It's intriguing, worrying, and ultimately satisfying. But as the glamour increases so does the dangerous web Zozie weaves around Yanne. It is easy to see why Zozie's glamour and contempt for convention are so seductive to the young Annie. You sense Annie's unease and isolation at school, and feel the snowflakes, thick and silent, that muffle the sounds of the city. Montmartre, its squares populated by artists, is so real that you imagine yourself walking through the streets alongside Annie. The bitter scent of Yanne's hand-made chocolate, mingled with cardamom, cinnamon, and chilli drifts from the page. What really makes this book so special for me though is Joanne Harris's beautiful, poetic prose. Only Roux and Annie's school friend Jean-Loup seem to sense anything of the underlying treachery beneath the bewitching exterior. As a result, the tension becomes almost unbearable as Zozie's motives are slowly revealed. But Yanne and Annie are unaware of her duplicity and trust her implicitly. The reader knows from the start that Zozie is not what she seems. It takes the apparently selfless and irresistible Zozie de l'Alba to befriend Yanne and Annie and transform the shop into a colourful, thriving business where even the resistive locals congregate for a cup of hot chocolate and a chat. She doesn't even make her own chocolates, and seems to encourage the attentions of Thierry, her staid and rather pompous landlord, seeing in him a secure future for herself and her children. It remains dull and attracts few customers as Vianne seems to have lost the spirit and enthusiasm of her time in Lansquenet. Yanne takes on a rather dull chocolate shop in Montmartre. It probably helps to have read `Chocolat', as the book follows the story of Vianne, now Yanne, and Anouk (Annie) four years on, when they have moved to Paris with Rosette, Vianne's second child. I absolutely loved it, and would go so far as to say that it has to be one of my favourite books of this year. For me, this book was magical in all senses of the word.

The reviews on Amazon serve to illustrate just how much the enjoyment of a book is a matter of personal taste.

Joanne harris the lollipop shoes