Review: Chocolate Dreams at the Gingerbread Cafe by Rebecca Raisin

Recently, while browsing Netgalley for new books, I came across this book. I had recently read Christmas at the Gingerbread Cafe and enjoyed it, so I gave this one a try as well.  This book is set just a few months following the first book, during Easter.  There was a return of all the characters we were introduced in the first book.

This book read very much like a second act in a play. The first act, book one, was all about them meeting and falling in love.  Now in the second act, that love has trials, tribulations, and tests that must be passed to prove the love is true.

Lily and Damon are living together in Lily's old house.  When Damon's daughter is visiting, she has her own room and stays with them.  Slowly they are integrating into a family.  Business has been picking up for both Lily and Damon, between their joint catering jobs and each being busier at their own stores. Plus, in order to help bring more revenue into the area, all the stores in town are gearing up for a Chocolate Festive.  So of course, to burst her bubble and cause trouble, Lily's ex husband, Joel, shows up.  He is demanding $20,000 repayment for money that he used to help get the shop going years before.  Never mind that he had lost much more than that in get rich quick schemes, including their house.  If he doesn't get the money, he plans to take Lily to court and make her sell her shop.

This was a novella just like the first book and had a quick, fast paced story.  There is no dramatic shocking moment where Lily and Damon are almost torn apart, shock, gasp, horror, will they or won't they stay together. This story stays true to the maturity level of the characters.  Lily's struggle to fight Joel, Damon's quiet support of Lily and how the two of them use this obstacle to bring their relationship closer together. I think this was an even better book than the first.  I gave it 4 stars.

Chocolate…the most irresistible temptation?

The Gingerbread Café is all a buzz! This Easter, Lily and the rest of the town of Ashford, Connecticut are planning a truly decadent Chocolate Festival. Cooking up a storm, CeeCee and Lily are not just baking a batch of their sinfully delicious chocolate-dipped gingerbread men, but an excess of chocolate truffles, squidgy, cinnamony hot cross buns and melt in your mouth chocolate eggs. The Gingerbread Café staff have definitely enjoyed the tasting process!

Add in Damon’s cute-as-a-button seven year old daughter, Charlie, up for a visit and Lily’s perfect Easter may just be around the corner. Until her ex-husband Joel turns up demanding twenty thousand dollars… Suddenly the future of the Gingerbread Café is not so clear…and Lily finds herself eating far more of The Gingerbread Café’s treats than her skinny jeans allow…

Can Lily concoct a brilliant plan to save her beloved café, convince Damon she has no feelings for Joel and still throw a Chocolate Festival the town will be talking about for years? There’s only one way to find out...

Welcome back to the warmth, cupcakes and hot chocolate of The Gingerbread Café – your home away from home

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