Better than Chocolate by Sheila Roberts
Released: September 25, 2012
Contemporary Romance
Harlequin
Reviewed by May
This is the story of how the owners of Sweet Dreams chocolate company saved it after their new step-father was chosen to run the company, then promptly ran it into the ground in record time. Now the man is dead, and the wake of his financial responsibility is left to Samantha – the eldest sister.
With a bank manager demanding payment on her loan and angry unpaid suppliers calling her daily, she has her work cut out for her and isn’t entirely sure she can save the company in a matter of weeks – that is until they decide to hold a chocolate festival in town to try and raise the money. Now nearly everyone in Icicle Falls is working on the festival that is going to contribute so much to their economy – and with any luck it will be a huge success and great way to bring tourists in during a normally quiet month.
The way the back cover reads, I expected a sweet romance between Blake the bank manager and Samantha the sister now in charge of the chocolate company. Instead, I found this pair to dance around, avoid, and barely have scenes together in this book – their first kiss is a drunken one and doesn’t take place until over 200 pages into the story. I’m all for a slower paced romance, but that kiss was the only romance scene. Aside from chemistry and sparks, we’re never shown any courting, nor did I feel this book was about the couple.
What I did note, was that sequel bait is sprinkled liberally, and while I really would be interested in her sister the former matchmaker and the bar owner’s story (he’s clearly her man) – I worry that the author would write the book as she did this one and I’d be left wondering what the book I just read was about.
This author painted such a vivid image of a small Washington town, and had such interesting characters I was eager for more depth, for more emotion. Samantha is a really strong, likeable woman. She’s struggling with the massive undertaking of running a company that needs a giant boost up out of the danger zone, and struggling with feelings of pain and resentment that her mother didn’t avoid the entire situation in the first place. If Samantha had been put in charge (as she rightfully should have) after her father died, none of them would be in this predicament now.
We are treated to plenty of scenes featuring her grieving mother – unwashed, in pajamas, and completely unlikeable. While I applaud the author for letting the woman grieve, I found the character to be so weak at her core (has no financial responsibility, always depending on men to fix things for her) that I couldn’t feel much for her. I wish we had been shown why she’s such an amazing woman, and that her scenes had been cut in favor of something more interesting- like an actual romance.
During the early chapters of this book it reminded me a lot of the Virgin River series – a small town full of interesting yet every day and ordinary characters finding love and living in the town they adore. This set up can work so beautifully for a really enjoyable and satisfying read. Unfortunately I don’t think this book ever quite found its stride as I felt the ‘this will save the business’ plot was unrealistic and the romance non-existent.
If you enjoy general fiction, and would like to read about how a small town pulls together to hold a chocolate festival, and get to know the ladies of Samantha’s family a bit, then I would recommend this to you. It definitely feels like a series book, as I was left with a lot of “what will happen next?” questions for many of the characters that I’d come to like. I know many people enjoy this kind of book and seek out series like this.
If, however, you pick this book up expecting a romance you’re bound to be disappointed. While there are some elements of romance, they’re so minor, and so under developed you won’t enjoy it. I felt like Blake could have been a really strong character, but the ladies were all so busy getting page time that there simply wasn’t room for him to make grand gestures or even for us to really get to know him.
Despite my problems with this book, I will pick up this author at least one more time and hope for a read that is as satisfying as the cover is adorable.
Grade: C
Recent Reviews:
The Book Vixen – 3/5
Goodreads
Well the cover sure is cute :)
oh I know! I fell in love with that cover… why is it that so often the cutest covers don’t have the best books?!
This sounds more like womens fiction than romance.
It very much is. I read the next book in this series, and it is even more so than this one. On amazon it is listed as fiction > women’s fiction > Mothers and daughters
That is a very accurate spot to put it! I feel like the description I read made it seem more romantic than it is – much like her other book. Marketing to me as romantic read… bad move.