There was a time when I approached reading the way I approached wine or coffee. I would read just about anything--as long as there was a minimum of violence and/or really outlandish (IMO) mistakes. I'll never like the aesthetics of boxes, but I can enjoy cheap wine and diner coffee. Cheap chocolate, OTOH, is just nasty.
But when it comes to reading, I've become...well, I'd like to say discerning, but the truth is I've just become cranky. Which probably means I shouldn't be airing my opinions of other people's books, but so it goes.
I've just finished reading a book called Sour Grapes, by Eliza Lentzski--a new-to-me author. I've been seeking out books set on California wineries, to keep me in the proper mind-set for a book I'm working on. A necessity, now that Napa is no longer in my backyard. I mean that literally. For close to a decade the Napa Valley was the view from my back porch. It's where I ate or went grocery shopping. It's where I attended yoga class several times a week.
But I digress...
Sour Grapes is definitely one of the better books I've read on the subject. By which I mean, I may have had a small problem with a few plot issues, but she pretty much nailed the setting.
There were so many books that I DNF'd--books that left me wondering if the author had ever even been to California or drank a glass of wine. I mean, seriously, WTF???
Lentzski, OTOH, got so much right. The weather in particular--notably those cool summer nights that I remember so vividly and that almost everyone gets wrong. And that made me so happy, I can't tell you! On the other hand, I have to say, her characters were getting ENTIRELY too much accomplished before getting to work each day.
The 6 AM start time was referenced repeatedly, yet entire scenes--much of the book, actually--seemed to occur in the morning. Before work. Sexy times, multiple showers, carpentry projects, elaborate breakfasts, long, cross country runs that...well, okay, that was problematical all on its own, given that it came after a serious discussion of mountain lions.
And look, yes there are mountain lions who occasionally wander into many of the more populous parts of coastal California--including Napa. And yes, people still run there anyway. But you know when you don't want to be jogging--alone--in areas where mountain lions have been sighted? That would be those times of day when mountain lions are most active. Meaning dusk to dawn. Meaning not in the morning. Especially not if you're going to still have time afterwards to come home, shower, dress, make and eat breakfast, and still get to work before 6 AM. Because then you'd be running in PEAK Mountain Lion Time.
So, yeah, I had issues. I also had problems with a couple of scenes that I'm reluctant to mention due to spoilers. But...complicated surgeries are complicated. They take HOURS under the best of circumstances and no one's bouncing back from that shit in only a couple of days.
I also might have wished the author had spent more time working up to the resolution. It felt rushed. Very much like she ran out of time or didn't want to book to get too lengthy. But I've been there and I've done that, so I may just be projecting. Overall, it was a very enjoyable read.
I also enjoyed several of Marina Adair's St Helena Vineyard series of novels. I hated the hero in the first book because he was a bully to the heroine. And, yes, it was before he got to know her, which is supposed to be a mitigating factor. But how you treat anyone is how you treat everyone and...I think I'm mangling that quote.
He did redeem himself, eventually, but really...such a dick. But don't let that put you off the series because, as I mentioned last week, that's a me problem rather than a book problem. There's a lot of reasonably realistic Napa Valley goings on, and a lot of wine knowledge (especially in book three).
So, there you have it. For some classic winery-set stories, I'd also suggest Josh Lanyon's A Vintage Affair--even though it's NOT set in California. And Kelly Jamieson's You Really Got Me, which is.
I'm hoping that the wine book that I mentioned earlier--the one I'm working on now--will be released this year. Fingers crossed that I can make that happen.
My other big winery book, Touch of a Vanished Hand, isn't available now, either. But that one WILL be re-released in the next few months.
In the meantime, Oberon's winery does make a very sexy appearance in Sound of a Voice That is Still, which is out now.
OR...for a completely different take on wineries, might I suggest The Zillionaire Vampire Cowboy's Secret Werewolf Babies--which is every bit as ridiculous as the name implies? Download a free copy of this not-to-be-taken-seriously PARODY here:
https://claims.prolificworks.com/free/ftvgSbGg
Oh...there's a video, too. Which I have to drag out every so often because it's just FUN!
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