Books In The Sun: The Lollipop Shoes (Joanne Harris)

Title: The Lollipop Shoes (aka The Girl With No Shadow)

Author: Joanne Harris

Publication Date: 2007

Publisher: Transworld Publishers
Pages: 459

Genre: Travel

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The Lollipop Shoes is the follow up novel to the very popular Chocolat, bringing us back into the lives of Vianne Rocher, her two daughters Anouk and a new addition to the family. These days they have changed their names to Yanne, Annie and Rosette and live in relative anonymity in the streets of Montmartre.

I have to admit I went into this book with some preconceived ideas as I had read and seen quite a few reviews that didn't land very favourably on this new edition in the series. So I didn't expect too much from it and was pleasantly surprised to find it, if not as good as the first, a perfectly enjoyable read.

The book centers around Zozie de l’Alba, an enigmatic character with a number of past lives herself. She blows into their lives and creates all sorts of havoc. I think Zozie was a interesting new character to bring into the mix but I didn't like the direction the writer took Vianne's character in. She became a bit of a wallflower trying to lead a more normal life and well became far more snooze worthy until later in the book. Roux does make an appearance of course which I definitely think helped move the story along. There is also a significant increase in the amount of magical references in the novel which I believe made the book less enjoyable. I understood that it may have been necessary for providing context around Zozie's character but I just couldn't relate to it.

Overall it's very different to Chocolat and I think that's why the reviews have been pretty bad. As a stand alone book it is a good read but in comparison to the first it just doesn't have that special something. Basically don't expect the same thing as Chocolat and you'll probably enjoy it.