Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Book Review: Chocolate Roses



Chocolate Roses: a Jane Eyre parody by Joan Sowards
I have always felt that one of the tells of a classic story is that it can transcend all time. A Classic tale is the same basic story but in any time place,or in any place. Shakespeare is the most common example of how this can be done, although I'm not saying it has to be done exactly word for word like Shakespeare is often done, but that the story can be taken and placed into a modern situation and still be the same delightful beautiful story.
Chocolate Roses is an example of this. It takes the Classic tale of a girl who has had a hard life, falls in love with a man who she can't marry or be with and watch the story unfold. The ways that Joan Sowards takes the basics of the original story and places it into a modern world with all of our problems and joys. She does a brilliant job of paralleling the two stories and making it completely believable. Her characters are LDS, which is not over barring and would be just as cute, but maybe not as sweet, if the main characters weren't so rooted in the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Joan Sowards not only wrote a great story, but she created lovable normal characters. Her main female Rose (the Jane Eyre character) is so normal and innocent that you can't help but love her. 
If you are a fan of Jane Eyre or just a fan of a good clean sweet romance story- this is a book for you.

2 comments:

Traxy said...

Nice review! I think I might just dare a read, if I can track the book down from the UK. :) Saw the book mentioned on the Brontë blog the other day and am a bit hesitant because of the LDS thing - I hate books that get too religious (certain bits of the Narnia books make me gag, for instance) - but perhaps it's not so bad after all. Thanks!

Joan Sowards said...

Thank you for the great review on Chocolate Roses!