Nothing unusual marks them out; no red sachets hang by the door. The wind has stopped - at least for a while.

I liked the book, but there were a few reasons I did not give it the five stars I gave Chocolat. Since I read that book right before this one, I remember very well how circumstances were in Vianne's life, and it seemed to me that in this book the author implies a great deal more happening than was suggested in the final chapters of Chocolat. Again, I can't give more details without spoilers, but trust me, there were a few times when I said to myself 'Wait, I thought THIS was the way things were in that village at the end, not THAT'. I adored the inclusion of folk and fairy tales throughout the story. Each was a morality tale, as was the whole book (see below for more on this aspect), and each raised the suspicions of this reader. As an adult, I still have my childhood compendium of fairytales and I read them in times when I need to feel comforted, so to find an adult book along the same lines is refreshing. These folk and fairy tales are the clues to the secrets in this book, so pay attention.And there they were, so, sad, so, melancholy, so not right, so ordinary? I wanted them to snap out of the gloom. I wanted to shake them and slap them until they could see what was happening and how wrong everything was. I wanted them to drink a cup of hot chocolate, because that makes everything better, right? I wanted to drink a cup of hot chocolate to make me feel better.

I enjoyed this more than Chocolat, perhaps because I had nothing to compare it to. Harris' writing style is just as easy to read as chocolate, and this book is just as amusing a morsel (and just as likely to make your mouth water). However, I found it more nuanced and a bit less obvious than Chocolat. I'm delighted that I still have two more books in this series and also some other works by Joanne Harris to read. They will be patiently waiting for me on our bookshelves because my partner Orla is a great fan of her work so as soon as Joanne Harris brings out a new book, she buys it or I buy it for her. :) I thought for certain that this book would fall into the category of "wannabe feminist magical realism ripoffs". You know, the fluffy ones that dress up sappy romance novels with cooking miracles, and relegate the magical to the feminine sex.

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In early 2018, I was called upon to narrate the new, unabridged audiobook of Chocolat. It was like revisiting a previous version of myself; the voice was still recognisably mine, and yet it was different in so many ways. Writing The Strawberry Thief was like that: it felt as if I were visiting an alternate reality. I wrote it as my daughter (now aged 25) was preparing to get married and go off to live in Moscow; as old friends died; as new plans were made. The Lollipop Shoes is a 2007 novel by Joanne Harris—a sequel to her best-selling Chocolat. It was released in the U.S. in 2008 as The Girl with No Shadow.