Review & Giveaway: The Chocolate Thief (Amour et Chocolat #1) by Laura Florand

The Chocolate Thief (Amour et Chocolat #1) by Laura Florand
Narrated by Teri Clark Linden
Publisher: Audible/Kensington Books
Publication date: July 31st 2012
Length: 11 hrs 12 minutes
My rating: 4.5 stars 

Paris

Breathtakingly beautiful, the City of Light seduces the senses, its cobbled streets thrumming with possibility. For American Cade Corey, it's a dream come true, if only she can get one infuriating French chocolatier to sign on the dotted line. . .

Chocolate

Melting, yielding yet firm, exotic, its secrets are intimately known to Sylvain Marquis. But turn them over to a brash American waving a fistful of dollars? Jamais. Not unless there's something much more delectable on the table. . .

Stolen Pleasure

Whether confections taken from a locked shop or kisses in the dark, is there anything sweeter?

Reading (listening to) the The Chocolate Thief was a heady and sensual experience.  Laura Florand completely bewitched me with her decadent descriptions of chocolate: making, tasting, and consuming and thoroughly swept me off my feet with a romance to die for. Oh my heart, Sylvain!!

Cade Corey’s family is famous for their Corey Chocolate Bars sold all over the world making her family worth billions.  However, it’s been Cade’s dream to make a premium line of chocolate rather than her mass produced family’s bar.  To make this dream come true she hunts down the number one chocolatier in Paris, Sylvain Marquis, in hopes of hiring him to develop this line for Corey Chocolate.  Cade is already half in love with Sylvain before she meets him because of his ability to turn chocolate into culinary masterpieces. She doesn’t count on him being quite so darkly handsome as well!  Unfortunately their meeting is a disaster. Sylvain is insulted that Cade would ever think he’d put his name on a mass produced line.  He’s rude and arrogant when he rejects her offer, and Cade is humiliated and hurt! Harebrained ideas and the bad influence of a loving, but mischievous grandfather have Cade cooking up a plan to break into Sylvain’s laboratroire and steal his chocolate. And this is where things get interesting! 

This story was a pure delight.  The romance completely seduced me. Sylvain and Cade start off hating each other, but we all know that line between love and hate is so very thin!  

It excited the hell out of him when she looked at him like that, all silk and luxury and control but her blue eyes bubbling with the desire to strangle him. Go ahead, he thought. Launch yourself across that table and go for my throat. We can grapple together anytime you like.

Sylvain hates the idea that Cade thinks she can buy anything, including him with money, yet the fact that she’s so seemingly obsessed with him and his chocolate draws him to her.   Sylvain does come off as an arrogant jerk, and he is arrogant—about his chocolate, but underneath the surface his vulnerability shows through.  The story gives insights into his thinking and his vulnerabilities.  When he utters the most offensive things and puts his foot in it with Cade, we immediately see how he wants to kick himself.  In some ways he’s still the awkward, gangly teenager trying to get the girl, and getting his heart broken which completely endeared me to him.  This quote totally won me over:

He wanted to find that one person and just give her all of him, his heart, his head, his body. He wanted the sound and scent of her in their apartment, he wanted to be cooking with her in the kitchen, he wanted babies eventually, waking them up every two hours and leaving toys for him to trip over.

Cade in turn is enthralled by Sylvain, his way of life, his talent, but he infuriates her with his arrogance.  She does see the other side of him, though, with gestures that melt her heart. These two are intensely drawn to each other and it’s not long that they can resist the pull. Oh, I loved it when they didn’t resist! Aside from all of that, Cade wants to live a life like Sylvain, passionately, and leaving her corporate life behind before it sucks the light out of her.

The prose in The Chocolate Thief was gorgeous.  Chocolate is a huge part of this story and the descriptions of it and the romance, a lot of the times simultaneously, brought a dreamy, sensual feel to the story.  Plus, the setting of Paris was sublime making me feel like I was there.  I used my Google Translate App, on my phone, frequently to translate phrases in the book, and I highly recommend doing that.  It brought so much to the story.  You can even have the phrases read back to you on your phone after typing them in. I listened to the audio version, but I would switch back and forth between the e-book and audio frequently, especially when I wanted to look up the phrases in French.  I took my time getting through The Chocolate Thief, re-reading passages I had just listened to on the way home, because I loved this story so much.  Like I said, it bewitched me entirely! Teri Clark Linden’s narration and pronunciation of French was lovely. The only bits I wasn’t entirely won over with was Sylvain’s talking parts.  The cadence was a little slow, but everything else was superb. 

I must thank Keertana @Ivy Book Bindings for her amazing review! If not for her I wouldn't have picked this book up.   

I loved this story so much I have to give away a copy to one lucky reader!  Simply fill out the rafflecopter for a chance to win.  Must be 18 to enter.  The giveaway is INTERNATIONAL as long as The Book Depository ships to you.  Click HERE for a list of countries.

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