Sour Grapes

The book was great as usual. I love the way you research the back story. Made me look up wine making and small Vinyards in my local area.

This book begins slowly, and I nearly switched to another title in my library.I’m glad I didn’t. I found that I finished the book wanting more — more for the central character and more of her developing relationship.The book opens with June St. Clare moving to Lark Estates in Napa Valley as the new owner. Buying the boutique winery was her wife Alex’s dream, but Alex’s unexpected death means June has to solo in the unfamiliar setting where she’s not exactly welcomed with open arms.June’s most fervent foe is her Assistant Winemaker Lucia Santiago, who begrudgingly must train June on the winery’s operations.Lentski employs Lucia’s interactions with June to painstakingly describe the art of viticulture, using the various aspects of the process as metaphor for June’s evolution.It begins with her adjustment from being Alex’s partner of 20 years, a successful creative director, and a confident lesbian surrounded by friends in San Francisco. She’s now someone who questions her life as a lonely single woman, an outsider, and a stumbling business owner.Fortunately, June is lifted by Lucia’s passion for winemaking and comforted by her compassion for June’s insecurities.But as the romance formula goes, June still has obstacles to overcome. No spoilers here — only that I encourage Lentski to write a sequel where June deservingly comes boldly into her own.

I do love a story that clearly had a lot of knowledge poured in. I'm a sucker for reading about people who are obsessed with something.This is a nice story overall. A less intense version of the city person is forced into the country, where our hero quickly decides to immerse herself in the new world, and similarly it doesn't take long for the feisty vintner to warm up to her.Short but emotionally fulfilling sex scenes (not that there's anything wrong with that).The only real fault I find is that it seems to rush very quickly through the third act. Something like a final obstacle shows up but we mostly skip past it to a quick resolution. It was nice enough but I would've liked more there.Very good overall!

This story of a vineyard and new owners is well written and the characters are interesting, but the descriptions of wine production are particularly good. EL has done her research and this provides context for the tale. You'll enjoy it.

I love Lentzski's writing and this book was no exception. Not only is she an excellent author but it seems she knows her winemaking too! June lost her partner of almost 20 years to an accident. Alex, her partner, was adventurous and had invested their nest egg in a winery in NAPA. I've visited NAPA Valley and Sonoma, the location is spectacular. Never mind neither one of them knew what it entailed. June decides to leave a promising career as a graphics artist and take over the winery. There she meets broody Lucia, the assistant winemaker. Lucia is not happy that the winery has been sold and is not shy to express it. The way Lentzski writes her MCs, it makes you feel like you know them personally. I had a soft spot in my heart for June, she was so lost that I wanted to meet her and be her friend. I won't reveal much else, but the story between them is very well written, the only complaint I have is that I wanted an epilogue. More of their life. Eliza, please, give us a sequel. (less)

I really enjoyed the relationship that developed between June and Lucia and also learning a few things about the wine business along the way. Sour Grapes is just one of many I've read by Eliza Lentzski. Winter Jacket & Don't Call Me Hero series are my favorite.

If you like wine, this presents a great backdrop for a fateful story with some nice plot twists. Well-researched interwoven details make it so easy to visualize what’s happening and the surroundings. If you like Eliza Lentzski’s other works, then you’ll enjoy this one, too. I read it (digitally) cover to cover on an international work trip and can’t think of a better way to spend time in airports/airplanes than transporting to this fictional vineyard.

I found this book to be quite endearing. I am a wine lover, being from the Pacific Northwest where wineries are popping up everywhere. I have my favorites, of course, but I actually learned a great deal about the actual wine making process from this book. The only issues I found were quite a few missing words, misused words and sentences that just didn’t make sense. I have read a number of this author’s other work and I never had this problem with any of them. Not sure why it happened here?

I will never take a bottle of wine for granted, ever again. The work that's gone into this book in terms of research blew me away. No longer a load of grapes trampled under foot & stored for time. 😊I'm a big fan of Lentzski's work & this book doesn't deter me from being a even bigger fan. Big up the Indie author's.

Another great Eliza Lentzski book. Two vulnerable leads brought together to develop a budding friendship. Can a fine wine bring them closer or will the past stop it? Open the book and be hooked like I was. Hoping for another book to see more of these beautiful ladies and how they develop

I love this author but I didn’t think this book was as good as the others. Part of the story annoyed me with how the main character gave into something which I felt she should have fought for but hey it all worked out in the end ;-)

I liked the book but didn’t love it, I wanted more and more dialogues and reasoning behind the protagonists decisions, instead there were a lot of long paragraphs with extra information. Nice to read

Wow have I learned something about wine as well as reading a great story. A mark of a good book is will you read it again and definitely will.