What I'm Reading post for Wednesday February 7, 2024

 

Recently, I've been enjoying Kate Kisset's Love in the Vineyard series, which is set in Sonoma and Napa Valley, with occasional forays into San Francisco. All of which is my old stomping grounds, as they say, so I'm very familiar with (and have a great fondness for) all the areas she mentions. 

As I've discussed before, I'm a terrible reader in that I'm very critical about books set in real places that I know well. I love when books get the details right or reference places I know and love...well, unless of course they're critical of those places. Then...no. Not so much.

Kisset gets A LOT right--including those cold summer nights. And she mentions some of my favorite Napa and Sonoma restaurants like The Girl and The Fig, Boon Fly Cafe and the Norman Rose Tavern. Adding an entirely fictional bakery/cafe to the really small East Side of the Town Square (where there already is a bakery/cafe) was a digression I could live with. 

Drinking Pinot Noir with Sea Bass on the other hand...why would you do that?

Apparently she lives (or lived?) in wine country--and  it shows! So, kudos for that. 

The third book in the series occurs during the horrific 2017 fires. She was there for them--as was I. I remember the crazy winds that started things off. I remember walking out on my deck the next morning, seeing the ash and the displaced furniture and wondering what the hell had happened. I could see the glow from the fires lighting up the sky, night after night, and being afraid to fall asleep. Scary times.

All of which goes to say, I was particularly interested in reading about that! In her forward for the book, Kisset mentions taking a lot of artistic license, especially when it comes to how the firefighters would have interacted with residents of the area. I understand why she chose to depart from reality, but I kind of wish she hadn't. Even with the disclaimer, it was jarring when I came to a mention of a firefighter eschewing a mask so that the hero might see the makeup she'd put on. 

That was just...the air was really, really, really bad. I get a little sick just thinking about it. I can't imagine anyone voluntarily going without a mask under those conditions. 

On the other hand, those fires (along the even deadlier ones that occurred a year later) were traumatic for all of us who were there. I figure this was her way of dealing with it. And it definitely makes for a better romance. Because the reality was NOT conducive to romance. Like...not at all.

BUT! As usual, that's a ME problem, rather than a BOOK problem. So, if you're looking for romance books set in California's wine country--that actually feel like wine country--I recommend this series.