The Chocolate Lovers' Club (Carole Matthews)****

I read The Chocolate Lovers’ Diet first and really enjoyed it. Then I read the first in the series, The Chocolate Lovers’ Club and I really enjoyed that too. Both are really great comedies, with some really amusing characters and situations, as well as some more serious storylines that nevertheless fit into the book well. There’s just one problem. The two books are pretty much the same.

Yes, the characters and storylines have moved on a little bit between one book and the next and there are differences, but they mostly have exactly the same problem. It’s true that the same problems can hang around for years and it’s not unusual to think you’ve solved one problem, only for it to come back again. In that sense, it’s a realistic book. But you don’t want two stories about the same set of characters to be that much alike.

There are parts of the book that aren’t funny at all. Lucy’s complete and total inability to cope with any kind of job is terrifying. Even I’d have done better than her. I’d have done better with driving that van and I don’t even have a driving licence for a car. And if I’d trashed that bookshop – which I never would have done, at least not to that extent – I wouldn’t run away and leave the whole mess behind for my elderly boss to find when he got back from his hospital appointment. I’d want to, I really would. But you can’t do things like that.

But Lucy is mostly an adorable character. Once the incidents mentioned above are over with and she’s back to her old job and back to sitting at her desk, doing no work at all (she’s much less trouble when she’s doing nothing), you can put your reservations about her out of your mind, and start loving her again.

Then there’s the sex-mad Chantal. Yes, she is incredibly stupid and I wouldn’t blame anyone for calling her a slag. She does have a bit of an obsession. But she too is a very nice person. Nadia is amazing the way she deals with her young son and her husband’s gambling addiction and their money worries, not to mention the fact she still has some strength to spare for providing support for her friends.

Autumn is perhaps a bit too nice but I also think she’s shockingly unprofessional. She runs a craft class to support young people who have been in trouble with the law. It’s very commendable but when Autumn decides to turn to a bit of criminality herself, I can’t help questioning her integrity. Yes, it was in order to help Chantal who had got herself into trouble and was herself the victim of a crime. But that doesn’t make it okay that Autumn should either a) break the law herself or b) let the former criminals she’s supposed to be helping think there are times when it’s okay to do things like that.

The law-breaking section is brilliant though. Very funny and I did kind of wish I was there with them. But it doesn’t make it right.