A family saga starts
in Germany and moves to the wine country of California. The Schallers
and the Newmans are part of a group of German settlers who immigrate
to California in the early 1900s. As a whole, the group prospers and
in the present day, the town they founded, in addition to making
wine, is a tourist attraction.
Nicole Schaller is
the last descendant of the original Schaller family. She’s torn.
She loves the valley and the vineyards, but she wants to be her own
person and believes that she can’t be herself with the shadow of
her family hanging over her.
She’s trying to
sell the vineyards, but when showing prospective buyers the property,
a skeleton is found in the wall of the barrel room. All Nicole wants
is to get the police off the property so she can continue making
arrangements to sell. Then if a skeleton weren’t bad enough, Lucas
Newman arrives. The Newmans and the Schallers are bitter enemies.
Lucas and Nicole haven’t spoken for years, but now the skeleton
forces the families to face the secrets that made them become
enemies.
I love the setting
of this story on the central California coast near Santa Barbara. The
atmosphere is perfectly rendered for both the 1900s story and the
present day. The story moves back and forth between the two time
periods giving us a glimpse of early California.
As usual with
stories set in two time periods, one moves faster than the other. The
family saga moves slowly unfolding the family feuds and hidden
secrets. The present day story is a murder mystery and moves much
more quickly. Both were well done, but I preferred the modern story.
I thought the historical portion dragged at times.
I recommend this
book if you enjoy family sagas.
I received this book
from Turner Publishing for this review.
No comments:
Post a Comment