cover image The Chocolate Lovers’ Club

The Chocolate Lovers’ Club

Carole Matthews, . . St. Martin?s/Dunne, $23.95 (312pp) ISBN 978-0-312-37666-6

Chocolate is the glue that holds together a disparate group of London ladies in British writer Matthews’s frothy latest. When “secretary-aspiring-to-be-an-executive” Lucy Lombard discovers her boyfriend is cheating on her, she convenes an emergency meeting of the Chocolate Lovers’ Club at upscale chocolatier Chocolate Heaven. But Lucy isn’t the only one with a problem: Nadia, a stay-at-home Indo-Brit mom, has a husband with a gambling problem; Chantal, an American transplant journalist, has married into money and a loveless marriage; and old-money do-gooder Autumn’s shifty brother moves in with her, causing plenty of disruption to Autumn’s tranquil abode. As the dramas play out, Chantal gets the worst of it: her extramarital lover makes off with some of her expensive jewelry. Other romances alternately fizzle and sizzle as the chocoholics chow down on their confections and concoct a plot to get back Chantal’s jewelry. Though the narrative’s chocolate crutch can get tedious (sometimes very), the Brit humor and unexpected subplots are rewarding. (Feb.)