The Chocolate Money, Ashley Prentice Norton
The Chocolate Money, Ashley Prentice Norton
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The Chocolate Money

Author: Ashley Prentice Norton

Narrator: Tavia Gilbert

Unabridged: 7 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/24/2012


Synopsis

Set in 1980s Chicago and on the East Coast, this electric debut chronicles the relationship between an impossibly rich chocolate heiress, Babs Ballentyne, and her sensitive and bookish young daughter, Bettina. Babs plays by no one's rules: naked Christmas cards, lavish theme parties with lewd installations at her Lake Shore Drive penthouse, nocturnal visits from her married lover, who "admires her centerfold" while his wife sleeps at their nearby home.

Bettina wants nothing more than to win her mother's affection and approval, both of which prove elusive. When she escapes to an elite New Hampshire prep school, Bettina finds that her unorthodox upbringing makes it difficult to fit in with her peers, one of whom happens to be the son of Babs's lover. As she struggles to forge an identity apart from her mother, Bettina walks a fine line between self-preservation and self-destruction.

As funny as it is scandalous, The Chocolate Money is Mommie Dearest, Prep, and 50 Shades of Gray all rolled into one entertaining listen.

About Ashley Prentice Norton

Ashley Prentice Norton is a graduate of Exeter, Georgetown, and the Creative Writing Program at New York University. Her critically acclaimed first novel, The Chocolate Money, was heralded as "darkly funny . . . compulsively readable" by People. She lives in New York with her husband and three children.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Rebecca

Mommy Dearest meets Cruel Intentions. I loved this book from beginning to end. I would consider this a must-read. It is the most daring coming-of-age story I've ever indulged in. As Babs would say - It was fucking fabulous. Full review: The Choclate Money Book Review......more

Goodreads review by Nancy

People will rate a book poorly for many different reasons. For example, they think it doesn't live up to its potential, or the characters aren't likable, or they are offended by some of the subject matter. I tend to give a book a poor rating when I can't become engrossed in it or when I think the ch......more

Goodreads review by Laura

This is Norton's debut offering. Like The Gilded Age, I wasn't really sure what she was going for, here. We meet the novel's narrator, Bettina, (daughter of Babs, an heiress to "chocolate money" from her family's candy company) when she is 10, and follow her life until she is 15, in a series of writ......more

I…didn’t love it. I found the characters to be very one dimensional caricatures of “rich people” and the “edgy” things they did to be not that interesting and sometimes just stupid. It feels like the author heard this was an edgy thing, has no actual knowledge of how it works, and still included it......more