BLAME IT ON CHOCOLATE

Author: Jennifer Greene ISBN: 0373771452 1/2006 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: HQN

Lucy Fitzhenry didn't just wake up one morning and decide to do something stupid . . . But when an experimental strain of chocolate that she'd developed needed testing, someone had to do it. Who knew that overindulging in her creation would turn an introverted plant lover into a wild nymphomaniac? Or that a celebration with Nick, her boss, would lead to a shocking kiss . . . and a whole lot more. She blamed it on the chocolate. Her new discovery was supposed to have made her career. Not turn her practical, logical, normal life upside down and get her pregnant with her boss's baby! Though she and Nick butted heads at work, if their one night together was any indication, they were a great match in bed. With a little luck (and chocolate!) maybe they could turn their one-night stand into the chance of a lifetime.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

In BLAME IT ON CHOCOLATE, Jennifer Greene completely captures the feeling of that first true love; the nervousness, the gawky behavior, the mood swings, the passionate kisses. You find yourself remembering a feeling or thinking, "Oh, my Lord, I remember acting like that!". As soon as we are comfortable with practical, skinny, flat chested Lucy falling in love with her hot boss Nick and getting pregnant by him, we get to see a whole new side of her. She turns into this confident, bossy, pregnant woman who can't seem to get enough food—and she grows some boobs! From there the storyline just takes off!

Nick, trying to be supportive of any decision Lucy makes concerning their baby, shows what a truly wonderful man he is. He tries to tackle all the little problems that arise in Lucy's life so that she doesn't have to stress about them. He takes her shopping for the baby, hires her a bodyguard for work so she doesn't have to lift a single heavy plant, he makes his home a retreat for her, buying her new bathrobes and gourmet food to make her comfy, and gives her a cut of one of the projects that she has been heading up at work—a delectable chocolate called Bliss—so that even though she doesn't want to marry him, she and the baby will be set. He totally tackles the new dad role in that clueless sort of I'm-gonna-take-over-the-world way that will have every woman reading this book, me included, swooning.

BLAME IT ON CHOCOLATE is a sassy, edgy, hilarious book that had me falling in love all over again. Nick and Lucy sizzle up these pages and make BLAME IT ON CHOCOLATE my bet for one of the best books of the New Year.

Kristal Gorman