A review by jen286
The Chocolate Temptation by Laura Florand

3.0

While I loved most of the books in this series, I had a hard time reading The Chocolate Temptation. I got half way through and had to put it down as I was like I wish something would just happen all ready. Would you two just talk to each other already? Patrick and Sarah both really like the other but they both are so insecure and try to hide it that they don't think the other likes them. At times Patrick was a bit to much for me. He came off as a little creepy with all of his wanting everything she has or does is because of him thing. The way he thought it was a little creepy, but the sentiment I understood.

Patrick did not have the best home life. His mom always took everything he loved away from him. If he showed how much he liked something she took it away. Because of this he got really good at pretending nothing matter, especially the things he cared about most. Because at first Sarah doesn't know this it causes a lot of issues. Patrick, for most of the book, is all I can't let her have control of anything. I can't give her that power to choose because she could take it away. He thinks he manipulates everyone and everything to get what he wants. It is really quite sad, but was written in such a sappy drawn out way I eventually got tired of reading it and just wanted a resolution already. The second half of the book was better than I expected. The resolution and how everything happened actually seemed to make sense, when I didn't think it would without lots of therapy.

Sarah is an Asian American girl who has always had to try and be perfect. Her mom is from North Korea and was in the US illegally so she made her kids try to be absolutely perfect from a very young age. She made them practice writing letters until they looked like print, they were perfect. That need to have everything perfect carried over into her daily life and she is really hard on herself. Because she doesn't get much praise at work she thinks she is just not good. In reality the head chef and Patrick both think she is doing a great job. She is so passive at first, not even talking to Patrick about what she wants, what she likes, it was a bit disconcerting to me. She is just....it is like she is not even there. I get Patrick being more dominant in the bedroom, and her passive, but it really extends to everything at first. She just does whatever he wants. He dresses her and walks her around and it was just like wake up! Do something, anything already. I didn't like it. She does become more vocal though once they start actually talking to each other. Man their story would be so much shorter if they both just learned to communicate sooner. By the end I liked them well enough, and the story was well written, but I don't think it will be in the re-read pile for me. That's fine, I have Dom to read over and over and over again...

This review was originally posted to Jen in Bookland