2 stars
| I won this book in a giveaway. Overall, not really my kind of book. I really enjoy wine and have liked other vineyard-based novels, but this one was not my glass of wine, so to speak. I was really intrigued by the opening quote, “You have to grow about eight hundred grapes to get just one bottle of wine. If that isn’t an argument to finish the bottle, I don’t know what is.” Unfortunately, once I turned the page, the novel took a sharp nose dive. I feel like it is supposed to be a book that you can relax to, enjoy a glass of wine or whatever. But it had the opposite effect on me. I felt stressed and annoyed by everything. The premise was silly. The main character was annoying. The ending was predictable. The writing was confusing, repetitive, and overly simplistic. The dialogue was awkward. I feel like most of the events in the book could have been avoided if all of the characters simply stopped blowing every little thing out of proportion. I couldn’t help thinking that I was reading about a bunch of children. Most of the stuff wasn’t even that big of a deal, but they (especially Georgia) acted like it was the end of the world. Which leads us to the ending. Seriously? What kind of ending was that? Without giving anything away, it is the most fake fairy tale ending where everything kind of works out without anyone really doing anything. Really? How unsatisfying. I can see this book being popular in book clubs, but it was not a good fit for me. The snobby wine-maker/drinker attitude of the narrator certainly didn’t help much. I apologize for the overly-negative review. I really hate when the things I dislike outweigh what I do like in a book. At least now that I am done with reading and reviewing the book , I am allowing myself to enjoy a nice glass of wine. Cheers. |