Book Review: Better Than Chocolate by Sheila Roberts

Title: Better Than Chocolate
Author: Sheila Roberts
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality Rating: Innocent
Source: ALA Annual
Published: September 25, 2012 by Harlequin MIRA

Sweet Dreams Chocolate Company has been in the Sterling family for generations, ever since Great-Grandma Rose literally dreamed up her first fabulous recipe. But now it looks as if they're about to lose Sweet Dreams to the bank—and that would be a disaster, not only for the family but for the town of Icicle Falls, Washington. Can Samantha, the oldest daughter and new head of the company, come up with a way to save it? After Samantha does some brainstorming with her mother and sisters, inspiration strikes. They'll have a chocolate festival! Time's running out, but the Sterling women are determined and the town's behind them, so everything's bound to go smoothly….

Or not. Events seem to be conspiring against Samantha, and her mother's attempts to help aren't helping. To make matters worse, the fate of her company is in the hands of her archenemy, Blake Preston, the bank manager with the football-hero good looks. It's enough to drive her to chocolate. But Blake's also enough to convince her that (believe it or not) there's something even better than chocolate.

Why I Read this Book: I hadn’t heard of this book or the author before but how can I, a hardcore chocoholic, refuse a book with chocolate in the title?

What I Liked: The story doesn’t just focus on Samantha; it also follows her mom and one of her two sisters. Their chocolate company, Sweet Dreams, is a family owned business but it’s operated mainly by Samantha. I enjoyed reading about Cecily, Samantha’s younger sister, as much as I did Samantha if not more so. There are two male prospects whom have their eye on Cecily but sadly nothing much came of this little love triangle in this book. I want to know if Cecily picks the bad boy or the safe guy.

I enjoy reading books with small town settings. It was fun to see everyone pitching in and planning for the chocolate festival as well as the festival taking place.

 What I Didn’t Like: The romance between Samantha and Blake moved at a snail-slow pace. There was nothing going on between them, other than the matter at hand concerning Samantha’s chocolate company and the bank Blake works for, until almost the very end of the book. And once the ball finally got rolling, it felt rushed. In terms of their relationship, it went whirlwind fast at the end. So don’t go into this book thinking it’s a full on romance novel, because it’s not. Romance went to the wayside in this novel, with the main focus being on the chocolate festival and saving the family business.

I’m a bit confused on whether or not this book is part of a series. On the cover it says “Life in Icicle Falls”, which is the name of the town but what I want to know is, will there be more books to come that are set in this town? And if so, how many books? I couldn’t find the answer on either the author’s website or Goodreads.

Overall Impression: Better Than Chocolate was an okay read. I was expecting a romance novel but I was a bit mistaken. If you looking for a small town story without too much romance, this would be a good book.

Brianna’s Rating: