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A review by sunshine169
Secrets of the Chocolate House by Paula Brackston
3.0
I requested this book because I loved The Little Shop of Found Things. It is a cutesy and fast read. This one was good but I tire of Xanthe’s irresponsible and horrible choices.
Take this passage…
“The pill bottle on her bedside table suggested she had needed stronger painkillers. Had her arthritis worsened? Was she going to be able to manage on her own? Xanthe shook such thoughts from her head. The quicker she did what she needed to do, the sooner she could return to help her mother.”
My problems with this attitude versus the plot… Why is Xanthe putting the needs of strangers above her mother? She leaves her mother to care for herself and all the duties of running the shop. This could be somewhat forgivable if Xanthe was honest with her mother but she constantly lies. In addition, we do not know what events in the present Xanthe is preserving by going back in time to help Samuel. The only thing we learn is a cottage gets built that wouldn’t have been built if Samuel died young.
Then there is this passage regarding Xanthe’s adversary Benedict Fairfax...
“However much she had convinced herself that she was going to give him something so wonderful he would have no reason to want more from her, Mistress Flyte’s words had struck home. He was a man of no principle. A man who had set himself apart from others already by changing allegiances and serving only himself. Who could say what he would or would not do once he was in possession of his astrolabe?”
Yet she helps retrieve it for him. Wouldn’t giving a time travel device to a bad man cause worse ripples in time than a cottage not being built? I know this sounds insensitive because Xanthe clearly has feelings for Samuel but she is possibly setting in motion something far worse. Especially with what happens at the very end.
Two other issues I had:
Fairfax escapes the hangman’s noose by time traveling back 6 years. So are there two of him?
Xanthe loses her locket at the abbey. Fairfax is conveniently called away to London allowing her to go and look for it. He then is conveniently intercepted and goes back to the abbey in time to catch her and Samuel. There is just too much convenience happening in order to move the plot forward.
I will continue reading this series with the hope that Xanthe can sit her mother down and tell her what it is that she can do so the lying will stop. Lying never ends well.
Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Take this passage…
“The pill bottle on her bedside table suggested she had needed stronger painkillers. Had her arthritis worsened? Was she going to be able to manage on her own? Xanthe shook such thoughts from her head. The quicker she did what she needed to do, the sooner she could return to help her mother.”
My problems with this attitude versus the plot… Why is Xanthe putting the needs of strangers above her mother? She leaves her mother to care for herself and all the duties of running the shop. This could be somewhat forgivable if Xanthe was honest with her mother but she constantly lies. In addition, we do not know what events in the present Xanthe is preserving by going back in time to help Samuel. The only thing we learn is a cottage gets built that wouldn’t have been built if Samuel died young.
Then there is this passage regarding Xanthe’s adversary Benedict Fairfax...
“However much she had convinced herself that she was going to give him something so wonderful he would have no reason to want more from her, Mistress Flyte’s words had struck home. He was a man of no principle. A man who had set himself apart from others already by changing allegiances and serving only himself. Who could say what he would or would not do once he was in possession of his astrolabe?”
Yet she helps retrieve it for him. Wouldn’t giving a time travel device to a bad man cause worse ripples in time than a cottage not being built? I know this sounds insensitive because Xanthe clearly has feelings for Samuel but she is possibly setting in motion something far worse. Especially with what happens at the very end.
Two other issues I had:
Fairfax escapes the hangman’s noose by time traveling back 6 years. So are there two of him?
Xanthe loses her locket at the abbey. Fairfax is conveniently called away to London allowing her to go and look for it. He then is conveniently intercepted and goes back to the abbey in time to catch her and Samuel. There is just too much convenience happening in order to move the plot forward.
I will continue reading this series with the hope that Xanthe can sit her mother down and tell her what it is that she can do so the lying will stop. Lying never ends well.
Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.