TLC Book Tours Book Review: Chocolates For Breakfast

Author: Pamela Moore
Title: Chocolates For Breakfast
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publish Date: July 2013 (originally published 1956)
Buy: Amazon

Review Copy Provided By: TLC Book Tours 
Book Blurb: 

Courtney Farrell is a disaffected, sexually precocious fifteen-year-old. She splits her time between Manhattan, where her father works in publishing, and Los Angeles, where her mother is a still-beautiful Hollywood actress. After a boarding-school crush on a female teacher ends badly, Courtney sets out to learn everything fast. Her first drink is a very dry martini, and her first kiss the beginning of a full-blown love affair with an older man.

A riveting coming-of-age story, Chocolates for Breakfast became an international sensation upon its initial publication in 1956, and it still stands out as a shocking and moving account of the way teenagers collide, often disastrously, against love and sex for the first time.

Review: It is easy to see how explosive Chocolates For Breakfast had to be when it was first released in 1956. The subject matter may leave a few jaws on the floor in 2013.

Our heroine, Courtney Farrell is only 15 and through total lack of parenting (Sondra is an actress on the skids, who really didn't want to be a mom in the first place and a publisher father who isn't very much present) goes down a dark and crazy path.

The whole time I was reading this I was shaking my head. This is a girl in restaurants getting served martinis, even when she is with a parent!

And though the sex is implied rather than written, we know that Courtney is definitely sexually active, however not with anyone her own age, as she's too mature for boys her own age.

Courtney Farrell is a character that will blow you away. She's unbelievably mature for her age, but she's also very...screwed up. (Though the 4 letter word starting with "f" is probably a better word to describe her)

I think the thing that really wows me about this book is the age of the author. Pamela Moore was only 18 at the time this book was written! The prose is poetic at times and she captures the voices of both Courtney's parents as well as her contemporaries.

This book is definitely a wild ride, and I can only imagine the stir it caused when it was first released!

Rating: 5 flowers