Book Preview: A Historical Fiction Tale of Romance, Ambition & Mystery Set in WWII French Vineyards

I very much enjoyed  The French Winemaker’s Daughter: A Novel, by author Loretta Ellsworth. 

I thank NetGalley ~ and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks for giving me the opportunity to to review in exchange for my honest review ~ it’s my first ARC read.  

I’m a huge fan of historical fiction and this book takes the drama of the biggest and deadliest of times, charging it with a compelling narrative that leads you to discover a tale of fortitude, familial love, tragedy and survival. 

The storyline weaves a tale of romance, ambition, and war set between two time periods: World War II and a 1990s modern day intersecting the lives of two women in two plotlines, across the generations. 

The characters unfold in a compelling and intriguing way.  The reader gets to know the personalities: their fears, hopes, and dreams, so that you really care about them; are invested in their struggles, and by the time the story is unfurling towards its conclusion, you are rooting for them, and love.  

And you don’t want to say goodby to the characters that you’ve come to embrace. 

The protagonist, Charlotte, is a commercial airline captain; a strong woman with a pedigree in the two careers that bookend the narrative.  Her father is also a successful airline pilot and her grandfather, a WWII veteran with understandably, war demons, owned a vineyard in California that she secretly hopes to purchase.  

Charlotte has a flat in Paris as her home base.  Contrary to her passion for flying and her strengths as a pilot, she falls for all the wrong men, and seems unsure of herself in the romance department.  

When Henri, her French boyfriend that she sees as a potential husband, takes her to the famous French auction house at the Hotel Druout, they end up having a lusty evening of more than wine.  Henri gifts her one of the bottles of wine he purchased.  

Henri turns out to be the rogue she wished she hadn’t set such a store on, but the wine he gifted her turns out to be a ticket to not only a World War II saga and mystery but also the key to love and happiness.

The past has a way of sneaking up.  

Charlotte is driven to find out the story about the now rare, expensive, collectable bottle of wine when she learns the original label on the bottle was hidden; pasted over with another vineyard’s.  Her quest to discover the mystery and find the origin of the vineyard and the coveted wine, propels the narrative.

The intersecting story takes place in Burgundy, France during WWII, starring an eight-year old Martine, whose father owns a French vineyard where the grapes are tended with careful pride and the wine is made with love.  But the Nazi’s are approaching fast. Her father gives her a bottle of their wine and tells her to hide in the armoire and to safeguard the family’s heritage ~ that it will save her. 

While she most regrettably loses the wine bottle on her arduous journey to stay alive, Martine is saved. By a nun, Sister Alda, who is working out of a convent but in truth, is also Jewish and working secretly as part of the French Resistance. 

The story alternates between Martine, and her passage from the War to owning a down-on-its-luck vineyard run by her and her son and Charlotte’s journey of sleuthing and finding true love.

 The French Winemaker’s Daughter is a kind of mystery, romance, viticulture chronicle that is engaging and sweet to read.  

A little too convenient or “tropey” is Charlotte as she relates to men. I wished that Charlotte’s strong feminine authority would have been more reliable when it came to interacting with the men in her life ~ from the somewhat querulous or edgy way she dealt with her boyfriends and the fleeting “differences” with family obligations; along with the sometimes expository telling of her conflicts, mainly about finding her love mate. 

But the strong narrative doesn’t disappoint.  In the end, you will enjoy The French Winemaker’s Daughter: A Novel for the captivating and intriguing story and its triumphs of the heart.  I “heartily” recommend the read! 

The novel is slated for release December 10th ~ in time for cozying up to read and gift for the Holidays.

Santé.