“Harris's description of the chocolate festival also describes the novel：‘It is an amazement of riches．．．Try me．Test me．Taste me．’Few readers will be able to resist.”

            ——The New York Times Book Review

When beautiful,unmarries Vianne Rocber sweeps into the pinched little French town of Lansquenet on the heels of the carnival and opens a gem of a chocolate shop across the square from the church，she begins to wreak havoc with the town’s LentenVOWS．Her uncanny ability tO perceive her customers' private discontents andalleviate them with just the right confection coaxes the villagers tO abandonthemselves tO temptation and happiness，but enrages Pere Reynaud，the localpriest．Certain only a witch could stir such sinful indulgence and devise such clever cures，Reynaud pits himself against Vianne and VOWS to block the chocolate festival she plans for Easter Sunday,and to run her out of town forever．Witch or not(she'll never tell)，Vianne soon sparks a dramatic confrontation between those who prefer the cold comforts of the church and those who revel in their newly discovered taste for pleasure．