Vianne by Joanne Harris #Vianne @joannechocolat.bsky.social @orionbooks.bsky.social @Joannechocolat @orionbooks #Chocolat #BookReview

 

Secrets.

Chocolate.

A touch of magic...

On a warm July evening, Sylviane Rochas scatters her mother's ashes in New York and lets the changing wind blow her to the French seaside town of Marseille.

For the first time in her life, Vianne holds the future in her own hands. Charming her way into a job as a waitress in a local bistrot, she knows that she is not here to stay - when her child is born in a few months, she must be gone.

As she discovers the joy of cooking, making recipes her own with the addition of bittersweet chocolate spices, she realises that it possesses its own magic in this town full of secrets.

Yet Vianne will never forget her mother's warning: that there is danger in revealing the true desires of those around her - and she must flee these cobbled streets before it's too late...

Million-copy bestselling author Joanne Harris returns to the world of Chocolat with the long-awaited story of Vianne, which begins six years before she opens her scandalous chocolaterie in the small French village of Lansquenet.

Vianne by Joanne Harris is published in hardback on 22 May 2025 by Orion. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review. 

The day that my proof copy of Vianne arrived through my letterbox felt like every birthday and Christmas combined. Chocolat and the other books in the series have long been a favourite of mine. I had never imagined that Joanne Harris would come up with a prequel, and that we were about to learn more about Vianne's earlier life. Who she was before Lansquenet and the the chocolaterie, what she did in her earlier life, what made her the woman that we grew to love?

I don't know if Harris always knew about Vianne's early life, or if she's recently created this narrative, but I do know that it is totally and utterly beautiful. It took me all of around 10 minutes to be immersed in Vianne's world again, it was as though she'd never been away. 

We meet Vianne in Marseille, France. Her and her mother had been living in New York, her mother has recently died and this is the first time that Vianne will travel alone. She's not really alone though, as she is pregnant, her child is due in a few months time. 

Stumbling across a small bistro, Vianne eats. Louis, the landlord, offers her a room for a couple of nights and Vianne negotiates a job in the kitchen. It is there, guided by the recipe book written by Louis' late wife that Vianne discovers the joy of cookery and food. She has some fans in the bistro and one noticeable enemy. 

It is meeting Guy and Mahmed that really changes Vianne's life though. These two would-be businessmen who are experts in all things chocolate pass on their knowledge to Vianne, she sprinkles that chocolate magic amongst her new found colleagues and friends. 

We all know how talented this author is and she has excelled herself with Vianne. That trademark blend of magic and food and sumptuously created characters just jump from the pages and the reader is drawn in so deeply. It's very difficult to put this one down. 

Deliciously irresistible, intriguing and magical, this is the perfect prequel for fans of Chocolat, and for Vianne! Highly recommended. 

JOANNE HARRIS is an Anglo-French author, whose books include twenty novels, three cookbooks, and many short stories. 

Her work is extremely diverse, covering aspects of magic realism, suspense, historical fiction, mythology, and fantasy. 

In 2000, her 1999 novel Chocolat was adapted to the screen, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. 

She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an honorary fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and in 2022 was awarded an OBE by the Queen.

@joannechocolat.bsky.social

www.joanne-harris.co.uk