Puri is a chocolatier in Spain, when her estranged father passes away in Ecuador she and her husband board a ship to see the cacao farm she has inherited. By the time they arrive, her husband is dead and she fears for her life. She oddly decides to impersonate him and pretend that she is the one who is dead. When she arrives at the family farm, she is thrust into a dramatic family with lots of secrets she must untangle.
I so wanted to love this one. It’s a unique premise and offered some unique history. But I it was lacking in all of the areas I wanted more. The story itself was fine, but it needed about 100 more pages to really flesh out the chocolate business, the political climate and the truths of Puri’s family. It started as beautiful historical fiction with a murder mystery inside but most of the time read like a Real Housewives episode. Too much family infighting with secrets that were all mostly hidden identities (the first one was a good twist but the next one was easy to spot) left me frustrated and wanting more history and culture. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ok, so the chocolate in this picture is actually from Peru and not Ecuador, brought to me by my coworker – I thought it was pretty perfect timing for this book to have real South American chocolate! What’s the last gift someone brought you?
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