BOOK REVIEW: The Chocolate Heart (Amour et Chocolat)

This is a review of The Chocolate Heart (Amour et Chocolat) by Laura Florand. This book is part of Laura Florand's Amor et Chocolat series, but it is not necessary to read them in order. I have read two other books in the series, but definitely not in any kind of order.

Last week, I was reading Goldfinch but while I spent time in Paris for Thanksgiving I was looking for something a bit different. Goldfinch was a really good book but it was also very heavy. I needed something a bit lighter. Since The Chocolate Heart takes place in Paris and it centers around chocolate, it seemed like the perfect fit.

In this book, Summer Corey (daughter of a famous billionaire) hates Paris more than anything else, which stems from her being sent to a boarding school in Paris when she was younger. She has escaped the media's attention by living on an island in the South Pacific for the past three years teaching school in a rural community. She is lured home by her father with the unwanted gift of a luxury hotel with one promise: spend three months in a city she hates and give running a hotel a try and after three months, her father will make an investment in the kids she loves and she can go back to the island. Sparks fly between Summer and Luc (head pastry chef of the hotel) from the moment she arrives, but she is so broken by being called a spoiled brat her entire life that she’s not willing to relinquish her heart. Luc, meanwhile, must check his ego to win her trust. 

This book was so sensually addictive that I could not put it down. It involves Paris and chocolate and romance all in one delicious package. Since these are three of my favorite things, I knew I would love this book and it did not disappoint. I just want to give a taste of Florand's writing style:

"He sent it to her, the sphere, on a day when the rain sheeted down like the end of hope: a delicate ephemeral shield of chocolate around a treasure of gold so brilliant and so fragile that it seemed to pulse there, a frozen mousse coated in gold leaf, hiding, according to the waiter, a melting heart, begging someone to eat it up, swallow it whole . . . "

Her writing is the kind of writing that makes me want to curl up in bed on a cold day with a cup of hot chocolate . . . or any chocolate, for that matter because her descriptions make me crave it even more than I normally do. 

This story was full of emotion and passion and longing. You could feel the longing between these two people and feel the frustration when misunderstanding caused the divide to grow wider. Both of these people had troubled childhoods (for very different reasons) and both of them have trouble believing that the other won't leave. This book was a bit racier and a lot more emotionally charged than the other books I have read, which makes this one my favorite book by her. I actually teared up at certain parts because Laura Florand was making me feel so much for these two characters.

I give this book a 5/5.

Just a note that this author has seven books in this series. I have also read The Chocolate Touch and The Chocolate Thief. Both of those books are also incredible. If you haven't read this author yet, I highly recommend that you do so.