Dorothy Koomson - The Chocolate Run

Amber Salpone thinks in chocolate - talk to her for three minutes and she'll tell you what kind of chocolate you'd be. In fact, most days, if she was asked to choose between chocolate and relationships, there'd be no contest. At least chocolate has never let her down. Unlike her family. Growing up in the Salpone household has taught Amber to avoid conflict and love at all costs.
So, when she does the unthinkable and has a one-night stand with womaniser Greg Walterson, her uncomplicated, chocolate-flavoured life goes into meltdown. Especially when Greg announces she's the love of his life - and Amber finds it hard enough to commit to plain or Fruit & Nut. . .
Meanwhile, her best friend, Jen, seems to be launching a bid to become Bitch Of The Year and Amber's family are making unreasonable demands. Amber has two choices: deal with her past and the people around her, or go on a chocolate run and keep running. . .
A scrumptiously funny and moving tale of love, lust and confectionary. 

Comment: This is the fourth book by Dorothy Koomson I read but it ended up being the one I disliked the most. I got it at the library so I'm not too annoyed but I did think I might enjoy it more.

Here we have the story of Amber Salpone, a young woman who works in film production and who has a best friend Jen and another best friend Greg and one day she and Greg end up sleeping together, although she knows very well how much of a player he is. However, what she assumed would be a one time event keep happening and she quickly sees herself in a weird relationship. At the same time her best friend Jen is going to live with her boyfriend but Greg seems to think it won't be a good idea although eh never explains why exactly. As her life keeps going towards disaster, she can't help but notice how Jen might not be the best friend she thought she was and that perhaps Greg sees her as more than just a friend with benefits.

Unless some review really turns my head around, I believe this is it with this author. This ended up being the book I liked less by her and now I've kind of zeroed in on what I find unappealing about the author's writing, it will be hard to convince me to keep trying her books. 

Amber is just like the heroines of the other books I already read: independent, smart, dedicated to her work but extremely needy and hiding her low self esteem under a carapace of sarcasm and bad decisions. I just couldn't understand why she made some of the choices she did, how she saw things (all books are from the POV of the heroine, in first person) and still went in to make bad choices and then whines about them and how they make her feel. 

Since this is the author's apparent way of developing her heroines, I think it finally came to mind why there was something about the books in general (which I wasn't really aware of how to pinpoint) that bothered me and it's quite simple now I "saw" the pattern: the heroine's lives are simply dramatized too much and they don't really evolve or change their attitude so I leave the stories thinking they keep the chip on their shoulders and why would it matter to read about them.

Of course it depends on the surroundings but as a rule, it does feel this is the author's tactic. I think Amber is a good enough heroine and she has a lot which could be explored for her to become a heroine we can root for but most of the time I feel exasperated by her options and her attitudes. Why would she think it would be a good idea to be with Greg? He never proves her he is changed, he might be serious. Yes, he is charming and all that but how is being with him making Amber a better person? Shouldn't this be the goal? If not, if the idea was to center the plot on how wrong things can be before they get good, then I think this was a fail because the end was ridiculous to me.

The plot could help if only there was something happening but no, everything was about Amber's personal relationships and even though it can be realistic to know we do let relationships drive most of our concentration and energy in life, it was also annoying because Amber's issues were getting quite repetitive. It was also confusing how the secondary characters would be described one way and their behavior or actions would then confirm them to be the opposite. I suppose in one way this could bee quite the "shock factor" but reading about it just felt like bad execution.

Another thing. The title comes form a huge variety of chocolate references throughout the book and while this is fun and quite the idea the author had, it doesn't really have that much of an importance. Ok, to be honest, I thought it would when the heroine meets a guy  - made to seem the man who would suit her to perfection - and they talk about their chocolate preferences but it just goes nowhere, since Amber is too focused on silly decisions.

I really think this will be a forgettable book. It was not fun to read, I confess I skimmed a few paragraphs here and there and not even the end saved this one for me. No, it's not the worst book I have read but it didn't make me feel like it meant anything either.

Grade: 4/10

Dorothy Koomson - The Cupid Effect

Ceri's given up hope of ever finding anyone who'll put up with her various idiosyncrasies. All her energies seem to have been diverted into solving other people's romantic problems. Is she always destined to play Cupid? Or can she use some of her powers where they're needed most - to help herself? 

Comment: On my return to my local library after the weeks in which is was closed due to the pandemic, this was the book I picked. I must say I was not looking for it on purpose and I knew some known friends who had read it didn't have such a high opinion on it as they did about other titles by the author.
However, let's just say the return to the library was slightly annoying and it was just easier to pick a book I knew where was and what style would be instead of playing with my patience trying to find something else.

In this story we meet Ceri D'Altoy, a young woman who decides to leave her old life behind and get back to the university, not as much to get her doctorate but to investigate and she is accepted but needs to teach too.
She is surprised her submission was accepted but she does go back to the place where she had studied and embarks on a new stage of her life.

Ceri is one of those people everyone connects with and looks for to get advice. The fact she studied psychology also helps but there's something about her that makes people want to be in her company, like a special strength that is found just because someone is near her.
The problem is, can she help herself with what she knows or only others can follow her advice?
Having read other books by this author I knew what to expect regarding this one in terms of writing. Again, the story flows easily, the scenes change in a quick and easy manner and the fact this is first person narrator (which usually annoys me) was not such a bother because the author does create likable characters or, at least, characters that one can find interesting to follow.

I'd say that what makes this story different from the other two I had previously read is the tone. This one does feel to be a little bit lighter in comparison but by no means much less dramatic. I guess the events and the tone they are shared is just a little less negative in some moments.
The writing style is the same and the main character does think about her issues just like the other protagonists did but yes, I could notice this plot wasn't so obviously centered on the protagonist.

The story is pretty simple, basically it follows Ceri on her daily routines and the people she meets and interacts with and how being near her might affect those people's reactions and choices. This sounds silly but I think we all have people we know that seem to have a different aura, that are easier to relate to, that we feel at ease with or that we can connect with more quickly.
Ceri is like this and the whole story is how she tries to avoid others from relying on her advice too much because the more she speaks, the more people might blame her if things don't go according to what she says, forgetting no matter good an advice, there are too many variables to just one single option being the right one all the time.
I mean, it was different enough to think such a character. I liked Ceri, her personality was one I could relate to (except her constant talk of her exes and sex and what should she say, etc) and I even liked the psychological elements on the things she said.

However, removing all the quirky and apparently obvious attempts to make this funnier than what it is, despite liking Ceri's "voice", this was still a story narrated by one person, complaining a lot about this and that and putting herself in the position of cupid, even if unaware.
It got to a point that yes, it was easy to read, but it wasn't necessarily amazing.
I've noticed before in other novels too, British characters drink a lot. Every time Ceri goes out she has drinks and do all the other characters. There is also talk of being drunk as a very normal thing - which is kind of is - but I must confess this is totally unappealing to me and was one element that put me off of liking the cast of characters more.

I know, I know, it's ridiculous to even notice this and it can be seen as something cultural, but there it is, I can't help but being a little less impressed when it's so often part of the characters' routines.
The goal of this novel was to present Ceri as a modern day cupid, someone that actually offers solutions to love issues. I can see why this is seen as problematic by some readers, hoping to find a more serious take on the supposed themes the novel seems to address. I found this tactic to be merely entertaining as the quirky factor was never really developed as such. This means the tone of the story is what's funnier about it, not as much the situations themselves. I just saw Ceri as someone with patience to listen, despite her rants on it, not as a special or magical person who can influence others' choices that much.

In the end, some subjects were left under developed and the last pages attempted to fix many loose threads but the fix did look as if the author wanted to get it done. One wonders, after several pages with vague and unnecessary stuff, why more time couldn't be dedicated to fix things properly.
Since Ceri is the narrator, some scenes just felt really unlikely told by her and once or twice I even thought she sounded a little conceited, something I'm certain wouldn't have been conveyed had the narrator been 3rd person.
All in all, this was cute, a little fluffy, not completely balanced in terms of ratio between narrator's voice and plot development but it did allow for some escapism hours.
Grade: 6/10

Dorothy Koomson - Marshmallows for Breakfast

When Kendra Tamale returns to England from Australia she rents a room from Kyle, a divorced father of two, and begins a new job. She's looking forward to a fresh start and a simple life. Then she bumps into the man who shares her awful secret, and things fall apart. The only way to fix things is to confess to the terrible mistake she made.

Comment: This is the second book by the author I try. I liked the other one enough to try another despite the weaker aspects and, thankfully, this one had a heroine I found a lot easier to be sympathetic with and whom I rooted for.

In this book we meet Kendra Tamale, a woman who recently returned from Australia to work for a friend after some terrible situations she went through and that now she hopes to keep forgetting.

She rented a house and the first day of her return, the children of her landlord, six year old twins Summer and Jaxon, just show up in her house. That is the start of a new emotional journey for Kendra, especially since she looks at the twins and can't help liking them and helping their father any chance she gets. The problem is that Kendra has a secret, something that follows her anywhere she goes and unless she thinks of trysting someone, she won't ever be free enough to enjoy life to the fullest.

This is the second book by this author I try and I think I can, more or less, have an idea of what her style is and how her stories probably develop in general. It does seem her heroines are always women with something traumatic in their past, with more or less intensity in what happened, but always affecting them in a very permanent way, usually emotional and psychologically. I'd say the stories are at the most obvious spectrum of "woman's fiction".

Kendra, or Kenie as she is most often called, is a fascinating and complex character. In fact, she has some behaviors that are as frustrating to read about as it would be were she a real person, someone whose attitude and pace in  moving things along is very slow. People don't all react the same to the challenges, that is a given, but Kenie does seem to embody all of those who keep things to themselves, who don't feel like they should have many positive things, they don't feel right, they don't feel they are s worthy of the same things as other people. At the same time, she has an inner strength that compels her to go ahead with her life, to go through the motions and also to help two little kids and their parents somehow.

I liked this book mostly for Kenie's complexity. Something happened to her which she can't recuperate from and that is mixed with a man she left in Australia and with whom she couldn't just decide to be as part of a couple. These things in Kenie's past shaped her personality and as the plot moves along, we peel layers of her past and her feelings and the picture that comes out at the end of that of someone who survived, someone who coped.

I'd say then, the problem of this book (and in part of the other I had read too) is how excessively realistic things are. For a fictional story, even woman's fiction which generally allows for a lot more baggage in every character and how their path happens, this has a hopeful end, with some things in the air that can be understood as good but the romantic elements I kept hoping for were not there. They didn't have to be but there are hints and I did create that expectation. It seems, though, the author is not focusing on that - it might be there as just a side effect - but this means that, for me, the tone of the whole story is a little more depressed than it had to.

Nothing wrong with it, after all some themes/situations are naturally serious, but I still wish for a bit more positivism.

This is not a perfect story, I agree with readers who say there were too many sub themes to address and the fact it takes Kenie quite a while to process and overcome her issues makes the story a little slow.

I'd also say that, in technical terms, the flashbacks or scenes from the past or the thoughts of secondary characters through italic sections are annoying to me. I'd rather have those things inserted into the main text rather than apparent add-ons.

All in all, good elements, others not so good even though they are less in my scale, make this a god read, compelling but it could have been much better.

Grade: 7/10

Dorothy Koomson - That Girl From Nowhere

Clemency Smittson was adopted as a baby and the only connection she has to her birth mother is a cardboard box hand-decorated with butterflies. Now an adult, Clem decides to make a drastic life change and move to Brighton, where she was born. Clem has no idea that while there she'll meet someone who knows all about her butterfly box and what happened to her birth parents.
As the tangled truths about her adoption and childhood start to unravel, a series of shocking events cause Clem to reassess whether the price of having contact with her birth family could be too high to pay...

Comment: My incursions to my local library never have a plan. I might be looking for books within the genres I usually read but with an exception here and there, I never go thinking I'll need to find a specific book. Besides, my local library, of course has books in Portuguese and it's not a central library so the choices aren't as wide as I'd like. 

I had never felt interested in this author but some of her books were int he shelf and I thought why not trying one, who knows if I'll like it. I picked this one and, according to some friends who have read practically all her books, this isn't one of the best. What luck....

In this book we meet Clemency Smittson, better known as Smitty, when she moves back to Brighton with her mother, after her father died and left them both mourning.

Smitty has a complicated relationship with her mother, since she was adopted, but they love each other and Smitty won't let her mother alone with her memories.

Smitty works as a jeweler restorer, she also does her own thing and through work she meets an older lady at a nursing home who says she is the spiting image of the home's director. When she does meet that woman, she can't ignore their resemblance and although her personal and sentimental life is a mess, Smitty can't help but feel curious about the woman who, all indicates, is her younger sister. This is the beginning of a new journey for Smitty and those surrounding her...

The premise of this story is quite appealing. I'm not adverse to family dramas and woman's fiction types of plots but they can quickly go towards boring paths instead of focusing on the character's development. I feared this here but the fact the heroine is black and her adoptive mother is white offered a POV I was curious about. Not that s should matter but real life tells us it's not always so and I imagined the author might pick on that. While she did, and the finished work was well done, I didn't really like Smitty's choices when it came to her love life and that affected my opinion of her.

The focus of this novel is clearly on Smitty. She is a 30 something woman, she has stability in her work (I didn't see this as an obvious thing, though) and she is thinking of opening her own business one day. Through the novel we get small flashback entries about moments in her life that have some importance to where she is at now and she comes across as being a cautious but smart woman, someone who has felt put down but some not only because of the color of her skin but that was a big issue, considering her adoptive parents being different from her.

As a little girl she didn't understand why others would look at her differently but while growing up some toxic opinions shaped her vision of things.

I'd say this book being about Smitty and her search for understanding who she is supposed to be, she should be the most captivating character we could find here. I liked how quiet she was, how she felt about what others said about her but she was not flashy in her responses, she only wanted peace and caring, like any other person would.

I think it's human she would want to know about her biological family once she discovers them. I also get it that she wouldn't want to be overly excited about it in consideration to the woman who raised her. I think the drama surrounding this aspect of Smitty's life was well done, was one vision of it might be like for someone to fight the opposing feelings adopted people perhaps have when they can share both sides of their family.

I think the whole plot and development regarding Smitty's family life and how out of control some things seemed to be for her was well done by the author. I think the drama and conflicts were believable in relation to what she was facing. I think the feelings she had over the discovery and how she was made to feel about that were done well enough to make readers think.

In the Portuguese cover, the dress is red...

The end, therefore, was a little too simple and quickly fixed, considering the interesting emotional issues Smitty went though.

However, (besides the rushed ending) there was another big detail I wasn't a fan of. Smitty has a complicated love life, she is separated with her boyfriend Seth and throughout the novel he becomes a regular character as well as Tyler, a man Smitty knows in the first pages since he works in a cafe she starts frequenting. To classify this a love triangle perhaps isn't the best way but technically I think it is. I just didn't like Smitty had to have this in her life even if in reality people behave like this. I also didn't like to know she (and another character) claimed being adopted made them look for affection in several sexual encounters. I apologize, I can recognize this as a realistic coping mechanism of sorts but in romances it just puts me off that characters feel like having sex with many people as a substitute for emotional stability. I didn't like Smitty behaved like this in her past.

The final resolution to her love life dilemmas was also silly and avoidable. I mean...some segments were really unnecessary if one thinks about what the author chose for Smitty in the end. 

This aspect of the story really made me bring the grade down.

All in all, many good details in this book, intriguing characterization and development and enough emotional content to make me curious about other books of the author.

This one just stayed half way because of elements I feel were not to my personal appreciation.

Grade: 6/10