"Nothing is Ever Better Than Chocolate!"
Reviewed by Susan Dyer
Posted April 12, 2013
Romance Contemporary
BETTER THAN CHOCOLATE is a super sweet story by one of my
favorite
authors, Sheila Roberts. A book about chocolate? How could
you possibly
go wrong with a book about chocolate? The Sterling family
has owned
Sweet Dreams, a chocolate company for many generations. The
chocolate
recipes came to Samantha's great grandmother, Rose in her
dreams. The
factory is in a small town called, Icicle Falls, Washington.
The company
has always done well, but due to some unfortunate episodes,
the bank has
come calling and wants the note paid in full!! This just
can't be happening!
It seems her step father has run the company into the
ground! Could things
get any worse? Read this book and you shall see!
Samantha Sterling is the new head of the company and along
with her
sisters and mother they must come up with enough money to
hold the bank off.
The bank is being represented by Blake Preston, the new bank
manager.
He is of no help to them and simply cannot bend the rules
and give them
more time to come up with the money. The Sterlings are
crushed of
course. Not only do they lose their business but what about
all the
employees who work there and depend on their jobs? Something
must be
done!
Together with most of the townsfolk, the women come up a
super idea. A
Chocolate Festival to be held on the weekend before
Valentines Day!
Along with many bumps in the road, things are progressing
and it looks like
the festival is finally going to happen. But will it be
enough? No one knows
for sure. Time is running out but they are determined to
save their family
business.
I craved chocolate the whole time I was reading this book!
BETTER THAN
CHOCOLATE was a sweet read that I devoured in just two
days. Sheila
has a way of just pulling you into the story and getting you
all involved in
everyone's business. I love how romance was found along the
way with
their troubles but it did not over power the story. I hope
you will be like I
was, cheering for these women and the chocolate company as
you keep
flipping the pages until you reach the very last one! Now I
must find some
chocolate!
SUMMARY
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 like 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 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.
Excerpt–1–
"Manage your relationships well and your business will
go well. Because what, after all, is business, but a
relationship with some dollar signs attached?"
–Muriel Sterling, Mixing Business with Pleasure:
How to Successfully Balance Business and Love
Samantha Sterling sat next to her mother in the
first row of Icicle Falls Community Church and fought back
the urge to jump up, run to the front of the sanctuary,
grab her stepfather, Waldo, by the neck and throttle him.
She didn't, for two reasons. One, a girl didn't do things
like that in church. Still, she could have overcome her
reservations if not for the second reason – God had
already taken W
ado out. Waldo was as dead as roadkill on Highway 2. In
addition to a daughter from his first marriage, he'd left
behind his grieving wife, Muriel, his three stepdaughters,
Samantha, Cecily and Bailey, and the family business, which
was nearly as dead as Waldo.
Sweet Dreams Chocolates had been healthy when
Samantha's father was alive. The company had been started
by her great–grandmother Rose and had slowly but
steadily grown under his leadership – one bit, happy
family to mirror the happy family who were living off its
profits. All three sisters had spent their summers working
at Sweet Dreams. All three had it drummed into them from an
early age that this business was the source of both the
family's income and honor (not to mention chocolate), but
it was Samantha who had fallen in love with it. Of the
three girls she was the one who stayed and she was the heir
apparent.
But then her father had died and everything came to
a half. Samantha lost the man she and her sisters idolized
and her mother lost her way. Muriel left it to Samantha and
the bookkeeper Lizzy to keep the company running on
autopilot while first she mourned and then later searched
for a new husband.
Enter Waldo Wittman, a tall, gray–haired
widower recently retired, encouraged to do so by his
company which was downsizing. (Now, looking back, Samantha
suspected there were other reasons Waldo had been turned
loose.) He was wanting to get way from the rat race. With
its mountain views, its proximity to Eastern Washington
wine country, its small town friendliness and its
attractive widow, Waldo decided Icicle Falls would fit the
bill. And Muriel decided the same about Waldo. So, after a
year and a half of widowhood, she got a new man.
And now here he was, at the front of the church,
stretched out in his favorite – expensive! –
gray suit. Sweet, velvet Waldo... the money eater. Oh,
Waldo, how could everything have gone so crazy wrong so
fast?
It was early January, the beginning of a new year.
And what a nightmare year it was promising to be, all
thanks to Mom making her new husband president of their
family owned business. She'd left Samantha VP in charge of
marketing, much good that had done. Now Samantha was VP in
charge of disaster and she could hardly sit still thinking
of the mess waiting for her back at the office.
"You're fidgeting," whispered her sister Cecily,
who was sitting next to her.
Fidgeting at a funeral probably wasn't good but it
was an improvement over standing up, pulling her hair and
shrieking like a madwoman.
Why, oh why hadn't Mom and Dad done what needed to
be done to make sure that if something happened to Dad the
business passed into competent hands? Then Mom could have
skipped happily off into newlywed bliss, nor harm no foul.
No one had expected her to remain alone forever.
She was only in her fifties when Dad died and she didn't
function well alone.
When Waldo came on the scene she came back to life,
and Samantha had been happy for her. He was fun and
charming and both she and her sisters gave him a hearty
thumbs up. Why not? He'd brought back Mom's smile. At first
everyone got along great. Like Samantha, he'd been a
shutter bug and they'd enjoyed talking photography. Her
favorite joke when she'd come by the house to talk business
with Mom (or try anyway) was to ask, "Where's Waldo?"
But once Mom dropped him on the company like a bomb
Samantha didn't have to ask. She knew where Waldo was. He
was at the office, in over his head and making her crazy.
She ground her teeth as she mentally tallied how
much money he'd squandered: new business cards with his
name on them, new stationery, new equipment they hadn't
needed, a fancy phone system they couldn't afford that he
been talked into buying from a slick–tongued sales
rep. How could a businessman be so bad at business! Of
course, he'd convinced both himself and Mom that every
purchase was necessary and Samantha hadn't had the veto
power to stop them.
That had been just the beginning. Six months ago
their profits sank and they started having trouble paying
their suppliers. Waldo cut back on production, which then
affected their ability to fill orders, and Lizzy their
bookkeeper began looking like she'd been invited to dinner
with the Grim Reaper. "We're behind with our IRS
quarterlies," she informed Samantha. "And that's not all."
She showed Samantha expenditures on the company credit card
that made no sense. A gun. Ammunition. Cases and cases of
bottled water, enough to keep the whole town hydrated.
Waldo was a financial locust, devouring the company.
Where's Waldo? Busy dumping their lives in the
toilet. Flush, flush, flush! She could have happily stuffed
his head in the toilet and ...
"And I know if Waldo could speak to us now he'd
say, 'Thank God for a life well–lived,'" Pastor Jim
said.
Her mother let out a sob and Samantha felt a pang
of guilt. She should be crying, too. She'd liked Waldo.
He'd been a man with a big hear and a big appetite for life.
"We know he'll be missed," Pastor Jim said, and
Cecily laid a comforting hand on Mom's arm, which gave Mom
permission to start crying in earnest.
"Poor Mom," whispered Bailey, who was sitting on
the other side of Samantha.
Losing two husbands – talk about a double
whammy. Mom had not only loved both her husbands, she'd
loved being married. She had no head for business (which
probably had a lot to do with why Grandpa had been
perfectly happy to let Dad run Sweet Dreams), but she had a
gift for relationships. She'd even had a couple of
relationship books published with a small publisher and
before Waldo died she'd been about to start a new book:
Secrets of a Happy Remarriage.
Samantha only hoped that now Mom would turn her
attention to learning how to have a happy life ... with no
marriage. At least no marriage until they could get the
business of the critical care list and Samantha was put
officially in charge.
The sooner the better. Her first order of business
would be to rehire Lizzy, who Waldo had let go in a
misbegotten attempt to economize. She only hoped Lizzy
would come back and help her sort through this tangle.
She heaved a sigh. Here her mother was grieving and
all she could think about was saving the family business.
What was wrong with her? Did she have nothing but a
calculator for a heart?
"Now I'd like to give the rest of you a chance to
say something nice about Waldo," said Pastor Jim.
He made me nuts probably didn't qualify. Samantha
stayed seated.
Lots of other people were happy to oblige though.
"He was the most generous man I ever met," said
Maria Gomez, his regular waitress at Zelda's. "He gave me
two hundred dollars to get my car fixed. Just like that.
Said not to worry about paying him back."
Samantha pressed her lips firmly together and
envisioned hundred dollar bills with wings flying away,
circling ever upward and off toward Sleeping Lady Mountain.
You do have a calculator for a heart. Here people
were talking about how nice Waldo had been, and all she
could think about was money. She was a terrible person, a
terrible, terrible person. She hadn't always been a
terrible person. Had she? A tear slipped from a corner of
her eye.
Ed York, owner of D–Vine Wines, stood up. "I
can still remember sitting with Waldo out on his deck,
looking at the mountains, sharing a bottle of wine, and him
saying, 'You know, Ed, it doesn't get any better than
this.' That Waldo, he sure knew how to enjoy life."
While everyone around him was pulling out their
hair.
"He was a dear soul," said old Mrs. Nilsen. "Just
last month he stopped in the freezing cold to change my
tire when I had a flat on Highway 2."
On and on the praise went. Good old, wonderful
Waldo. Everyone here would miss him ... except his rotten,
ungrateful, Scrooge–in–drag,
calculator–for–a–heart stepdaughter. She
was pathetic. Another tear sneaked out a corner of her eye
and trickled down her cheek.
Pastor Jim finally called a halt to the festivities
and the party made its way under cloudy skies to Festival
Hall where everyone could mingle, sing Waldo's praises
further, and devour cold cuts and potato salad. Inside, the
three sisters smiled and commiserated.
Waldo's brother and his daughter Wanda had flown in
from the East Coast. Taking in the woman's red eyes as she
approached, Samantha managed to find empathy in that swirl
of guilt and resentment and frustration she was
experiencing.
"I'm sorry we're having to see each other again in
such sad circumstances," Wanda said.
"So are we," said Cecily.
"I'm sorry for you loss," Samantha added. And she
was. She knew how horrible it was to lose a father and she
wouldn't wish that experience on her worst enemy.
Wanda dabbed at her eyes with a soggy tissue. "I
just can't believe he's gone. He was the best father. And
he was always so positive, so upbeat."
So clueless. "I wish we could turn back the clock,"
Samantha said.
Wanda sniffed and nodded. "You were all so good to
him."
Samantha couldn't think of anything to say to that.
She hardly wanted to confess that the last few months she'd
been anything but good.
Cecily stepped into the gap. "He was a nice man."
True. He was just a bad businessman.
"He sure loved Muriel," Wanda said. "He was so
lonely after mother died. Muriel gave him a new lease on
life."
"And I don't know what her life would have been
like without him," Samantha said.
"I think Muriel would like to hear that, Wanda,"
said Waldo's brother Walter, and led their long distance
stepsister away.
"I need a drink," Samantha decided.
"Good idea," said Bailey, and they all drifted over
to the punch bowl.
Samantha really wasn't much of a drinker but a good
stiff belt sure seemed to help a lot of movie characters
through stressful moments, and right about now she was
willing to give it a try. "I wish this was spiked," she
muttered.
Bailey looked across the room at their mother. "I
feel so bad for Mom."
Muriel Sterling–Wittman sat on a folding
chair framed by the weak winter light coming through the
window behind her, a beautiful, tragic figure starting the
new year alone. Her basic black dress discreetly draped her
Betty Boop curves and her hair was still the same shiny
chestnut it had been when Samantha was a girl thanks to the
geniuses at Sleeping Lady Salon. The green eyes Waldo once
raved over were bloodshot from crying, but still looked
lovely thanks to lashes thick with waterproof mascara. Half
the men in the room were hovering with tissues just in case
she found herself in need.
"Well, at least we won't have to worry about her
being lonely," said Bailey. She was the spitting image of
their mother and the most like her as well – sweet,
positive, and naive.
Cecily gave a snort. "Much good any of those men
will do her. They're all married."
"Not Ed," said Bailey
"He's got the hots for Pat over at the bookstore,"
Samantha said and mentally added, Thank God.
"Arnie's not married," Bailey said. "Neither is
Mayor Stone. Or Waldo's brother. Wouldn't it be sweet
if–?"
Samantha cut her off. "Let's not even put that
thought out in the universe." All they needed was another
man coming along and convincing Mom that the third time
would be the charm.
"Look at them. Waldo is barely gone and they're
already circling around her like some old guy version of
The Bachelor," Cecily said in disgust. "Men."
"You know, for a matchmaker you sure have a sucky
attitude," Bailey observed.
"How do you think I got it?" retorted Cecily.
"I don't know how you manage to stay in business,"
Bailey said in disgust.
"By staying superficial," Cecily said with a wicked
grin.
Cecily was the only blonde in the family and she
was the prettiest of them all with perfect features and the
longest legs. Samantha had been cute with her red hair and
freckles, but it was Cecily the boys drooled over. Still,
in spite of her good looks, Cupid had never been kind to
her. So far she'd gone through two fiancees. Samantha never
understood how Cecily could make money matching up
beautiful people in L.A. but when it came to her own love
life she couldn't seem to get it right.
Like you're doing so well? Touche, she told her
snarky self.
"You're enough to make a woman give up on love,"
Bailey muttered as she nodded and smiled at old Mr. Nilsen,
who was ogling her from the other side of the hall.
"That would be the smart thing to do," said Cecily.
"Well, I don't think Mom's ready to give up on
love. Maybe you could match her up with someone," Bailey
suggested.
"No!" Several people turned to stare and Samantha
downed a slug of punch in an effort to put out the fire in
her cheeks. What was wrong with her? Could a woman suddenly
get Tourette's at thirty?
The wicked in Cecily's grin turned up a notch. "I
know No one will ever be able to replace Waldo."
"I liked Waldo, I really did," Samantha said. "But
no more men.. I've got enough to deal with already."
"Gosh, Sammy." Bailey frowned at her.
Samantha frowned back. "Hey, baby sister, you two
get to go back to sunny California and match up lonely
millionaires and cater events for starlets. I'm the one
left with the fallout here."
Cecily sobered. "I'm sorry. You're right. We're
leaving you with a mess. You've got the business to sort
out plus Mom's affairs."
"Except if anyone can do it, you can, Sammy,"
Bailey said, linking arms with her.
Samantha sighed. As the oldest it was her job to be
the rock everyone leaned on. Except right now she didn't
feel like a rock. She felt like a pebble on a beach about
to be swept away by a tsunami.
And her own mother had been the one to unwittingly
drop her there. She and her mother loved each other dearly
but they often locked horns. And right before Waldo died
they'd locked horns a lot, especially when Samantha would
try and get her mother to talk sense into him.
"He's not feeling well," Mom kept saying, but when
pressed for details she'd remained vague.
Maybe the poor guy's heart had been acting up all
along. Maybe he'd been so worried about his bad health he
hadn't been able to concentrate and that was why he'd been
making such poor decisions. Except that didn't explain his
odd purchases. Or the answers he'd given her when she asked
him about them.
"A man needs to be able to protect what's his,"
he'd said when she'd asked him about the gun.
"In Icicle Falls?" she'd countered. The biggest
crime they'd had all year was when Amanda Stevens had keyed
Jimmy Rodriguez's Jeep after he'd cheated on her with
another girl. And Jimmy had decided not to press charges.
"You never know," Waldo had hedged. "I saw someone.
In the parking lot."
"Doing what" she'd asked.
"He was following me. And don't tell your mother,"
he'd added. "I don't want to worry her."
Like he'd just worried his stepdaughter? Then
there'd been the water.
"We could have an avalanche and be trapped here for
days," he'd said.
She'd let that slide, too. Until things started
going really bad. And then, just when she'd decided she and
her mother were going to have to have a very unpleasant
conversation, Waldo had walked from their house on Alpine
Drive into town and keeled over dead right in front of
Lupine Floral. Poor Kevin had dropped the roses he'd been
storing in the cooler and run right out to give him CPR
while his partner Heinrich called 911, but Waldo was dead
within minutes.
And now Samantha was left to deal with the mess
he'd left behind. Her sisters were leaving on Monday and it
would be just her left to deal with her mother and find a
way to pay the people who depended on Sweet Dreams for
their livelihood. Great Grandma Rose, who had started this
family business on a dream, was probably turning in her
grave at what her bozo descendants had done to it.
Samantha frowned at her empty punch cup. The glass
is half empty... the glass is half full. Either way, "This
stuff needs booze."
What do you think about this review?
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
|
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy