Chocolates for Julia

In Cathy's Lamb's hilarious and inspiring debut book, Julia Bennett bravely escapes her wedding and an abusive fiancé, driving across the country to her Aunt Lydia's bright pink house in Oregon. The front yard hosts four giant ceramic pigs, each named after a man Aunt Lydia doesn't like. Toilets overflow with flowers, and the door is painted black to ward off "evil spirits and seedy men." Dead broke and fearing her fiancé will find her, Julia embraces the peace and safety her aunt offers.

Aunt Lydia, wildly eccentric and full of blunt wisdom, introduces Julia to three new friends: a psychic with her own secret, an unhappy minister's wife who has to hide her non-conventional art, and a struggling mother of four. To heal again, the women band together for Breast Power Psychic Nights to reclaim who they used to be and who they want to be again.

Julia finds work as a librarian, but her true love is making chocolate. No one makes delicious chocolate like she does. Could she turn her "chocolate therapy" into a business? Can she trust a man, and trust herself, enough to fall in love again? And, most importantly, can she stay hidden from her ex-fiancé?

As for the wedding dress, the author writes, "I left my wedding dress hanging in a tree somewhere in North Dakota. I don't know why that particular tree appealed to me. Perhaps it was because it looked as if it had given up and died years ago and was still standing because it didn't know what else to do. It was all by itself, the branches gnarled and rough, like the top of someone's knuckles I knew."

The first time Julia heaved the dress up in the air, it landed right back on her head. And the second time, and the third, which simply increased her fury. She couldn't even get rid of her own wedding dress.

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