The Chocolate Thief

De: Laura Florand

Narrado por: Teri Clark Linden

"Vive la Laura Florand!" (Cassandra King, La Vie en Chocolat)

Dominique Richard's reputation says it all - wild past, wilder flavors, black leather and smoldering heat. Jaime Corey is hardly the first woman to be drawn to all that dark, delicious danger. Sitting in Dom's opulent chocolaterie in Paris day after day, she lets his decadent creations restore her weary body and spirit, understanding that the man himself is entirely beyond her grasp. Until he touches her...

Chocolate, Dominique understands - from the biting tang of lime-caramel to the most complex infusions of jasmine, lemon-thyme, and cayenne. But this shy, freckled American who sits alone in his salon, quietly sampling his exquisite confections as if she can't get enough of them - enough of him - is something else. She has secrets too, he can tell. Of course if she really knew him, she would run.

Yet once you have spotted your heart's true craving, simply looking is no longer enough...

©2012 Laura Florand (P)2013 Audible Inc.

Deliciously romantic!

I picked this book on a whim and was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed the intermittent bilingual dialogue that really added to the story. There was romance, spice and lots of chocolate. Highly recommend!!

Melts in your mouth

A lovely, delicious start to Florand's Amour et Chocolate series, The Chocolate Thief has a lot going for it: strong characters, great dialogue, and amazing ability to capture the charm and frustration of being an American in Paris. Cade and Sylvain are believable, fun characters whose developing relationship is off-beat enough (as Cade continuously breaks into his laboratoire) to keep the reader waiting to see what will happen next. In romance, where the conclusion is foregone, a lot of the fun is not knowing how the relationship will grow, and that's my favorite part of this: it IS unexpected.

Sylvain's chocolate is practically a character in its own right: the descriptions are absolutely mouth-watering. Don't read this while hungry! Cade also holds her own well. Although she doesn't come from the artisan background that the other characters embrace, she holds her own, with a great sequence that shows, after the books has dedicated pages to Sylvain's stunning creations, that her skills, too, are valuable and just as hard-won. I loved it, and them.

My only real complaint about this book was the French. French is my second language, and as a fluent-French speaker, I found the reader's accent to be literally incomprehensible at times. This may not bother you if you don't speak French, but some of it is really very basic: é is ALWAYS pronounced 'eh' in French, never 'ee,' for example, something that is mangled multiple times. A little training in French pronunciation would have gone a long way; that this was so distracting was a pity, when all of the reading in English is so good.

Despite my serious issues with the narration, however, the book overall was wonderful, and I strongly recommend it!

Fine chocolate and a sweet romance!

What did you love best about The Chocolate Thief?

The narrator was AMAZING! She obviously is american but goodness gracious with all the French thrown into this book she tackled it really well (note I don't speak a lick of French, but it sounds like she knows what she's saying). I also love her French accent. When a French character speaks in the story it is "translated"/ written in English (for the sake of this being an american book and otherwise we wouldn't understand squat), but still one would imagine the character with a heavy French accent. Ms Teri does a fantastic job with this and it really puts you in the story somewhere in Paris. The auther does a pretty fine job setting out the setting as well. You really get the mood of wherever she has you with her exquisite descriptions. Only problem with this being the intense craving for some good quality dark chocolate that will plague you through most of the story!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Really couldn't listen to this one in one sitting. Had to do it in a couple of short bursts, but that's probably due more towards my inability for anything to hold my attention for very long.

Any additional comments?

If your looking for a romantic story set in Paris with gourmet chocolate at it's core, then you'll want to read this!

Lovely

What made the experience of listening to The Chocolate Thief the most enjoyable?

Light hearted, surprising storyline.

What three words best describe Teri Clark Linden’s voice?

A lovely voice, performed well for the majority of the story.

However, the French accent was very very poor and painful to listen too! I don't even speak the language and could easily notice the basic errors

This book is not for me

The character Cade spends way too much time overthinking her interactions with a Parisian Chocolatier that she hates/likes I don't know. The story is frustrating because Cade is always thinking mean thoughts. I really can't with this book ughh. Made it to chapter 17. This book is not for me.

A Tasty Tryst

In this story Florand brings together the heir to a bland chocolate multi-national kingdom and an artisan chocolatier in the heart of Paris. The setting is a delight and the interplay between the two cultures holds some interest. If you want a beach read that is a little bit heavy on the romance this is a good pick. There's nothing unpredictable about the plot but it was a fairly easy listen. My biggest complaint, as with many stories involving a complicated romance, was the constant uncertainty by both participants. I never understand why it is so hard for one of the characters to just state things plainly. Why are things always left up to inaccurate assumptions that are the same over and over despite the other character proving and showing that their intentions are true? This is just a personal pet peeve but in some ways it makes the romance drag on. It does have a fun side and was overall a tolerable listen.