Guest Post: Amour et Florand

Grab your dark chocolate and join me at Chachic's Book Nook today! I've donned my smarty pants glasses for the occasion and will be dishing on all things romance and Paris (le sigh) as part of her fantastic Amour et Florand series. à bientôt!

The Chocolate Touch by Laura Florand

Even though I don't necessarily love the cover of The Chocolate Touch (that skinny dude is so NOT Dominique Richard! I do so miss those enormously charming silhouettes paired with the bright blue and pink of the previous The Chocolate Thief and The Chocolate Kiss), I must admit to absolutely adoring the contents contained within the packaging. I've thoroughly enjoyed all of Laura Florand's previous novels but The Chocolate Touch pretty much killed it for me. Killed. It. Too soon you say? Well, read on...I'll clue you in as to why.

Every single day for the last week, Dominique Richard has caught glimpses of a unusually frail looking woman sitting in his exclusive Parisian chocolate shop nursing a cup of chocolat chaud while sampling one of his unique creations. Intrigued with her unusual quietness and general willingness to simply sit and enjoy his chocolates, Dominique finds himself wanting to get to know her. But at the same time, believing his natural aggressive nature would not be attractive to this quiet lady, makes plans to slowly charm her into looking not quite so...bruised. Even if the mysterious lady in question is sure Dominique couldn't possibly be interested in her, especially if he were to discover all her secrets.

I cannot say enough about Ms. Florand's deft hand at setting a scene, at creating tension, and in general at pairing two so very different individuals in one of the sweetest love stories I've come across in a long time. So often I found myself grinning like a fool or worried for the results their mutual stubbornness. Yes, Dominique and Jamie both have their complicated...issues...but they just complement each other so well. Their relationship is so out of the norm for both of them but it just works period. She's in need of some rebuilding and he's never had the implicit trust that Jamie is so willing to give. Although in this readers opinion, basically the best thing about both characters is their honest desire to simply do right by the other. That's enough right there to make this girl swoon. And then there's this small fact that the man specializes in dark chocolate. Oh boy. Talk about dreamy.

Nor is Ms. Florand afraid to dive headfirst the messiness of family dynamics in The Chocolate Touch -- which I will be forever grateful for. Jamie and her older sister fully captured my interest with their obvious love and fierce instinct to protect one another despite their myriad differences. Jamie's save-the-world mentality was such a wonderful foil to her sister's I'm-in-control-here demeanor. Of course, even more satisfying had to be watching Dominique trying to navigate those dangerous waters when he not only meets Jamie's sister, but her overprotective father, and prying grandfather (who is probably one of my favorite secondary characters. Ever.). Those scenes proved to be ever so hilarious yet also thrillingly sweet. Perhaps even more fabulous was how Ms. Florand allowed so many strong characters in one scene without ever overwhelming the other while still staying true to their own nature. That's no small feat and only added to The Chocolate Touch's addictive nature in the best possible way.

Now. If you still need some convincing, head on over to Laura Florand's site and read the first chapter of The Chocolate Touch to whet your appetite. It's all kinds of perfect.

The Chocolate Touch will be released July 30th.

series reading order:
~ The Chocolate Thief
~ The Chocolate Kiss
~ The Chocolate Touch

Because Everyone Likes a Second Opinion:
Angieville review

book source: review copy from the author

This Just In: Novel Gossip

I have met some truly amazing bookish people since I first started this blog. One of those lovely bibliophiles happens to be Chachic -- who I first started chatting with several years ago. She now lives in Singapore although I actually got to meet her for the first time a few months ago when she visited Los Angeles. Which was just so much fun. Awhile back Chachic and I did a readalong of Northlander and The King Commands by Meg Burden and since we enjoyed ourselves silly we decided to make it a regular thing...and thus the feature Novel Gossip was born!

The bloggers behind Chachic’s Book Nook and See Michelle Read chatting about books, thousands of miles apart.

For our inaugural post we chose to read The Chocolate Rose by Laura Florand, an outstanding contemporary chick lit author who writes about France and delicious chocolate and all sorts of other good things (but really, those first two items were enough of a draw for me). 

Head on over to Chachic's place to check out our full reactions to The Chocolate Rose.