Too long, too obvious ( )

I loved this transformation story....well done. ( )

This book pairs wine with romance. It's a fun, fast book from the beginning to end.

Mackenzie Dienes is a talented winemaker who works for the Barcelona Family for distinguished Bel Apries vineyard in Walla Walla, Washington. She has it all: a beautiful house with her husband of 16 years, a best friend that she adores, a mother-in-law that she spends a lot of time with and a perfect job where she is admired in the industry.

But one day changes everything when her husband, Rhys wants to end the marriage. After the shock wears off, she has to figure out what her next move will be and how it will affect the reputation of the winery along with the family relationships - the people she has loved for so many years. The plot is easy to guess. Nevertheless, it's about marriage, work relationships, trusting your instincts and trying to figure it all out which many of us that can say: "been there."

It just shows that life can change at an instant - and sometimes it's for the best. The author's love of wine is obvious with the story and wine pairings at the end. She has also included book questions which is always a clue that this book will be in a lot of hands. The art on the cover is nice and the title is perfect: to the point where you don't have to guess what it's about.

Enjoy it! ( )

Slow Start, Sordid Middle, Solid End. This is one of those soap opera type books that starts out *slow*. There's enough to keep most readers hooked, but dang, the pacing could have been a bit tighter. Indeed, the titular Vineyard doesn't even get mentioned at all until at or after the halfway point in the tale. Instead, quite a bit of detail and most of the story is given to the fall of McKenzie Davis - who the description labels as the primary protagonist, but who never *really* feels as such. This is because so much attention is given to two other characters - Stephanie, McKenzie's sister-in-law and best friend, and Barbara, McKenzie's mother-in-law. So to my mind, these three were the core of the story, though McKenzie's own plot did indeed drive the other two's for the most part. McKenzie's story works well, Stephanie shows a great deal of development, and Barbara... starts out regal, yet falls to her own madness to become a character clearly intended to be despised. Still, overall this story could have been shortened by 50-100 pages and still worked just as effectively, maybe moreso with a bit tighter plotting such a reduction in page count would have required. Yet there is nothing technically wrong with this story or the storytelling, and therefore the tale overall gets the full five stars. Very much recommended. ( )

This was very good! I'm all about reading any book involving vineyards, they will always give you research and details as to how things are run and how wine comes about. This book did not disappoint and the plot was well done, kept a good pace and I find this with most of Susan Mallery's works. ( )