So I was need for some romantic fluff. And I’m talking the fluffiest of fluff. I didn’t want to have to think, just escape and enjoy. Therefore this was my first foray into Laura Florand, as I’ve heard so many good things about her from some ladies here. And my goodness was she fluffy, but I have some thoughts and opinions about her as well.
The Chocolate Thief is the first in Florand’s Chocolate Series which appears to be about different chocolatiers throughout Paris. This one begins with Sylvain Marquis (yes, that name…), recently voted the best chocolatier in Paris, and Cade Corey, a Hershey-clone chocolate family empire from the states, meeting as she wants to put his name on a brand of “premium chocolates” for her company. He obviously refuses, as he’s doing quite well for himself, so she proceeds to pretty much stalk him, and then finally start breaking into his laboratoire to see if she can steal his secrets. Instead of having her arrested, as would be the common sense, real world answer, he instead is extremely turned on and intrigued. “Times” ensue. There is lots of bickering and disagreements throughout, but it finally ends all wrapped up with a little bow which is honestly all that I was looking for, but it did have a few things that pulled me out of the escapism (and in the weirdest ways).
One of the first major things that kept pulling me out was Cade’s fear of doing things alone in a strange city, especially going to dinner. She claims that she always has companions when she’s traveling for dinner, but anyone who travels for work a lot (as I do) knows that not true, and you better learn how to eat out by yourself. It’s not embarrassing, it’s part of life, and I honestly love it. It’s so relaxing to eat a meal I didn’t prepare, read a book and not have to make conversation. If you’ve never tried it I highly recommend. The only women who travel a lot, and don’t like eating alone are the painfully insecure ones, which just didn’t fit with Cade so I spent one little scene yelling in my head at the author. Completely pulled me out. And I know, it’s such a small inconsequential scene, but it drove me nuts! Clearly.
The other thing that annoyed me, and this is just personal romance preference, was the constant bickering. I prefer couples who might have disagreements, but overall can communicate pretty well, you know, like real people. The constant squabbles because everybody purposefully misconstrues and on-purpose tries to read too much of the wrong thing into every sentence is very tiring. I know it’s written like a romcom, and we need to create conflict somewhere, but I find it just exhausting to read.
This isn’t at all to say that overall it’s not well written fluff. I whiled away a few hours quite enjoyably overall, and will definitely try another in the series. But if they continue to be too much bickering I might just have to pull out, but that’s a personal preference. If you’re looking for some light, modern romance you could a whole heck of a lot worse.
