Julia's Chocolates
I left my wedding dress hanging in a tree somewhere in North Dakota. I don't know why that particular tree appealed to me. Perhaps it was because it looked as if it had given up and died years ago and was still standing because it didn't know what else to do. . . In her deliciously funny, heartfelt, and moving debut, Cathy Lamb introduces some of the most wonderfully eccentric women since The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and The Secret Life of Bees, as she explores the many ways we find the road home. From the moment Julia Bennett leaves her abusive Boston fiancé at the altar and her ugly wedding dress hanging from a tree in South Dakota, she knows she's driving away from the old Julia, but what she's driving toward is as messy and undefined as her own wounded soul. The old Julia dug her way out of a tortured, trailer park childhood with a monster of a mother. The new Julia will be found at her Aunt Lydia's rambling, hundred-year-old farmhouse outside Golden, Oregon. There, among uppity chickens and toilet bowl planters, Julia is welcomed by an eccentric, warm, and often wise clan of women, including a psychic, a minister's unhappy wife, an abused mother of four, and Aunt Lydia herself--a woman who is as fierce and independent as they come. Meeting once a week for drinks and the baring of souls, it becomes clear that every woman holds secrets that keep her from happiness. But what will it take for them to brave becoming their true selves? For Julia, it's chocolate. All her life, baking has been her therapy and her refuge, a way to heal wounds and make friends. Nobody anywhere makes chocolates as good as Julia's, and now, chocolate just might change her life--and bring her love when she least expects it. But it can't keep her safe. As Julia gradually opens her heart to new life, new friendships, and a new man, the past is catching up to her. And this time, she will not be able to run but will have to face it head on.
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Community Reviews
Story: 2
Writing: 2
Characters: 1
Learning: n/a
Entertainment: 2
Story: This is a very cliched story with nothing new in the way of twists. It's also very unbelievable in many areas. The climax of the story is hinted at from the very beginning, so anticlimactic. The ending is happily ever after.
Writing: I usually comment on the writers style, vocabulary, pacing, etc. here, but with this book I have to comment that the author must not have done any research into some of the key subplots. Take Julia's chocolates - where does she get the money for the ingredients that make these chocolates so divine? Good cocoa power is about $20 a pound. Also, when she makes hundreds of chocolates for the fair, it seems like it's over a period of a month or more - chocolates go "off" in about a week, so how was she able to store them? SPOILER ALERT: There is a story about breast cancer here. I have breast cancer, and so I know the usual protocol - no one starts radiation "right after the mammogram" - hello? You at least have a biopsy to confirm cancer, then either surgery (if small and early, like this character was supposed to have had) then chemo, then radiation. Sometimes chemo comes before surgery(to shrink tumor). This info is all available on any cancer website, so why she had the character having radiation then surgery then chemo, I don't know, but it made the credibility of the writing very low in my opinion. She also has the character whooping it up and getting drunk while on chemo - this is highly unlikely as most doctors do not want you drinking while going through chemo and, frankly, you don't feel like drinking.
Characters: All the characters were very cliched, not deep at all, and not very likable. Julia herself was an idiot. How do you get to be 35 years old and not know about a panic attack? The bad mother, the abused children, the drunk bum cheating husband, the repressed minister's wife - all black and white, good and evil. Oh, but throw in a clairvoyant so that you can get warned about imminent danger - that's always helpful, and so real world too.
Learning: N/A - nothing to learn here.
Ending: The ending was predictable and all happily ever after - all the bad had turned to good, heiresses were found, weddings were held, cancer was cured, the economy of Golden was turned around, cue the music, bring in the sunset scene. Sappy.
Entertainment: I gave this book a 2 because I finished it. I would not recommend it to anyone.
Writing: 2
Characters: 1
Learning: n/a
Entertainment: 2
Story: This is a very cliched story with nothing new in the way of twists. It's also very unbelievable in many areas. The climax of the story is hinted at from the very beginning, so anticlimactic. The ending is happily ever after.
Writing: I usually comment on the writers style, vocabulary, pacing, etc. here, but with this book I have to comment that the author must not have done any research into some of the key subplots. Take Julia's chocolates - where does she get the money for the ingredients that make these chocolates so divine? Good cocoa power is about $20 a pound. Also, when she makes hundreds of chocolates for the fair, it seems like it's over a period of a month or more - chocolates go "off" in about a week, so how was she able to store them? SPOILER ALERT: There is a story about breast cancer here. I have breast cancer, and so I know the usual protocol - no one starts radiation "right after the mammogram" - hello? You at least have a biopsy to confirm cancer, then either surgery (if small and early, like this character was supposed to have had) then chemo, then radiation. Sometimes chemo comes before surgery(to shrink tumor). This info is all available on any cancer website, so why she had the character having radiation then surgery then chemo, I don't know, but it made the credibility of the writing very low in my opinion. She also has the character whooping it up and getting drunk while on chemo - this is highly unlikely as most doctors do not want you drinking while going through chemo and, frankly, you don't feel like drinking.
Characters: All the characters were very cliched, not deep at all, and not very likable. Julia herself was an idiot. How do you get to be 35 years old and not know about a panic attack? The bad mother, the abused children, the drunk bum cheating husband, the repressed minister's wife - all black and white, good and evil. Oh, but throw in a clairvoyant so that you can get warned about imminent danger - that's always helpful, and so real world too.
Learning: N/A - nothing to learn here.
Ending: The ending was predictable and all happily ever after - all the bad had turned to good, heiresses were found, weddings were held, cancer was cured, the economy of Golden was turned around, cue the music, bring in the sunset scene. Sappy.
Entertainment: I gave this book a 2 because I finished it. I would not recommend it to anyone.
Eccentric women. Check.
Domestic violence. Check.
Weird love story. Check.
This one just didn’t hang together for me. I got tired of booming orders to listen to our uterus. Much of the storyline in this just didn’t work for me. Perhaps a more appropriate title would have been Julias boobs, as they figured much more centrally in the story. Just a thought.
Domestic violence. Check.
Weird love story. Check.
This one just didn’t hang together for me. I got tired of booming orders to listen to our uterus. Much of the storyline in this just didn’t work for me. Perhaps a more appropriate title would have been Julias boobs, as they figured much more centrally in the story. Just a thought.
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