Dreaming In Chocolate
by Susan Bishop Crispell


A story of love, hot chocolate, and one little girl's wish for her mother that will make your heart swell.

At twenty-seven, Penelope Dalton is quickly ticking off items on a bucket list. Only the list isn’t hers. After her eight year-old daughter Ella is given just six months to live thanks to an inoperable brain tumor, Penelope is determined to fill Ella’s remaining days with as many new experiences as she can.

With an endless supply of magical gifts and recipes from the hot chocolate café Penelope runs alongside her mother in a small town nestled in the Appalachian Mountains, she is able to give her daughter almost everything she wants. The one sticking point is Ella’s latest addition to her list: get a dad. And not just any dad. Ella has her sights set on Noah Gregory, her biological father and the only person Penelope knows to have proved her true love hot chocolate wrong.

Now Noah’s back in town for a few months—and as charming as ever—and the part of her that dreamed he was her fate in the first place wonders if she made the right decision to keep the truth of their daughter from him. The other, more practical part, is determined to keep him from breaking Ella’s heart too.

But as Ella’s health declines, Penelope must give in to her fate or face a future of regrets. (Overview and picture from Goodreads)

My Thoughts

Penelope owns a chocolate shop with an apothecary table.  The table produces chocolate recipes that have magical cures - to fix a broken heart, to make someone tell the truth, to make someone fall in love.  Penelope has turned cynical with regards to the table because she feels it did not make her one wish come true.  Will she get her wish in the end?
What a delightful story.  Who couldn't help but fall in love with Penelope's daughter Ella.  She firmly believes in the magic of the table and refuses to give up hope for hew Mom.  This story had fun characters and was as much about the power of believing as it was about magic.
From St. Martin's Press via Netgalley.
3.5/5.0