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Jan 30, 2009

Diane rated it:

Julia Bennett is the central character in this book. She has lived with abuse all of her life with her alcoholic mother and her many boyfriends, and she is reliving it all over again with her fiancé Robert. Finally, one day after being abused she sees the light and decides to leave before her wedding and go to look for refuge with her Aunt Lydia, a woman who has tried to help her in the past.

In living with Lydia, Julia also gets to know a group of women who will help her find hersel More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 16, 2008

JanB rated it:

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7 comments like (5 people liked it)

Sep 27, 2011

Stephany rated it:

I really love Chick Lit, but this one would just be between "OK" and "Liked it" for me. I am a harsh judge it seems but this book was over the top. Too much going on, the main story would have been more enjoyable if the whole book was a little simplified. Julia decides to leave her abusive fiance before the wedding at the beginning of the book and runs to her Aunt in a small town knowing he will follow eventually and get even with her. Her way of coping, and her gift in li More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 04, 2011

Susan rated it:

I am trying to slog through this book because a good friend recommended it. I like to support new authors. But, I am not sure I am going to finish this one. This new author seems to me to be trying to hard. It feels a bit contrived. It feels like she is trying to get into the "Ya-Ya Sisterhood" but doesn't quite know how. There is too much 'potty' talk and not enough substance to balance it. Sorry, but I give this one a thumbs down.... ( two days later)... well, I have continu More...

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Sep 15, 2010

Shelly♥ rated it:

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Oct 03, 2009

Gail rated it:

In the first line, Julia tells us she leaves her wedding dress hanging from a tree in North Dakota, as she leaves Boston and drives away from her abusive and dangerous fiance on their wedding day. Her black eye a reminder of how narrowly she escaped a marriage of abuse and humiliation.

She goes to her Aunt Lydia, a feisty, strong, eccentric woman who lives on a farm in Golden Oregon. In this small town, Julia with her big boobs, wild hair, and damaged psyche, finds friendship, safet More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Feb 03, 2010

Jan rated it:

Julia left her wedding dress hanging in a tree and her abusive relationship in Boston on her way to Golden, Oregon, home of her mother's half sister, the quirkiest of them all, to find herself. Eccentric, Aunt Lydia "grounds" Julia while surrounding her with love, friends, farm animals and the chores they create. Those friends include a psychic with secrets, a minister's very unhappy wife and an abused mother of four. This oddball group gather strength from each other and are able to More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 11, 2012

Tamra rated it:

Ok, I have to admit the title is what drew me to this book. Anything that has "chocolate" in the title has GOT to be good, right? Well...

Julia arrives at her quirky and over-the-feminist-top aunt's home with a - literally - bruised and broken body and spirit to escape her verbally and physically abusive fiance. She then meets Aunt Lydia's "Psychic Night" women friends who are struggling to find their own inner strength and courage to overcome personal problems of More...

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Jun 14, 2011

Joanne rated it:

Overall I felt the author took a typical chick lit type story but made it more creative with her original outlook on the ladies. References may be a little too sexual for some readers, but I found it amusing and funny and couldn’t help laughing out loud.

Really enjoyed this book that a co-worker passed along. Despite having serious issues (abusive and alcoholic relationships and cancer), the Psychic Night group: Julia, Aunt Lydia, Katie, Lara and Caroline find solace in their fr More...

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May 25, 2010

Regina rated it:

I'm not sure what I did more while reading this book - laugh or cry. It's enlightening, humiliating, and completely enthralling!

It was amazing to me after suffering from the 'Dread Disease' myself that I could laugh when Julia contracts it and hides it from everyone - as did I. (Don't worry it's just panic attacks!) I reread and reread the description of Lydia's sprawling farm with the toilet planters and concrete pigs - mostly because the tears in my eyes kept messing with the words More...

1 comment like

Feb 13, 2010

Wendy rated it:

I really enjoyed this book! There were times in the beginning of the book that I laughed out loud (especially at their variously named Psychic nights).
Julia runs away from her society marriage at the last moment throwing her hated wedding dress into a tree. She goes to live with her Aunt Lydia who has always been her escape, first from her abusive and neglectful mother, and now from her abusive ex-fiance. Julia falls into small town life and into a group of women who all have their quirks More...

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Nov 13, 2009

Sharon A. rated it:

I'm not sure what to say about this book. I thought some of the characters and situations were contrived, the confrontations and conversations overblown and silly, and the wrap-ups too pat. However, I consumed this book during a weekend trip with my husband. I read for the entire trip there, every spare moment in the hotel, and the entire trip home.

So what does that say? That while I rolled my eyes throughout much of it, I am a sucker for a happy ending.

I do have o More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 23, 2011

Moviemavengal rated it:

I think I was expecting this to be a romance, and it's really more something else - a story of women's empowerment after various forms of abuse and trauma. You can tell it's a debut novel. I felt like the author threw in everything and the kitchen sink -- how much MORE trauma and awful things could the heroine have endured in her life?! I'm sure the awful things that Julia endured are not really unusual, unfortunately, but they are more than I'm used to reading about. The zany supporting cha More...

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Mar 08, 2010

Karen rated it:

Just because a book has a certain amount of eccentricity and a core group of women, it should not be favorably compared to the Ya Ya's. I read the entire thing because I like to finish what I start, but the characterization was completely frustrating - how can anyone be empathetic to these women the way they were written, especially the main character? I know we're supposed to fall in love with the character of the aunt, but she just felt like a caricature of the "kooky, lovable relative" More...

6 comments like

Jul 21, 2009

Tara rated it:

I read this because it was recommended by a friend who could not stop raving about it. I was horrified to read it and to find that I not only didn't like it, but that I hated it. To me, it was like the writer composed what she thought was a recipe for a great book, and followed it step by step to get the desired result. Not only was the chocolate metaphor overdone, but the characters were totally unrealistic, as was much of the dialogue. Most of it was a cliche, from the horrible, abusive bo More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 18, 2010

Mainon rated it:

So, I freely admit that this is not great fiction, but it is definitely feel-good female fiction. There's lots of woman power, stick up for yourself, find out who you are, overcome your fears, follow your heart energy, and I giggled in places and otherwise smiled through much of it (though there are, of course, the obligatory tragic and horrifying set of situations, so that the women can have suitable opportunities to show their strengths, and those you just can't smile through).

S More...

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Jan 18, 2011

Cathie rated it:

I think I've found a new favorite author. This is the second book by Cathy Lamb I've read, and I can't decide which one I like better. She's such a fantastic author and her books really grab ahold of me.

What is so appealing about this book? Pretty much everything. You have Julia, a young woman who escapes an abusive relationship on her wedding day and moves in with her eccentric Aunt Lydia, who unapologetically hosts women's sexuality "meetings" at her home and grows po More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 11, 2010

Marilyn rated it:

In the character of Julia, Cathy Lamb has created a woman who is warm, funny, unique...and quite literally on the road to self-discovery. After leaving her abusive fiance at the altar in Boston (and her wedding veil on a gnarled tree in North Dakota), Julia keeps driving West until she gets to her aunt's house in Oregon. When she gets there, she meets a community full of quirky, offbeat characters, who show her what it means to support each other, value themselves and honor their passions.
More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 01, 2009

AJ rated it:

I've heard so many women like this book and I think that it's possible that the subject matter is what draws them, but the problems with this book are too great to ignore in spite of the serious and potentially positive message within.

First of all the only thing that can be said about the writing is that it is juvenile. This is seriously one of the most poorly written books I've ever read. Cathy Lamb makes Stephanie Meyers look like Jane Austin.

I couldn't stomach it aft More...

1 comment like

Feb 03, 2011

Jeri rated it:

this story had a lot of potential but fell on its face in my opinion. Julia Bennett flees the Boston altar where her blueblood abuser fiancé, Robert Stanfield III, awaits her. She leaves her wedding gown in a North Dakota tree, and arrives in the tiny town of Golden, Oregon to take refuge with her beloved Aunt Lydia. As Julia slowly returns to a semblance of normalcy, Lydia's eccentric friends soon become Julia's near and dear as well: minister's wife Lara, psychic Caroline and abused wife Kati More...

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Apr 10, 2010

Mrs. Schatz rated it:

At the beginning I doubted why I had picked this book to read. Then Julia began to make friends and let herself heal. It was a story of 5 women who needed to overcome obstacles, humougous & to some people insurmountable, but they did. They did with love, friendship, laughter, and inner strength. Aunt Lydia knows how to channel a woman's inner strength with her Pyschic Nights and women's bodies. It made me laugh, cry, and cherish my women friends and love my husband even more. Great read!!! More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 26, 2010

Beth rated it:

Ok, I've read the other reviews of this book on Goodreads. Thank heavens I did not read the negative reviews before I read the book. I picked up the book off the library shelf simply because it had a quirky title. Started reading and was hooked from the first page. Yes, some of the events/characters seem over the top, but if the book mirrored all of our own lives, we would not read it. There are comments, reactions, observations in the book that seem as if the author HAD to have gone throug More...

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May 30, 2010

Amy rated it:

Julia Bennett is a single 34 yr. old woman who's having a life crisis. She had a troubled childhood growing up with an abusive mother who was a drug addict and slept around. Her mother would neglect her and also bring home boyfriends who abused Julia either physically or tried to sexually molest her. Julia used to hang out at the library or the park alot sometimes sleeping there when things got too bad and her teachers and others would pitch in and bring her meals or buy her new clothes, since h More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 09, 2009

Angie rated it:

The Lit Ladies Book Club rallied from the difficult to digest Angela’s Ashes last month, to the eat-it-up-quick-as-you-can Julia’s Chocolates. Cathy Lamb channels The Secret Life of Bees and The Ya-Ya Sisterhood with this turn on a lost soul of tragic beginnings who finds her true self through the company of some very unique and extreme friendships.

Lamb’s story centers on Julia. She is running away from a horrible past and even worse future. We get to witness her growth and awakening More...

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Apr 17, 2010

Judy rated it:

I wanted to like this book. And after reading 20 pages I did. How can you resist the story of an abused woman who runs away from Boston and her wealthy boyfriend on their wedding day and leaves her wedding dress hanging in a tree in North Dakota on her way west? However, by the time I was on page 75, I was not enjoying the book AND but I already figured out the ending. On the surface, this novel seems as if it would be a winner--a damsel in distress, strong women characters who bond together More...

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Jul 29, 2011

Aynsley rated it:

To be frank, I'm surprised this even got published. I do think many of the characters were well developed, but not the protagonist or her aunt, a major character. I think the concept of the book was workable, but the writing was SO heavy-handed and unbelievably obvious as to be painful. Seems to be geared to the Lifetime-Movie-Of-The_Week crowd. The editing was poor and there were many mistakes in punctuation and structure, which I find unbearably juvenile.

The book wasn't without its charms, bu More...

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Dec 10, 2009

Renee rated it:

I thought this book was great - in a lighthearted, chick-lit sort of way. Yeah, some of the messages were about some serious stuff...but, I think the books was more about friendship between women, and the sometimes jaded view we have of men as either bad or good, not in between. It plays into those feelings we have about men that may not be true, but we share together as women, and we get the happy ending we all wish we could have, unrealistic as it may be. So, it is full of stereotypes, and hap More...

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Jan 10, 2011

Jen rated it:

Let me start up front by acknowledging that this novel is all over the place. The characters are beyond eccentric and sometimes unbelievable; the plot takes unlikely turns; the writing is a little scattered and repetitive in places. But as I found myself laughing out loud and devouring this book in two days, I couldn't help but think - so what? It's not gonna win any literary awards, but I gave the book four stars b/c it's a fun and often very moving read. I suppose this book would be categorize More...

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Nov 03, 2009

Jo rated it:

A friend of mine raved about this book but I thought this book was poor in so many ways. It's written in a connect the dots, color between the lines kind of way. Lydia is way over the top as a character, and "Getting to know your vagina psychic night" and the others are just a little creepy. There's way to much work to do on a farm to paint a building a different color every couple days and a 100 acre cattle ranch? Can anyone with a brain not recognize a panic attack? According to More...

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Dec 04, 2009

Amber rated it:

Love Cathy Lamb!! A friend of mine suggested her work to me awhile back, saying how funny and comical her sense of humor is and can be in her books. A lot expression and personality comes out in Lamb's writing, without being super wordy and dragging on into too much details. That made this book all the more fun to read and I liked getting to know the characters in this book. They all seemed like real people that you do find in a small town in Oregon (born and raised in a small Oregon town myself More...

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