Book Review: The Chocolate Diaries by Karen Scalf Linamen

Summary: Ever find yourself in the midst of a dull, bitter life? We Karen Linamen knows just the recipe for a sweet, addictive life that will have smiling for no reason other than just being happy. Take a trip down the rocky road of life, including stories of people just like you and fun chocolate recipes that are guaranteed to brighten up any day. 


Review: The only reason I picked up this book was because I really liked the cover and I got it for free from the publisher WaterBrook. I had no idea it was about how to be happier in life and enjoy living. This being said, this book was just okay for me. I enjoyed the stories of other people that I could connect with, especially the chapter on why journaling makes you happier, but the rest I felt was rambling. I felt like the author said the same things over and over and when she had examples from her own life, some were vague and very jumpy from different times. If she's writing a book about how to be happy, the she should be able to tell the details of her own life that went wrong so we know we can listen to her! I felt like she left out some personal stuff that would have filled in the gaps of some of her stories. And I felt like the chocolate aspect was just thrown in there because she likes it. Most times, there is nothing that has to do with chocolate and she would just ad in, oh, and eat some chocolate to feel happy! Since I'm not that big of a fan of nonfiction or self-help books, The Chocolate Diaries didn't really do it for me. Maybe I'm just the wrong audience, but as a whole this book just wasn't all that great.