Review: Better Than Chocolate by Sheila Roberts

Better Than Chocolate
Sheila Roberts
Publisher: Harlequin
Publish Date: September 25, 2012
Mass Market Paperback {p. 372}
Source: Publisher
Genre: Contemporary
Samantha Sterling, Blake Preston
Challenge: 100+
Buy the Book: Amazon

Sweet Dreams Chocolate Company has been in the Sterling family for generations, ever since Great-Grandma Rose literally dreamed up her first fabulous recipe. But now it looks as if they're about to lose Sweet Dreams to the bank—and that would be a disaster, not only for the family but for the town of Icicle Falls, Washington. Can Samantha, the oldest daughter and new head of the company, come up with a way to save it?After Samantha does some brainstorming with her mother and sisters, inspiration strikes. They'll have a chocolate festival! Time's running out, but the Sterling women are determined and the town's behind them, so everything's bound to go smoothly….

Or not. Events seem to be conspiring against Samantha, and her mother's attempts to help aren't helping. To make matters worse, the fate of her company is in the hands of her archenemy, Blake Preston, the bank manager with the football-hero good looks. It's enough to drive her to chocolate. But Blake's also enough to convince her that (believe it or not) there's something even better than chocolate.

This book was okay; it kept me entertained, involved, and invested in the characters. Some characters more than others. With that being said, I was more invested in Todd, Luke, and Cecily. Blake and Samantha were okay, but I didn't get a real connection between them. There only seemed to be hostility on her part toward Blake. As far of the background characters, I could take them or leave them.

One of those characters I could take or leave was Samantha's mother, Muriel and her sister Bailey. I pretty much skimmed over Mariel's scenes except the ones involving her dates with the mayor. Other than that I liked the overall story and the idea of the town. I truly did want to know what the outcome was going to be with the chocolate factory. Going in, I was sure they would save the factory, I just didn't know exactly how they were going to do it.

The Cecily, Todd, and Luke triangle was my major draw. I want to see the outcome of this situation. I was more into that than Blake and Samantha, because there wasn't much going on with those two other than her constantly being a total jerk to him. There didn't seem to be much chemistry between them. No flirting or any kind of spark.
 
The romance that did take place between them felt like a afterthought at the end. Like it was rushed. The last two chapters they may have went on a date or two and then they were getting married. Samantha found out Blake tried to help her, she all of a sudden started singing a new tune about how she felt about him. That made it seem superficial and conditional to me on the part of Samantha.
I will however return to Icle Falls if and when Cecily gets a story just to see how things turn out for her.