Darkly funny, shocking and utterly compulsive, this is an outrageous coming of age story set against the backdrop of the uber-rich elite of Chicago and New England.

"Not since "Mommie Dearest" has there been a transcription of a complex mother-daughter relationship as powerful. I rooted with all my heart for this girl. Ashley Prentice Norton's writing is so gripping, vivid, and moving -- so realistically drawn -- it leaves even the most well-adjusted reader with the chilling knowledge of what it's like to be raised by wolves. "The Chocolate Money" is devastating and unforgettable."
-- Isabel Gillies, author of "Happens Every Day" and "A Year and Six Seconds"

"I am not a reader easily shocked, and I was shocked by the brave twists and daring turns of Ashley Norton's compulsively readable"The Chocolate Money". This story of a girl coming of age in Chicago, heir to a chocolate fortune and all the spoils and hungers that fortune sparks, is fearless and utterly unputdownable."
-- Jennifer Gilmore, author of "Something Red" and "Golden Country

""This is the darkest comedy I've ever read, overflowing with unflinching observations of the elite that are both laugh-out-loud and heart-wrenchingly poignant, all woven with the searing wit of a truly gifted new voice in fiction."
-- Jill Kargman, author of "Wolves in Chic Clothing"

"The Chocolate Money is the perfect page-turner ... But it's also something more--it's a perceptive portrait of a young woman growing past the world that shaped her. Norton writes with empathy and wisdom about mothers and daughters, and the pain of loving a parent you must escape."
-- Jill A. Davis, author of "Ask Again Later"

Ashley Prentice Norton lives in New York with her husband and three children. The Chocolate Money is her first novel.