I Read this anthology for Laura Florand's "All's Fair in Love and Chocolate", which I would rate 4.5. I have ended up reading her Amour et Chocolat series all out of order and that has worked out just fine, since all the couples are so interesting and charming. Her writing makes me hungry and jealous but her fantasies are so satisfying.

In this story Elle is a artsy food blogger that has moved to Paris in part because she has become obsessed with the artistry of Simon Casset's chocolate confections despite never having tasted them. Simon is obsessive and intense, who channels his energy into his precise and detailed work, is completely charmed and disarmed by her flustered reaction at meeting him. She makes up a fiancé as part of impulsive cover story for her interest in him a fiction he sees through immediately even though he chooses not to challenge it directly. Both characters revel in the intense interest and focus they have for each other but eventually Simon must find a way to convince Elle to drop her fictions and trust him with her heart.

All the stories feature women is some way scared to commit. Ridgway's short story felt compressed at times, but was touching. I didn't care at all for Martin's "Early Bird Special".