Title: Blood and Chocolate
Author: Annette Curtis Klause
First published August 11, 1997
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
ISBN: 9780440226680 (ISBN10: 0440226686)
Rating: 3.79
Overview
Despite her luxurious lifestyle, Vivian Delaney feels like a prisoner in her own life. Her marriage has become a loveless arrangement, leaving her desperate for any kind of intimacy.
When she meets the mysterious and alluring Anton, a skilled massage therapist, Vivian discovers a new world of pleasure and desire that she never knew existed. But as their relationship intensifies, Vivian begins to question just how far Anton is willing to go to satisfy her deepest cravings.
This provocative and steamy novel contains adult content and is intended for mature readers.
About the Author
Annette Curtis Klause is a trailblazer in young adult literature with her captivating book The Silver Kiss. This novel, a vampire love story, is a thrilling and darkly seductive read that also has a heart and message.
Roger Sutton of the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books describes it as “sexy, scary, and moving.”
Klause was born in Bristol, England, in 1953 and became fascinated with all things grisly at an early age. Her father used to tell her the plots of gangster and monster movies, and she knew about Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Jimmy Cagney, and Edward G.
Robinson before she ever saw their films. Her father also let her speak to an imaginary little boy named Willoughby who lived in his throat.
When she was seven, Klause and her family moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where she had her first experience with creative writing when she was incapacitated with a twisted ankle. She wrote a poem about her mother ironing and decided to save all her poems in a notebook.
Soon she was writing and illustrating her own books, mostly about cats and kittens. At age ten, she and a neighborhood friend began making up plays and performing them on a tape recorder.
Klause read fantasy and science-fiction books, as well as Mark Twain and, as she got older, the beatnik books of Jack Kerouac. She read her first vampire book at age fourteen, Jane Gaskell’s The Shiny Narrow Grin, which inspired her first novel many years later.
She wrote poetry in response to her fascination with vampires, but these early writings would later become invaluable when she began her first novel.
Klause’s life changed when she was fifteen and her father moved the family to Washington, DC, for career reasons. In high school, she continued writing poetry.
After finishing college in 1976, Klause went on to graduate school in library science. She took poetry workshops in college, but poetry was soon replaced by short stories once she started working in libraries.
Klause began sending her work out to magazines, collecting numerous rejection letters. Several of her poems and a short story were published in anthologies and small magazine reviews.
Klause took a writing workshop with Larry Callen, a well-known children’s writer, and realized that she wanted to write for young people. She continued with further workshops and often chuckles about how an idea or action will affect the people in her writing group even as she is writing.
With the help and encouragement of Callen, Klause set to work on a novel for teenagers. She looked at her old notebooks and found the vampire poem she had written as a teen, which became the inspiration for The Silver Kiss.
Editoral Review
Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause is a young adult fantasy novel that was first published on August 11, 1997. Klause is an American author who has written several YA novels, including The Silver Kiss and Alien Secrets.
Blood and Chocolate is a haunting tale of love and sacrifice that explores themes of grief, betrayal, and identity. It is a unique take on the classic werewolf myth that will appeal to fans of YA romance with a supernatural twist.
The story takes place in a small town in Maryland and is told from the perspective of a young werewolf named Vivian. Vivian is desperate to fit in with her pack and to find her place in the world.
But when she falls in love with a human boy named Aiden, she is forced to confront the reality of her dual nature and the danger it poses to both of them. As Vivian struggles to reconcile her love for Aiden with her loyalty to her pack, she must also contend with the threat of a rival pack and the looming threat of violence that threatens to tear her world apart.
Klause’s writing style is hauntingly beautiful and evokes a strong sense of place and atmosphere. She creates a vivid world that is both familiar and otherworldly, blending elements of fantasy and realism to create a story that is both thrilling and emotionally resonant.
Her characters are complex and compelling, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, fears and desires. Vivian is a particularly strong protagonist, struggling to find her place in a world that doesn’t always accept her for who she is.
One of the strengths of Blood and Chocolate is its exploration of the werewolf mythos and the way it challenges traditional gender roles and assumptions. Klause’s werewolves are not mere beasts, but complex creatures with their own history and culture.
The novel also explores the themes of identity and belonging, as Vivian struggles to navigate the often-conflicting demands of her human and animal nature. However, the pacing of the book can be slow at times, and some readers may find the romantic elements of the story to be overly sappy or melodramatic.
Additionally, the ending may feel rushed to some, leaving certain plot points unresolved. Nonetheless, these criticisms are relatively minor and do not detract significantly from the overall quality of the book.
Overall, Blood and Chocolate is a gorgeously crafted YA novel that will appeal to fans of supernatural romance and fantasy. Klause’s writing is a cut above typical YA fare, blending beautiful prose, complex characters, and thought-provoking themes into a compelling and emotionally resonant story.
Though it may not be to everyone’s tastes, for those who love werewolves and romance, Blood and Chocolate is a must-read. I give it an 8 out of 10.
