Fake Chocolate
The Chocoverse Book III
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Bo's Coming Home!
In a galaxy where chocolate is tied to dark secrets and past wrongs, one celebrity chef has to put things right, in the delectable conclusion to the Chocoverse Trilogy that started with Free Chocolate
When disease ravages Earth's cacao plantations, Bo Benitez returns home to help with the media spin to hide that chocolate is in danger of being lost forever. HGB has come up with a new product - one which doesn't appease the cocoa-addicted murderous, shark-toothed aliens threatening to invade the planet. Someone has to smooth things out. Just when Bo starts to make headway, someone tries to kidnap her. While trying to avoid more would-be-kidnappers, Bo finds out that HGB is developing a cure for withdrawal from the Invincible Heart. Will she let her need to be physically whole again tie her to HGB and its enigmatic CEO? When she gets a key piece of evidence that would unravel secrets from three different planets, she has tough choices to make about the future of her world and its place in the galaxy.
Space Opera Meets Soap Opera in a Galactic War to Control Earth's Greatest Export!
File Under: Science Fiction [ Who's Got Chocolate | Mercy is a Gift | Think We're a Clone Now | No Place Like Home ]
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In writing teacher Royer's clever debut, humans have turned Earth into a fear-filled bunker after learning about the existence of aliens. Earth's sole valuable commodity on the interplanetary market is chocolate, and some humans will do anything to preserve its value. Bodacious "Bo" Benitez wants to disrupt the system by smuggling cacao plants offworld, but doing so brings her face-to-face with her alien boyfriend's hidden past, the man who murdered her chocolate-smuggling father, and the possibility of global war. The story is languidly paced and occasionally feels too drawn out, but Royer keeps things interesting by portraying how one tiny encounter can quickly spiral out of control in an interconnected galaxy. The aliens aren't out to conquer Earth, just the markets, and they ruthlessly wield economics and niceties instead of lasers, to darkly comic and sometimes deadly serious effect. Trade-related science fiction is a small but solid niche, and Royer's work fills it nicely.