Lovely feel good read for me. Easy to read. Easy to fall in love with. Close my eyes and I was right there with them. Nice location and storyline what’s not to love

What a lovely book. I have read many Jenny Colgan books and this one was true to form. I became lost in the beauty of Paris! I felt as if I was with Anna discovering the city and its people. I will say the food descriptions were amazing. Also, the end of this book has luscious chocolate recipes! A great read!

Not my favorite Jenny Colgan book. I couldn't connect with Anna or Claire and the story didn't flow as well between their two stories.

The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris by Jenny Colgan was a nice story. Anna Trent, injured while at work at a chocolate factory, wakes up in the hospital to discover she has lost more than she thought. But while in the hospital she is reunited with Claire, the French teacher she had years ago. The two form a great friendship during their stay in the hospital. Claire’s story is told in an alternate storyline usually at the end of each chapter. Claire had a great love, Thierry, who is also a chocolatier, one of the greatest in Paris. When Anna goes to work for him, she meets his son, Laurent. This story was a different story than I’m used to from Jenny Colgan. Usually, the protagonist builds her small business after losing her job, affects the community around her, and finds love. In this story, while Anna has lost her job, she goes to work for Thierry, and while she does find love, she doesn’t really affect the community at all. I enjoyed this book; Jenny Colgan is a favorite author of mine. However, it was not my favorite of hers.

Thank you to the publisher for a free e-copy in exchange for an honest review. #netgalley #theloveliestchocolateshopinparis

I loved the concept of the book - young adult woman who had an awful accident meets her old French teacher in hospital (who has cancer), teacher takes woman under her wing, arranges for her to go to Paris and start her life fresh. I enjoyed the people the characters and it made me desperately want to go back to Paris. I just felt that the book had a few missing pieces in it and it was left up to the reader to try and figure it out - it also moved quite slowly in parts which was hard for me to plow through. Overall, I really did enjoy the characters and the storyline, especially the part about making the chocolate!

I thought this was lovely and sweet, although the main character's horror at being thought of as fat was off-putting..

Jenny Colgan has a knack for really transporting you into the beautiful locals she writes about in her novels reading this book just made me even more eager to visit Paris one day and man what a wonderful job creating chocolate! Anna the main character in this story makes some choices that aren't the best but you still yet can't help but root for her! To me this book really showed the important and benefit of hard working and putting your all into your passion even if you don't have as many degrees or learning in that field as others if you truly love what you do it will show through in your work! A charming story that sweeps you right into the streets of Paris and gives you a sneak peek of life in the culinary field

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this digital ARC.
I've read one book from Jenny Colgan before and I was a big fan of it. I felt like I could immerse myself into the world and get connected so I was looking forward to this one.
Unfortunately, I didn't have the same experience with this one. It took a long time for me to get into the story and there was no character I really loved enough. While the story is sweet and has some heart, it didn't feel like it was as in-depth as it could have been. There was a lot of potential but something was missing. There were two love stories in one with it but I think it would have been better to concentrate on the older love story and give the reader more to it than split it in half. I would have liked to read more about the chocolate making process and the shop itself than the drama surrounding the whole place. While the writing was still good, the story wasn't as straight-forward as it could have been. I've seen what Jenny Colgan is capable of so I feel like she could have stepped it up with this one. While I still enjoyed the story to give it 3 stars, it wasn't enough to get anything higher.

Not a favorite. It took too long for me, personally, to get connected to the story. There is a sadness to this book that I didn't find in her others. It is a light read, I will give it that. But overall I didn't get a warm feeling that I had expected.

Not her best effort.

I liked a lot of the story, because it’s easy to like chocolate and Paris. But I don’t love the flashback storytelling, and I didn’t feel super connected with the characters. What really ruined this for me was the incessant, constant fat-shaming. It started early on and continued consistently throughout. Whether it was commenting on main characters or passers by or the main character’s horror at possibly being viewed as fat, this bizarre and distracting fat-phobic obsession utterly ruined the book.

A few examples:

“But he looks like a gigantic pig” (why would someone like him?)
“I wasn’t sure I liked that either, being lumped in with the massive fatties” (oh no you like eating chocolate what a moral conundrum)

This is just within a couple of pages. There are dozens of examples. I found it shocking and unnecessary and frankly quite cruel. Be better, Jenny Colgan.

A feel good read about a young woman, forced to change her life, who goes to work in a chocolate shop in Paris. What's not to like? The subject matter is delicious and the setting is one of the most iconic in the world. Readers will delight in the story and the outcome.

I’m sorry, but I was unable to finish this book. I just wasn’t able to be pulled in. I wasn’t able to connect with the characters. I wish the author, and publisher, much success upon release day.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book combines two of my favorite things: Paris and chocolate. Add a heartwarming story by Jenny Colgan, and it's the perfect read. I liked the way the story unfolded in parallel, between Claire in the 1970s as an au pair in Paris, Claire in the present day, and Anna in the present day. I don't want to give too much away, but can say that both Claire and Anna find life in Paris revelatory and life-changing, and as the story unfolds you realize how their stories are linked - both in new beginnings and endings.

A quick and satisfying read, with both bittersweet and happy endings.

Paris, chocolate, food and love....what a charming story! I enjoy Jenny's books, this wasn't my all time favorite but I do recommend!

Anna, from a small, rather dull village in Britain, has just been in the hospital. There, she encounters a former teacher, Claire, who helps her get a job in Paris. Anna is later able to return Claire's kindness in an unexpected way. The book alternates chapters between Claire's summer in Paris 40 years ago and Anna's current experiences, and we get a feel for how living in Paris changes these two young English women. There are recipes at the end, and I confess that I did feel like eating chocolate as I read. Sometimes you want to read a well-written book with likable characters, a beautiful setting, and a happily ever ending--nothing too unpleasant or stressful, just pure enjoyment. The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris fits the bill perfectly.

I've come to really enjoy Jenny Colgan books in the past year since discovering her and The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris is another delight!

This story mainly surrounds Anna who goes to Paris after an accident to get away from her 'real life' and make a new one for herself at the urging of a past teacher-turned-friend named Claire.

Claire also figures into the story having her own romance woven through the pages of her own time in Paris in the early 70s.

Both the stories are sweet and the chocolate stories will make you want to barge into your closest bar of chocolate every time you read a new recipe.

For me, I felt this story felt a bit short on the charm I've come to expect from Jenny Colgan. It was absolutely readable and fun but just fell a bit short for me. Mostly because the two main heroes in the story are everything but and I kind of want to smack them both. Anna is a charmer though!

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for a copy of the eARC novel in exchange for my honest review.

I adore Jenny Colgan, if I need cheering up, a light and happy read, I always know I can turn to her books and they won’t let me down. Like her other books this is joy manifested in paper or e-book. Paris and Chocolate, she knows the way to my heart and she really does, amazing characters that are always relatable and you want to take home and keep. This is just the perfect anytime book, you won’t want to put it down.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

A good new cozy mystery set in Paris. The mystery was interesting and the characters were engaging i look forward to more from this author.

I just knew I was in for a treat with this book - pun intended! Jenny Colgan is dependable and I was looking for something light and lovely, which is exactly what I got here. Yes, it is predictable, but it was still a wonderful summer read)

The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris is delightful and engaging. It transported me to France with its vivid portrayal of the City of Lights and had me craving chocolate with such rich descriptions that I could almost taste it!

We first meet our protagonist, thirty-one year old Anna at the chocolate factory, where she has just had a serious accident. The first sentence drew me right in and I was hooked.

“The really weird thing about it was that although I knew instantly that something was wrong—very, very wrong, something sharp, something very serious, an insult to my entire body—I couldn’t stop laughing.”

Anna is taken to the hospital where she rooms with Claire, her high school French teacher. Anna never cared much about school but she is now a captive audience and Claire insists she reacquaint herself with the language under her tutelage. After several weeks in the hospital, Claire arranges for Anna to go to Paris to apprentice at a famous chocolate shop owned by an old friend. Then the story really takes off as we watch Anna learn her way around Paris, settle into the apartment she shares with Sami, a flamboyant man who works at the Paris Opera in the costume department, learn about making gourmet chocolate and become acquainted with Thierry, the owner of Le Chapeau Chocolat.

Throughout the book there is a parallel narrative contained in short and separate sections, of Claire at seventeen first going to Paris as an au pair and her experience there, especially meeting Thierry and the development of their relationship. So for example, as Anna learns about the opportunity to work at the chocolate shop, we also read, in the next section, about Claire’s au pair position with her mother’s pen pal in Paris. I enjoyed the juxtaposition of these two narratives and felt that I was getting a second story while catching up on a back story.

The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris is charming and heartwarming with a tiny bit of sadness. It explores the fish out of water concept of living in a foreign country as well as first loves and second chances. The characters are likable and have been well developed. The story may be a tad predictable at times but it did not detract from my enjoyment. It’s a light and quick read that would be perfect as a beach read or an escape from a snowstorm.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for an advance ready copy in exchange for my honest opinion.