insane if he doesn't get a chance to show her how she feels. His entire life, he has learned to keep his true hopes and dream deeply hidden, so they can't be snatched away from him. He's come to the conclusion that he has to use his wit and charm and skill to manipulate those around him to reach his goals. When Sarah in an unguarded moment lets it slip that she hates him, he's determined to turn that hate to love, just as he can turn sugar and chocolate into edible treasures.

Sarah's mother fled from North Korea and found a new life in the USA because she got pregnant and Sarah was born there. Becoming an engineer at Caltech to make her mother proud, Sarah feels as if she's let her entire family down when she gave up her high paying job as an engineer to pursue her dream to study as a pastry chef in Paris. Five months into her internship, she's wondering if she made a huge mistake. She can barely afford to pay the rent, she works until she drops, and all around her, the others in the kitchen create marvels while she feels she's a constant failure. The only woman in the whole kitchen, she struggles to keep up with the intense work, and spending so much time around a gorgeous man she's convinced could have any woman he turned his attention to, she's decided that the only way to guard her heart is by hating him intensely.

Patrick may be incredibly successful for his young age, although he never really wanted to become a chef, but an engineer. His messed-up mother made sure to crush any dream he ever had, and when he was apprenticed to up and coming Luc Leroi, one of his foster brothers, he made the best of it, using his inventiveness and intellect to excel in the kitchen. Even though no one understands why he's still content being Luc's second, when he could go off and get a brilliant career in a restaurant of his own, he knows that he is needed, and can't bring himself to leave. He also knows that he mustn't harass his pretty intern, but can't help from watching over her, trying to shield her from the hardest jobs in the kitchen, surreptitiously feeding her and making sure that he is the one who most often teaches her new techniques. He knows that she is clever and driven and just as perfectionistic as Luc, but he can't resist his protective urges. He believes himself to be sneaky, devious and ruthless and the way in which he tricks Sarah into inviting him in after a night out after work is certainly not entirely chivalrous, but while he has decided alpha male qualities (as do all of Florand's heroes), he never forces Sarah to do anything she doesn't really very much want to do.

Sarah needs to decide whether she actually wants to follow her dream to be a pastry chef and accept that she may not be a failure just because she can't keep up with insanely driven craftsmen who are at the top of their field. She comes to realise that while her birth gave her mother and sister a safe home in America, she doesn't have to live her entire life to fulfil some sort of imagined standard of perfection to prove herself worthy to them. Patrick has clearly been burned so many times growing up, and has turned the very bitter lemons of his cruddy upbringing into some fairly awesome lemonade. Yet he's desperately worried about losing Sarah once he gets his chance with her, and of all the dreams he has ever dared nurture, a relationship with her is the one that he daren't even hope he might achieve.

Compared to some of the deep emotional issues of Florand's earlier couples, Sarah and Patrick's troubles seemed a bit more low key, and it was a relief after the last two, with some very messed up protagonists and drama to work through. Parts of this book overlaps with Florand's previous book in the series, The Chocolate Heart, but I suspect it works fine on its own as well. Florand has played around with fairy tale and mythology elements in previous novels, with influences from Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast and the myth of Hades and Persephone. In this book, there are hints of Cinderella, but while Patrick may be a prince (his surname is even Chevalier - knight), Sarah is much more than the girl who loses her shoe and heart at the ball. The author's note at the end of the book and her blog suggests that this may be the last in her Amour et Chocolat series (apparently Luc's book was supposed to be the final one, but Patrick kept stealing scenes so she had to write his story too), but she has more books planned, set in the south of France, so I suspect I will still have her delectable writing to look forward to for a while yet.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR6 Book 6: "The Chocolate Heart" by Laura Florand

Page count: 320 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

Disclaimer! I was granted an ARC of this book by Kensington Books via Netgalley in return for a fair and honest review.

Summer Corey hates Paris. It's a city where she was frequently abandoned to be raised by ever changing nannies while her parents were globe trotting or negotiating international business deals, and it's where she felt miserable, alone and outcast in boarding school from the age of thirteen. Having been forced back from her self-imposed exile, teaching on a small Pacific island, because her father has bought her a five star hotel as a Christmas present, Summer knows that everyone is only waiting to see what the spoiled and vacuous billionaire heiress will do to end up in the tabloids now.

Of course, mistaking the internationally acclaimed chef of the hotel's restaurant, Luc Leroi, for a hotel bellboy, and propositioning him rather bluntly is not getting her off to a good start. Luc, having worked his way up from begging in the Paris metro with his gypsy father to becoming the media darling and culinary superstar of French pastry, is appalled when Summer literally falls into his arms and proceeds to offer him a yacht, before passing out exhausted as soon as he gets her to her hotel room. He plans to seduce her with the most delectable desserts, only to discover that Summer Corey, through a series of very negative associations with sweet things, never eats them.

Summer needs to stay three rainy winter months in Paris, pretending to manage a hotel, so her father will donate a satellite to the islands she longs to return to, improving their communication with the outside world immensely. Luc is determined to win her over, and proceeds to outdo himself again and again with breathtaking culinary creations that Summer continues to reject. The entire hotel watches in fascination, wondering who will crack first, the stunning heiress or the perfectionist chef.

As I have mentioned in my previous reviews of her books, Florand writes to a formula. These books have extremely temperamental, arrogant and brilliant French chefs, who nonetheless are deeply emotionally vulnerable. They all seem to fall for women who are at least partly American, with emotional issues of their own. The men try to seduce the women using culinary arts, usually involving seemingly unreal creations made of chocolate, and after a lot of back and forth where they battle their insecurities, they find their HEA.

Florand works really hard to make the readers feel sympathy with Summer, and make us realise why she has very legitimate reasons for hating Paris, and having behaved like a spoiled and outrageous brat for much of her life. To say that she has enormous daddy issues is an understatement, and she seems to think that the way to punish her parents is by throwing everything like self respect out the window and use her body to manipulate men as best she can, preferably to provoke her father as much as possible. It doesn't help that he literally blackmails her in an attempt to give up her dreams, and never really seems to compliment her for anything. But the fact remains, she's insanely wealthy and because of her upbringing, quite sheltered to the issues that less obscenely rich people have to go through, and in my opinion, it takes far too long for her to realise that her behaviour towards Luc at the start of the book is wildly inappropriate and offensive to boot.

While I normally really enjoy these romances, there was something about this book that didn't grab me as much. Whether it was the fact that Luc was so intensely controlled and refused to relinquish said control for the longest time, or it was just that it took me more than half the book to warm up to Summer as a truly sympathetic heroine, I'm not sure. All I know is that I didn't enjoy this book quite as much as Florand's earlier works. It's by no means bad, though, but I'm not going to add it to my own library until I find it for sale. The next book features Luc's second in command/foster brother as the hero, and as he is wonderful in this book, I'm looking forward to his story.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR5 Book 106. "The Chocolate Touch" by Laura Florand

Page count: 320 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Dominique Richard worked in an abattoir in his early teens, but is now one of the chief chocolatiers in Paris. His chocolate, like his reputation, is darker and his flavour combinations are much more unorthodox and edgier than those of his rivals. Yet for all that Dominique is known for his volatile temper, his employees all adore him, and treat him more like an older brother than a boss. They all want him to find lasting happiness, not just indulge in meaningless one night stands.

Jaime Corey is recovering from a terrible ordeal. She used to travel the world, trying to develop sustainable farming and fair trade practices among the suppliers to her family's chocolate empire. Now she's a mere shadow of herself, slowly recuperating in Paris, resenting the cloying concern of family. Every day, she spends some time at Dominique Richard's shop, watching him from afar, never dreaming that he's taking just as much notice of her. Why would the darkly charming and brilliant creative genius have a scarred little nobody like her, when sophisticated Paris ladies keep throwing themselves at him?

Laura Florand really has found a formula that works for her. The naturally romantic setting of Paris, gourmet chocolate, and large, temperamental, arrogant men who are also deeply emotionally vulnerable, and just need the right woman to bring them happiness. The woman in this book is Jaime Corey, younger sister of Cade, the heroine of The Chocolate Thief (I still miss the brightly coloured and cartoony covers of the first two books). The Corey sisters are heirs to the massive Corey Chocolate fortune (read Hershey) and the arrogant chocolatiers of Paris, with their gourmet creations, scorn their mass produced candy bars.

Dominique has no idea that the waif he's fallen so deeply for is a Corey, however, because Jaime doesn't reveal her surname. In her experience, guys are a lot more interested in the family fortune than they are in her. For all that Jaime has travelled the world, doing good deeds, she has massive self esteem issues, especially after being physically and emotionally scarred while on the job. She's always compared herself unfavourably to her older sister, and doesn't really believe that she can measure up toe the same standards.

Dominique, for all that he is tall, dark and brilliant, has huge emotional issues. His mother was an alcoholic, who left him and his violent father when Dominique was a young teen. Dominique worked in an abattoir until he was 19, and then managed to apprentice to a top chef and turn himself into the man he is now. He has terrible anger issues, and worries that he will turn abusive, like his Dad. He has massive abandonment issues, and because he dropped out of school when his home life became too complicated, believes himself to be a coarse, uneducated brute, not really fit for anything but short term, meaningless sexual encounters.

Jaime and Dominque are both so very messed up, and in previous Florand book, it's tended to be one or the other who needs "saving". Jaime believes she's not worth loving, and Dominique is convinced anyone he gets really close to, will leave him. The two have to save each other. For anyone who's read Florand's other books (and you should, they're delightful), there are appearances from most of the major characters in both The Chocolate Thief and The Chocolate Kiss. This book works perfectly well as a stand alone, though, as do all of her romances.

#CBR5 Book 100. "The Chocolate Rose" by Laura Florand

Page count: 253 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Jolie Manon's father was one of the very top chefs of France, before his restaurant lost it's third Michelin star, and he had a stroke. Now Jolie is trying to coax him back into greatness, with a cookbook featuring several of his most famous recipes, although her father is cranky and despondent and refuses to be seen in public. Of course, she can't tell her father that they're being sued, by his former employee, now a star chef in his own right. Jolie needs to go to the Côte d'Azur to negotiate some sort of compromise. She's worried that news of the lawsuit is going to make her father have a relapse.

Gabriel Delange has a three star restaurant in Provence, but still can't believe that his old nemesis, Pierre Manon, has the gall to publish a cook book where at least a third of the recipes were invented by Gabriel, while he worked himself nearly to death to secure Manon the coveted third star, sacrificing his health and losing his girlfriend. Gabriel is furious to realise that Manon won't even face him personally, but sends his youngest daughter to negotiate. He's shocked to realise that his old nemesis had a stroke, but still can't forgive him. He knows that if he forces the issue, the old man may get sicker. Maybe he can blackmail the beautiful daughter into making a deal on her father's behalf?

Jolie remembers Gabriel as a skinny and constantly overworked young man from her father's kitchen. She's not prepared for the burly, muscular and very loud man she encounters, and she certainly hadn't expected to be completely incapacitated by her attraction to him. When he promises that he will drop the lawsuit if she works on a cookbook with him, spending three days a week working in close proximity with him, she has no choice but to agree. She wants to make a name for herself as a food writer, and working with one of the star chefs of France certainly can't hurt. Of course, she remembers all too vividly how her parents' marriage fell apart, and her mother's dire warnings that she never get involved with a chef. Besides, what chance would she have with a man who considers her father his greatest enemy?

I adore Florand's romances, which seem very calculated to appeal to women on a number of levels. You have the tall, handsome, temperamental supremely confident and very capable heroes, all involved in some form of food preparation, be it chocolate, pastries or gourmet food. They're set in France, in supremely romantic locations, with lavish descriptions both of the surroundings and the many delectable things that the heroes create with their magical food preparation skills, and that they woo the heroines with. In this, Florand has also written a modern twist on a classic fairytale. There's the sick old man, the youngest and most loyal of three daughters. There's a stolen rose (in this case a famous dessert created by Gabriel, which Manon takes credit for and agrees to have on the cover of the cook book) and there is the daughter agreeing to spend time with a loud, beastly individual to protect her father's health. As variations of Beauty and the Beast go, this was a very creative and incredibly fun one.

I loved how Gabriel was both wonderfully arrogant and supremely confident both in his attractiveness and his skills as a chef, yet was so vulnerable because of his terrible luck in previous relationships and his desperate yearning for a stable, long-term relationship with a wife and kids. While Jolie has seen her parents' marriage dissolve because of her father's single-minded focus on his work, and is deeply aware of her mother's warnings, she's also clearly fascinated with the work of top chefs, and loves spending time in busy kitchens. She understands what drives Gabriel, and as she feels a need to be alone a lot, his demanding work schedule is not actually a major obstacle. Like Florand's previous novels, this was a delight to read. I can't wait for her next one.