Cole is running out of time.  His mother lets him in on the secret that his grandparents are giving the vineyard he runs to his vapid sister after she marries.  All that he has worked for will be lost.

 

Rhett has always known he is not good enough for his twin brother's best friend.  Cole is the sexiest man he has ever seen.  When he proposes they plan for their futures together, it seems like the best plan.

 

I am going to be honest with you.  I have never read either of these authors' books.  After this amazing story - that will change.  I loved this story so much I eagerly gobbled each page.  I laughed, cried, and rejoiced with these characters.  Happily, this is an amazing read that I, for one, hope makes it into the movie theaters.  So hot!  I give this a 5/5 Kitty's Paws UP!

River Hill is a small town full of big personalities. It's the place where second chances are just around the corner and a heart's desire can hide in plain sight. Norinne and Brinkley created a setting that is reminiscent of a not so distant past, but with a hint of present day charm. Angelica is a woman with a zest for life. The world is her smorgasbord and she's determined to taste it all. Noah is just the man to bring this vixen down to size. He's a planner by nature and a winemaker by trade. No upstart is going to change him or his town. As they say, life has a way of shaking up the world. The Vintner's Vixen is a flavorful beginning to what looks to be a beautiful friendship between this reader and a nostagically heartwarming series.

This week's post (which went up on Wed. to avoid April Fool's Day, but which I was then too busy to post!) is part of a joint blog project with three other authors: Anjali Mitter Duva, Kristen Harnisch, and Joan Schweighardt—whose book covers are shown above.  Kristen actually has a new book, The California Wife, which is due in May and not yet listed in the Booklikes database. We decided to get together and write about what we love about researching and creating historical fiction. So take a look not just at my post but at theirs (links at the bottom). The range of approaches is interesting in itself.

The Vintner's Daughter is a Historical Fiction novel that starts out in France, the Loire Valley, and the main character, Sara Thibault, who still lives at home with her family and spending her days helping her sister prepare for her wedding and working in the family vineyard. Her passion is assisting her father tending the grapes in their winery. She is very proficient  and loves what she does. Her sistermarries into the Lemieux but not is all it is supposed to be. Lydia's becomes a punching bag for her husband and a terrible tragedy happens that causes Lydia and Sara to flee to America.

They arrive and end up in a convent in New York awaiting the birth of Lydia's baby. Another tragedy occurs that forces Sara to flee to Napa Valley where her plans are to purchase some land and start a winery of her own. Unbeknownst to her, she ends up on the vineyard of Phillipe Lemieux, Lydia's brother in law. The story continues from there with an instant attraction to Phillipe. Should she stay? If she does her whole world could fall apart. This is a story of betrayal, ambition and love that will definitely have you rooting for Sara as she comes to terms with her life.

I found this novel to be very readable, enough suspense and romance to keep me turning the pages. A plot that is believable and the subject matter very well researched by the author. I read it in a few sittings and thoroughly enjoyed it.

This was a fine book. Nothing that makes me love it or want to rant about it.

It is the fourth book in Higgans' Blue Heron series and it feels like it. By that I mean three books have gone before and have paired up three couples who are now blissfully HEA. They all appear in this book in varying states of bliss and stages of procreation.  And other characters are still doing the same things they did in book one.  This is, for me, one of the drawbacks of reading this type of contemporary series with closely related characters set in a small town. There comes a tipping point when it becomes just a little too precious, a little too sweet, and a little too familiar.

That said, the book went down easy. Higgans is a writer who can infuse humor and warmth in her stories and also can create some memorable supporting characters.

Maybe too memorable, because a lot of time is spent on the Hero/Heroine's exes and their unresolved feelings for their exes. It made for interesting...actually fascinating... reading because it added some rather salty character beats that cut some of the sugar.  (Although I could have done without yet another 'let's publicly humiliate our heroine' scene that this author seems to love).  But it also managed to detract from the central romance because from a plotting stand point I was more interested in how they were going to resolve those unresolved feelings for their exes than I was in watching the two of them fall in love.

Emmaline and Jack are nice and both are likeable. And as a pair they do ok. But that was it. They were just nice and ok. I felt no sense of urgency for them, no suspense about them, nothing about their romance felt like they had to work to get there.

So yeah, this was fine book. No high-highs or low-lows. Just nice and ok