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Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop: A Tale of Two Christmases
Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop
by Jessica Redland
Charlee was raised by her grandparents. When they both passed away and her beloved mentor at the chocolate shop moved back to France, Charlee is encouraged by her live-in boyfriend Ricky to move to the city where he has just found a new job. She decides to open her own chocolate shop. Meanwhile, she continues to pay all of Ricky’s expenses because he is trying so hard to pay off his credit card debt and he puts in a lot of overtime. If you are less naive than I or Charlee, for that matter, red flags are probably fluttering high.
Charlee has one really good friend Jodie who moves to Charlee’s new town soon after Charlee and works in Charlee’s shop. Through their hard work and the friendship of other small business owners on lovely Castle Street, her new business prospers. Charlee meets the very kind, handsome, and engaged Matt who saves her shop from a plumbing disaster. She also takes the plunge to find her biological mother who abandoned her when she was a baby. It is not a step she is sure she wants to take nor does she know if she wants a relationship with this secretive woman.
In Christmas Wishes at the Chocolate Shop, the setting is very Christmasy including decorations, snow, and tree lightings. A major theme is the difference between Charlee’s first Christmas and the second in her new home of Whitsborough Bay.
There are many questions Charlee has to work through. The journey she takes is fascinating, and the reader will be rooting for Charlee to succeed both personally and professionally. As the book draws to a close, there are many surprises. You will be hoping for a happy ending for (almost) all of the characters.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 4/5
Category: General Fiction, Women’s Fiction, Romance
Notes: I am not generally a huge fan of the romance genre, but I occasionally like to mix in a few, especially when they are Christmas themed. As happens frequently in modern romances, in the beginning of this book, lust gets confused with love. So the first part has a lot of “steam,” but not graphic descriptions. Later in the book, the characters have for the most part worked out what love is, and the focus switches to relationships and making honorable choices.
Publication: August 3, 2021—Boldwood Books
Memorable Lines:
“And now my best mate in the whole wide world, the only person who I care about spending time with, has bogged off to live at the seaside, leaving Billy No Mates here with nothing to do except gorge on Spam sandwiches and watch the soaps every evening.”
Matt and I were obviously destined only to be friends and I was going to have to hope that I’d wake up one day and be over him. Was that a pig flying past my window?
Castle Street was the perfect setting for that magical Christmas feeling. Full of Victorian character buildings and old-fashioned lamps there was almost a Dickensian feel to the place.
The Deeds of the Deceitful–diverse group, common goals
The Deeds of the Deceitful
by Ellery Adams and Tina Radcliffe
Richmond, Virginia, is the setting for this delightful cozy mystery The Deeds of the Deceitful by a team of two authors, Ellery Adams and Tina Radcliffe. I could tell at once that I had jumped into the middle of a series, but the authors did a great job of identifying the main characters. Cooper Lee is a manager at Make It Work! where she is in charge of office machine repairs. She is also part of her church’s Sunshine Bible Study, a group who gathers to study the Bible but somehow finds itself in the middle of crime investigations. Currently, the diverse group is studying the book of Proverbs and are amazed at how often they can apply Biblical wisdom to solving crimes and in their personal lives.
The Sunshine Bible Study is invited to a soft opening of the Atwood Inn. There are issues between the two owners, and one has a car accident under suspicious circumstances during this special weekend. Another crime occurs there that same night. Are they related? There are several major suspects, and the Sunshine Bible Study group feels compelled to investigate as friends come under scrutiny.
Meanwhile, Cooper is trying to help with her boss’ marriage vows renewal, and she meets an attractive chef at the inn. She is thirty-five, single having broken off two engagements, and can only afford to live above her parents’ garage as she pays off her cancelled wedding reservations. Her mother’s emerging pastry business may be ruined, especially if the Atwood Inn can not recover from all of the bad publicity.
Cooper is one busy lady and a very likable main character. I’m looking forward to reading more in this series. It’s clean, has interesting characters, and moves forward at a fast pace. The interaction with the police is believable as the police do not overshare and the Sunshine Study Group keeps the authorities in the loop with their discoveries.
I would like to extend my thanks to NetGalley and to Beyond the Page Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: 1. #6 in the Hope Street Church Mystery Series, but worked great for me as a standalone.
2. Includes 3 recipes at the end.
Publication: November 10, 2020— Beyond the Page Publishing
Memorable Lines:
“Hiring staff and dealing with Chef Mayberry has been like juggling meatballs with one hand tied behind my back.”
Perhaps it was divine appointment, because each time they were able to support someone who desperately needed their help and didn’t have anyone else to advocate for them.
“Any big plans for the holiday?” “If dead-heading marigolds is big plans, I’ll be knee-deep in the fun,” she said.
education pathways 