My Fab Fifties Life - Joanne Harris Archives

Reading Wednesday

Book Review Vianne by Joanne Harris

September 10, 2025

Who is Vianne

The beloved book (as well as additional series and film) Chocolat left readers wanting more…how did Vianne Rocher arrive in Lansquenet and make such a magical impression as a chocolatier? Here is the novel you have been waiting for to learn the answer.

Before

Six years before Chocolat, we find ourselves in New York, where a young woman is scattering the ashes of her mother. She has spent her life adrift with her mother, changes cities and aliases always as her mother would say, avoiding the man in black.

Vianne now finds herself alone, and pregnant. With forged papers she makes her way to France and into a job with room and board at a bistro in Marseille. But Vianne has spent her life in fear and flight mode…and she begins to feel too settled in Marseille. Vianne’s magical gift helps her see inside of people and understand their past griefs. As she gets to know the old and crabby bistro owner, she knows what he is hiding, and the grief he has carried for twenty years.

Chocolat

Vianne also makes friends who are trying to open a Chocolateria. Here she she hones her cooking skills and learns she has a talent for making chocolates with a magical touch. As the babe inside her grows, she too grows in awareness of what she must do, to secure a future for herself and her child.

Joanne Harris

Harris states in a press release that her own life has mirrored Viannes over the past twenty-five years, and she felt it was time to stop and take a deep look at the past. Understanding where we come from, she says, helps us move ahead. A great reason to write a novel, and an important task for each of us to follow in midlife.

Book Review Vianne by Joanne Harris

I really did enjoy this book, even though I have never read Chocolat or anything else by Joanne Harris. I think I will now. At times the magical aspect of the story seemed unnecessary, but it still added a romantic flavor to an already flavorful plot.

****Four stars for Vianne by Joanne Harris. Thank you for reading my book review Vianne by Joanne Harris. See last week’s book review Broken Country by Claire Leslie Hall.

We love it when you share and comment and pin our book reviews. Thank you.

Book Review Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris

Reading Wednesday

July 14, 2021

Laureen

France During the War

The place is a tiny village on the Loire River in France during the German occupation in World War II. This is a place where a terrible tragedy occurs. Who is responsible for this terrible tragedy and how does it change the lives of so many people? This will unfold in the pages of Five Quarters of the Orange.

Framboise is nine years old the summer of the tragedy. A precocious but naive young girl, whose disdain for her mother leads her to create often cruel ways that put her sensitive mother to bed for days – allowing Framboise and her older siblings to run about the village unsupervised. Framboise summer goal is to catch the mysterious giant Loire River pike called Old Mother, but she unexpectedly finds herself developing a crush on a German soldier.

The Tragedy

Framboise mother, Mirabelle Dartigen, is looked on by the villagers as “unusual” and perhaps even a witch for her odd behavior. Mirabelle keeps a scrapbook of recipes that also serves as somewhat of a journal and will play an important role in unraveling the events of that fateful summer.

The family is run out of the village at the end of the summer, but decades later Framboise returns. She hopes to lead a quiet life and not be recognized as the daughter of Mirabelle Dartigen. But her secret begins to unravel as she runs a small local creperie and her nephew and his wife go to great lengths to get their hands on the infamous recipe book.

Redemption

This is a dark story about mothers and daughters. It is a book about being young and naive and living with our mistakes. This is a novel about food, family, and facing the past to have peace in the present. I enjoyed it very much. I hope you enjoyed my book review Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris.

*****Five stars for Five Quarters of the Orange

Read last week’s review of The Music of Bees

My current read About Grace

We love it when you pin and share our book reviews.