The Lost Vintage

by Ann Mah

HarperCollins | Amazon | B&N

400 pages
William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (August 6, 2019)

“If you enjoyed Sarah’s Key and Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale, then this wonderful book by Ann Mah is for you.”   — Tatiana de Rosnay

Sweetbitter meets The Nightingale in this page-turning novel about a woman who returns to her family’s ancestral vineyard in Burgundy and unexpectedly uncovers a lost diary, an unknown relative, and a secret her family has been keeping since World War II.

To become one of only a few hundred certified wine experts in the world, Kate must pass the notoriously difficult Master of Wine examination. She’s failed twice before; her third attempt will be her last chance. Suddenly finding herself without a job and with the test a few months away, she travels to Burgundy to spend the fall at the vineyard estate that has belonged to her family for generations. There she can bolster her shaky knowledge of Burgundian vintages and reconnect with her cousin Nico and his wife, Heather, who now oversee day-to-day management of the grapes. The one person Kate hopes to avoid is Jean-Luc, a talented young winemaker and her first love.

At the vineyard house, Kate is eager to help her cousin clean out the enormous basement that is filled with generations of discarded and forgotten belongings. Deep inside the cellar, behind a large armoire, she discovers a hidden room containing a cot, some Resistance pamphlets, and an enormous cache of valuable wine. Piqued by the secret space, Kate begins to dig into her family’s history—a search that takes her back to the dark days of World War II and introduces her to a relative she never knew existed, a great–half aunt who was a teenager during the Nazi occupation.

As she learns more about her family, the line between resistance and collaboration blurs, driving Kate to find the answers to two crucial questions: Who, exactly, did her family aid during the difficult years of the war? And what happened to six valuable bottles of wine that seem to be missing from the cellar’s collection?

THE GIRL I USED TO KNOW

 by Faith Hogan

   Amazon   US /  UK  / CA / AU /   B&N 

A beautiful, emotive and spell-binding story of two women who find friendship and second chances when they least expect it. Perfect for the fans of Patricia Scanlan.

Amanda King and Tess Cuffe are strangers who share the same Georgian house, but their lives couldn’t be more different.

Amanda seems to have it all, absolute perfection. She projects all the accouterments of a lady who lunches. Sadly, the reality is a soulless home, an unfaithful husband, and a very lonely heart.

By comparison, in the basement flat, unwanted tenant Tess has spent a lifetime hiding and shutting her heart to love.

It takes a bossy doctor, a handsome gardener, a pushy teenager, and an abandoned cat to show these two women that sometimes letting go is the first step to moving forward and new friendships can come from the most unlikely situations.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Maureen Cuffe was a mouse of a woman, forever playing small to augment her husband’s supremacy…  her mother talked of his impending retirement with a sense of doom worthy of an undertaker. ‘Not long now,’ she would say when he left the house.

She actually nodded towards the dumpy little woman, with absurd copper rouge hair piled too high on her head. She stood transfixed, once she realised it was her own reflection. She studied the woman staring back at her with her expensive clothes and too much make-up. Amanda King was under there, somewhere. Her breath caught in her throat, she had been lovely, once. Where was that girl she used to know?

Nicola thought all teenagers should be sent away to boarding school. Nicola’s kids were packed off as soon as there was the danger of a negligent hormone ripening to make her perfect life appear untidy.

‘I’ve started exercising, just gently until I’m fully mobile,’ she whispered. Somehow, it didn’t seem right to add that she had only started to want to live longer so she could spite her neighbours.

Well, I’ll tell you this for nothing, if he so much as winked at me, I’d have my best linen on the bed and I’d be inviting him in for a stiff one before we got down to business…

My Review:

I found The Girl I Used To Know to be a captivating and resonant story – I adored it, but I might not have fully grasped the brilliance and depth of the insightful narrative when I was in my roaring 20s, but I’m older, and thankfully, much wiser now.  Ms. Hogan turned out a wryly humorous, craftily paced, well-written, and engaging tale that frequently had me smirking yet also squeezed my heart and stung my eyes.  Although I have never been to Ireland and would love to, it wouldn’t have mattered where this story had been based as these women’s transformative tales were universal; betrayal, regret, loneliness, missed opportunities, heartbreak, infidelity, losing oneself – these unfortunate events happen everywhere and in every culture.  I adored the clever juxtapositions and parallels drawn between the upstairs occupant and basement tenant who had always been at odds and had at first glance appeared so different. Ms. Hogan is an observant and cunning scribe; I greedily want all her clever words.

Bio Faith Hogan

Faith Hogan was born in Ireland. She gained an Honours Degree in English Literature and Psychology from Dublin City University and a Postgraduate Degree from University College, Galway. She has worked as a fashion model, an event’s organizer and in the intellectual disability and mental health sector.

She was a winner in the 2014 Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair – an international competition for emerging writers.

Faith Hogan Contact:

Twitter (her favorite) https://twitter.com/GerHogan

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/faithhoganauthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/faithhoganauthor/?hl=en

Web Page:  http://faithhogan.com/

A Highlander Walks into a Bar

by Laura Trentham

Amazon  / B&N /  Apple Books / Google /  Kobo

Synopsis:

The timeless romance, soaring passion—and gorgeous men—of Scotland comes to modern-day America. And the rules of love will never be the same…

Isabel Buchanan is fiery, funny, and never at a loss for words. But she is struck speechless when her mother returns from a trip to Scotland with a six-foot-tall, very handsome souvenir. Izzy’s mother is so infatuated by the fellow that Izzy has to plan their annual Highland Games all by herself. Well, not completely by herself. The Highlander’s strapping young nephew has come looking for his uncle…

Alasdair Blackmoor has never seen a place as friendly as this small Georgia town—or a girl as brilliant and beguiling as Izzy. Instead of saving his uncle, who seems to be having a lovely time, Alasdair decides he’d rather help Izzy with the Highland Games. Show her how to dance like a Highlander. Drink like a Highlander. And maybe, just maybe, fall in love with a Highlander. But when the games are over, where do they go from here?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

The formality in her voice was nothing new. When he was four and home from his first day at preschool, his mum hadn’t asked him if he’d made friends or had fun. She’d asked him whether his day had been “satisfactory.”

Being a Southerner made her especially sensitive to jokes about no one wearing shoes or everyone using an outhouse or the lack of teeth. And absolutely no one of her acquaintance had married a cousin.

He’s done well for himself even if he does trail eau de manure. But you’d never be short of barbecue or bacon, so that’s a plus.

“I assume you’re well versed at your age, but responsible sex is important. I read in the London Times that the STD infection rate is actually highest amongst the elderly.” “Elderly?” Gareth’s shoulders bowed up and reminded Alasdair of a bull shown a red cape. “I can still put you flat on your back, laddie.”

“Do you have condoms?” “Even if I did have some, they probably would have expired.” “Disintegrated is more like. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust.”

He was so quintessentially all-American he should be handing out baseballs and apple pies to foreigners as they alighted from airplanes.

My Review:

Having both Scottish and Southern roots, I derived considerable pleasure from reading Laura Trentham’s latest offering, which kicks off a new series with a lively start. I was waffling on how to rate this pleasantly amusing tale and in going through my marked highlights I had to bow to Ms. Trentham’s sly and deft deployment of wry wit and sparkling levity.   The storylines were slowly entangled and laced together gradually yet were pleasantly engaging and entertaining throughout. I was frequently smirking at Izzy’s foot in mouth tendencies and physical awkwardness as well as the verbal sparring and lively banter that sparked among the various characters, their quips and rejoinders were clever and snicker-worthy. I will be eagerly awaiting the next installment and hoping for a similar “Hotty MacScottypants.”

Author Bio:

Laura Trentham is an award-winning author of contemporary and historical romance, including Then He Kissed Me and The Military Wife. She is a member of RWA, and has been a finalist multiple times in the Golden Heart competition. A chemical engineer by training and a lover of books by nature, she lives in South Carolina.