The vintage seaside town of Camellia Beach, South Carolina seems like the perfect place for romance with its quiet beach and its decadent chocolate shop that serves the world’s richest dark chocolates. The Chocolate Box’s owner, Charity Penn, falls even further under the island’s moonlit spell as she joins Althea Bays and the rest of the turtle watch team to witness a new generation of baby sea turtles hatch and make their way into the wide ocean.
Before the babies arrive, gunshots ring out in the night. Cassidy Jones, the local Casanova, is found dead in the sand with his lover Jody Dalton—the same woman who has vowed to destroy the Chocolate Box—holding the gun. It’s an obvious crime of passion, or so everyone believes. But when Jody’s young son pleads with Penn to bring his mother back to him, she can’t say no. She dives headfirst into a chocolate swirl of truth and lies, and must pick through an assortment of likely (and sometimes unsavory) suspects before it’s too late for Penn and for those she loves in Dorothy St. James’s third rich installment of the Southern Chocolate Shop mysteries, In Cold Chocolate. (Summary via Goodreads)
I am a HUGE fan of the Southern Chocolate Shop Mystery series by Dorothy St. James ..... and it's not because there is chocolate involved !! There are so many things to love about this series.....from the main character Charity Penn to the chocolate shop she inherited to the sexy lawyer neighbor that she has a crush on to the fact that it all takes place in a seaside town !! You will also love the relationships among the characters in the story....even the ones that aren't "nice".
And in In Cold Chocolate one of the not "nice" relationships is the focus of the story. It's no secret that Penn does not get along with Harley's ex-wife Jody. But when Jody is found standing over a dead body, Penn promises Harley's son, Gavin, that she will get his mom home in time for his first day of school. Unfortunately school is scheduled to start in less than a week and Jody was found standing over the dead body holding the smoking gun.
If you have read the previous two books in this series, you know that Penn does not back down from a fight and life has never been easy going for her....so it will be no surprise to see her dig her toes in and start investigating the death herself. She will do anything and everything to insure that Jody will be there for Gavin on his first day of school even though all the evidence shows that Jody is guilty.
Fall in love with Penn and her crew.....talk a walk on the beach.....check out the turtle nests.....enjoy a milkshake or a piece of chocolate.....while you read these books, you will feel like you are on Camellia Beach....and you will not want the story to end !!
Review by Missi S.
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