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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
DNF at 44%
I'm done! Patrick is such a manipulating asshole, and Sarah is just a f****k doormat ( why? Because she's Asian? :/) that at this point I just can't force myself to read another page.
And don't even get me started on sexual harassment accusations: she works under his orientation, and he has been playing with her!
So, yeah, no. You fooled me well, Patrick. I thought you were a sane/ funny kind of person.
Instead you're a manipulating psycho. -_-
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, [b:The Chocolate Heart|16101234|The Chocolate Heart (Amour et Chocolat, #5)|Laura Florand|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1371974287s/16101234.jpg|21911535], 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.
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, [b:The Chocolate Heart|16101234|The Chocolate Heart (Amour et Chocolat, #5)|Laura Florand|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1371974287s/16101234.jpg|21911535], 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.
A very enjoyable read! Well written, not dirty, but sexy, without the over-the-top drama, but with plausible, real life situations. Of course, the Parisian set-up and the restaurant world were very enticing. And I loved that it was written in the third person. Refreshing!
This could easily be Laura Florand's best book to date. It's hard to say --- they're all so very, very good!
The kitchen parts of this book are as intriguing as ever, but what makes The Chocolate Temptation truly shine is its characters. The hero is so stealthily wounded beneath his near-magical charm. The heroine is trying so hard to find a space for her own dreams despite her immigrant mother teaching her to hunt the unattainable perfection. Together, they make this book as delicious as any chocolate concoction that ever came out of a 3-star Paris kitchen.
The kitchen parts of this book are as intriguing as ever, but what makes The Chocolate Temptation truly shine is its characters. The hero is so stealthily wounded beneath his near-magical charm. The heroine is trying so hard to find a space for her own dreams despite her immigrant mother teaching her to hunt the unattainable perfection. Together, they make this book as delicious as any chocolate concoction that ever came out of a 3-star Paris kitchen.
What an annoying ending! Oh yes it's oh so romantic. A bit trite and over the top in fact. But here we are having slogged through the book (which started out well, lots of kitchen scenes, characters, and then devolved into pages and pages and pages of the two lovers each worrying over their own insecurities on and on and on) and then splat. One breath after the big reveal, we are struck in the face with "Fin". The end. No epilogue. No going back to say hey to the many offstage characters. Done.
Even though it's not a cliffhanger, it feels cliffhanger-y emotionally. And we still don't know who Luc's mysterious partner in the South Of France is (which was the teaser at the end of the book before this.)
Can I say I'm annoyed again? Annoyed.
Even though it's not a cliffhanger, it feels cliffhanger-y emotionally. And we still don't know who Luc's mysterious partner in the South Of France is (which was the teaser at the end of the book before this.)
Can I say I'm annoyed again? Annoyed.
It was a mistake to start this book after midnight. I know that Laura Florand sucks me into her Paris food world very easily and so it proved this time. Stayed up way too late finishing this one and now I have myself a book hangover!
What a beautiful book. My first Florand-novel and it will not be my last.
I loved how both Sarah and Patrick were so deep in love but also both very afraid to give themselves completely. Sarah is very introvert and influenced by her Korean-born mother and Patrick is afraid he will lose Sarah if he admits his love because of his childhood. Both have their dreams, have given up or lost dreams. Will they have a dream together?
I loved how both Sarah and Patrick were so deep in love but also both very afraid to give themselves completely. Sarah is very introvert and influenced by her Korean-born mother and Patrick is afraid he will lose Sarah if he admits his love because of his childhood. Both have their dreams, have given up or lost dreams. Will they have a dream together?
Got, I thought, a solid halfway through it, then I looked at the progress bar and I was maybe a fifth of the way through? That's when I gave it up. It was all dragged out so, so much, the characters were making completely senseless, stupid decisions that I didn't understand at all, literally nothing was happening, and don't even get me started on the main character, Lucy or whatever her name was. SO. ANNOYINGLY. FULL. OF. ANGST. You're a grown ass woman, for fucks sake, you can't be acting like this moody, hormonal teenager. I have this feeling it would have picked up later, and things were set up (like Lucy's family, and her decision to open a little shop) that could definitely be interesting later on, but I just didn't have the patience to continue. Overall, a much more patient reader than me would probably enjoy this. The thing is it would probably be classed as a slow burn romance, and that wouldn't be a problem for me (cos I've read and enjoyed Zapata' s books) but I just had no patience for these characters. Might try the earlier books in the series.
This is my first book in the Amour et Chocolat series, but I truly do have a fond spot for it. I was more than impressed by how well characterized Patrick and Lin are. I adore Florand's writing and the mouthwatering descriptions of desserts make everything great