Lucy Lombard and her three friends are addicted. To chocolate. The foursome often meet up at their safe place, Chocolate Heaven, to divulge in chocolate and digest each other’s problems. Lucy has found her boyfriend cheating on her yet again, and has to decide if she can give him a second chance- for the fifth time. Nadia, who gave up her career to be a stay at home mom, is struggling with her husband’s own addiction- the much more dangerous addiction to gambling. She is watching their money dwindle down to nothing, and has to make the decision to stay with her husband or take their son and leave. Chantal is struggling through her marriage; even though the money that came with her husband is fabulous and keeps her bejeweled can’t make up for the complete lack of any sex life. She often enters into extramarital affairs, until one man steals $30,000 worth of her jewelry and an escort she was hiring turns out to be otherwise involved- with another friend. And do-gooder Autumn is having her peaceful life broken up by her drug abusing brother moving in with her.
The Chocolate Lovers’ Club by Carole Matthews focuses on these four friends and the challenges they are facing in their lives. The usual Matthews humor is there, but I could also find a serious tone underneath all the chocolate talk. The plot centers around the friends and their addiction to chocolate, but if you look deeper, each friend is struggling through other addictions- Lucy’s addiction to a cheating boyfriend, Nadia’s husband’s gambling addiction, Chantal’s addiction to sex, and Autumn’s brother with a drug addiction. The Chocolate Lovers’ Club is a favorite of mine simply because of a well designed plot, enough humor to keep me laughing, yet enough real life drama’s to let me really take something away from the women’s stories.
I loved this book.