The Book Diva's Reads

Horses, racetracks, sexy and sultry characters and massive misunderstandings are the major components in the contemporary read Hot Coco by Cindy McDonald. I thought that the story was going to center on Colette "Coco" Beardmore given the title, and it does . . . for a while. Coco is attracted to Mike West, Mike is attracted to Coco but he's also still attracted (sexual attraction) to his ex-wife Ava. Ava is in a relationship with Carl, who is attracted to Ava's ex-sister-in-law Kate. Mike and Kate's father, Eric, is attracted to Jennifer and vice versa. Eric is also generously donating his time to teach Margie, another trainer’s daughter, to read. Margie starts off infatuated with Mike, begins to date a co-worker, and then thinks she's in love with Eric. Whew! Confused yet, I was and I read it!

The basic premise for Hot Coco is what attracted me to this book, but it didn't take long for the premise to fall flat. Coco and Mike are the major characters for about three or four chapters and then the story goes off on numerous tangents. To put it bluntly, Hot Coco is a "hot mess." There doesn't seem to be a main storyline or major characters throughout the story. Characters may be major in a few chapters and then become extremely minor in others. There is no main story to pull everything together other than the setting of the racetrack and training facilities. Ms. McDonald appears to have had a great idea for a story that centered on mutual attraction that is confounded by the klutziness of one of the characters. Unfortunately that story was over within a few short chapters and the remaining storylines just seem like filler. Hot Coco is a fast read but it simply didn't work for me due to its lack of storyline and major character development.