The Lollipop Shoes (Chocolat 2): the delightful bestselling sequel to Chocolat, from international multi-million copy seller Joanne Harris

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Anxious to start the story, anxious to know what was going to happen, anxious to find out why the characters in this second story were so different than in the first book, anxious to know what had happened to them, anxious about the new character in the story, stomach churning, bile in the back of my throat anxious about what she appeared to be, about what she was going to do, what she did, and what she said. Parallelism is rampant as Harris points out that the witches both lie about their past, assume multiple identities, have issues with their parentage and cast spells of different sorts. Reading it feels like looking through the window of a chocolaterie, seeing little boxes that you know contain the most delicious treats, but all the while aware of the pane of glass before you - and the worst is you never quite see what's inside the boxes, either.

And I honestly think that the amount of time that Zozie spent with Vianne could have been cut shorter. A misfit and a loner at school, she hates Paris, resents the “new” Vianne, and desperately misses the intimacy they once had together. Reader review'From the first page it captivates and holds you hostage' -- ***** Reader review'Magical and mesmerising' -- ***** Reader review*************************************************************************'Who died? I raised the question with Better World Books and although they could not supply a hardcover version they were extremely generous in making up for the descepency. The wind has always dictated Vianne Rocher’s every move, buffeting her from the French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes to the crowded streets of Paris.Vianne herself has adopted a policy of trying to fit in, and no longer uses her magic, which has always marked her and her daughters as different, and which she feels has been the cause of their itinerant lifestyle. Some of the places are of course fictional but the essence of the area in real life has been carefully evoked.

Why is she trying to conform, be like "the others", of course its because she wants a normal life for her daughters Anouk/Annie and Rosette (who is mute).After the confusion of the first couple of chapters, I settled into the story, and may I suggest to any publisher whose author changes narrators with each chapter that it is a big help to have a specific symbol for the narrating character above the chapter numbers? Charming and enigmatic, Zozie provides the brightness that Yanne's life needs--as her vivacity and bold lollipop shoes dazzle rebellious and impressionable preadolescent Anouk. For some reason I always got the impression that Chocolat took place in the 1950s or so, but according to this story it took place in the present. For David Goggins, childhood was a nightmare--poverty, prejudice, and physical abuse colored his days and haunted his nights. Zozie observes that she has no sense of danger, that's she's accident-prone, and she gets violent when she has a tantrum.

The people of Japan believe that everyone has an ikigai - a reason for being; the thing that gets you out of bed each morning. The novel itself is amply long enough to have used him more to its advantage, as I found the first quarter to go on a little too long.

I have to admit I was totally confused at the beginning of this book; It was about page 100 before I fully grasped what was going on. What I’ve done is to take aspects of her – and of myself – to create a mother/daughter relationship that makes sense to me. Her hobbies are listed in Who's Who as 'mooching, lounging, strutting, strumming, priest-baiting and quiet subversion'.