4 stars for Anya
2 stars for kooky pacing and dialogue

I love Anya Ballanchine. She's tough and unpredictable. She makes decisions I would never expect from a character in a YA novel. What young woman would agree to marry someone for a business alliance? Or hire and eventually befriend the man who put her in prison when she was 15? The scenes between Anya and Mr. Delacroix were my favorites. What a surprising relationship. More interesting than her relationship with Win. He could be sweet, I guess, but he was so so boring and judgmental. My least favorite love interest in a long time. I cheered for Teo and Yuji before Win.

I don't know if the author ever explained the premise of this book very well, that chocolate is illegal in the future (and coffee too—shudder!). But she still built her world around it pretty well. Anya is part of a crime family that deals in chocolate, although she puts a twist on that once she discovers a loophole with cacao. She even becomes a godmother twice in this last book of the trilogy, which I thought was a nice touch.

The plot, however, meandered—it was like a long description of what Anya's life was like once she opened the cacao clubs, covering many years and not a lot of action, peopled by many characters who annoyed me.

And there's a conspicuous dearth of contractions in this book. I don't know if that's the way they're supposed to talk in future, but it made the dialogue really weird.

I listened to this, and Ilyana Kadushin was an interesting narrator. She has a very deliberate style, which worked well with Anya's narration and not as well with dialogue between characters. The dialogue was already odd-sounding, so I can't really blame the reader.

The series as a whole was fine. It was an original idea and with an original heroine. I don't think it worked at every level, but overall it was a fun idea. ( )

Not really sure which of the three books of this series are my favorite. Really like this one but the other two were good to. This book I felt a little more emotionally invested perhaps because the author did a great job of making you feel as if you were right there with Anya as she "grew up". There were some punches thrown in this book that I didn't see coming where as the others not so much. Great book..Great series. ( )

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: Chocolate wars, love and death in the Age of Love and Chocolate!

Opening Sentence: “I hadn’t wanted to be a Godmother, but my best friend insisted.”

The Review:

Anya is back in the last book of the Birthright trilogy, and she is making moves to open her club, The Dark Room and to legalize some aspect of chocolate so that she can take care of her family! Wyn still refuses to understand or get over the choices she made in the second book. However, Anya sweeps into adulthood with her decisions and choices in this book. Anya faces sabotage while opening her club, she garners new business partners and makes even more difficult decisions. In the end, it all comes full circle!

Usually I talk a bit more about what happens in a book, but I just have so much to rave about in this review that I decided to keep that part short and just focus on the why I love this book! I really enjoyed the first book and to be honest I didn’t quite get why the series was called Birthright other than they talk a lot about her being a Balachine, but a main part of the first book was Wyn and he was a huge focus in book 2 as well. Honestly, I loved them in the first book. I was so rooting for that relationship, but by book 2 I was so over them and I felt like instead of focusing on chocolate and the birthright aspect of this series, we got a whole lot of Wyn and Anya and I was not happy. However, this book brought it full circle. It would be a spoiler to give what happens away but I will say that I was back on board with the romance in this book.

Oh yes, I didn’t say it was Wyn. I guess you will have to read and find out. My favorite thing about this series is Scarlet and Anya. I adore that friendship, in fact I think I envy that friendship! Scarlet is such a great friend and finally things start to go right for her. My second favorite thing in this series is Anya and her family! I love the relationship she has with Leo and Netty, and even Mr. Kipling. This book finally brought the birthright aspect home and nailed it. I finally felt that Anya got it and not only did she embrace and help her family, she was embraced in turn by them and it was amazing.

I will complain that certain aspects kind of felt unresolved, however that didn’t diminish my love of this book! Anya spent a lot of the first two books with bad things happening to her out of her control and just trying to do the best she could to fix and contain the situations, but in this book even when things happened she was still in charge and it was a thing of beauty to see her grow and change into a capable, intelligent, and loving adult! Bonus, I actually adored her relationship with Charles Delacroix. It was another full circle in the series.

This is was a great change from the normal dystopian. There wasn’t some evil government oppressing everyone, it was just simply illegal to drink coffee or eat chocolate. So refreshing and different! If you haven’t read this series, start with book 1, you won’t regret it. Anya is one of my favorite main characters of all time.

Notable Scene:

“Pip Balachine continued. “We ask you today what we should have asked you two years ago. Anya, will you lead the Balachine Family into the twenty-second century?”

I did not want to lead this family.

And yet…

As I looked down the long stone table at the pasty complexions and light eyes that recalled my father’s, my brother’s, and my own, and unfamiliar feeling began to stir within me.

Obligation.

I felt and obligation to those men (and women though mainly there were men) that I had been born a Balachine had been the defining circumstance of my life.”

FTC Advisory: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)/Macmillan provided me with a copy of In the Age of Love and Chocolate. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )

I was a little disappointed with this one. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but I wasn't as into this one. It still had adventure and new twists and turns, but this one just lacked a little in excitement for me. Maybe it is a good thing that this one wasn't as great as the first two-it makes it easier to say goodbye. ( )

Such an out of the box storyline but I loved it. Thank you for ending it on a good note. ( )