The Chocolate Maker's Wife
Book Feature - The Chocolate Maker's Wife by Karen Brooks
Book Feature - The Chocolate Maker's Wife by Karen Brooks
HBL Note: By title alone, this book reminds me a bit of Chocolat. That is what hooked me at first. But then I read that Karen Brooks “rewrites women back into history” and I was sold. Plus, the title of the email that first introduced me to this book said “For all Chocoholics” which definitely describes me! The Chocolate Maker’s Wife by Karen Brooks is part historical fiction, part thriller. I am also really into books that dive into characters who take great pride in their creative professions. I just finished reading Meet Me in Monaco by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb whose main character is a perfumer. I can’t wait to read about the luxurious London chocolate owned by Rosamund Tomkins and her husband Sir Everard. Scroll down to read more.
Book Feature - The Chocolate Maker's Wife by Karen Brooks
From the publisher:
Damnation has never been so sweet...
Rosamund Tomkins, the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman, spends most of her young life in drudgery at a country inn. To her, the Restoration under Charles II, is but a distant threat as she works under the watchful eye of her brutal, abusive stepfather . . . until the day she is nearly run over by the coach of Sir Everard Blithman.
Sir Everard, a canny merchant, offers Rosamund an “opportunity like no other,” allowing her to escape into a very different life, becoming the linchpin that will drive the success of his fledgling business: a luxurious London chocolate house where wealthy and well-connected men come to see and be seen, to gossip and plot, while indulging in the sweet and heady drink.
Rosamund adapts and thrives in her new surroundings, quickly becoming the most talked-about woman in society, desired and respected in equal measure.
But Sir Everard’s plans for Rosamund and the chocolate house involve family secrets that span the Atlantic Ocean, and which have already brought death and dishonor to the Blithman name. Rosamund knows nothing of the mortal peril that comes with her new title, nor of the forces spinning a web of conspiracy buried in the past, until she meets a man whose return tightens their grip upon her, threatening to destroy everything she loves and damn her to a dire fate.
As she fights for her life and those she loves through the ravages of the Plague and London’s Great Fire, Rosamund’s breathtaking tale is one marked by cruelty and revenge; passion and redemption—and the sinfully sweet temptation of chocolate.
Book Feature - The Chocolate Maker's Wife by Karen Brooks
