Tuesday Review: Be Mine Forever

Be Mine Forever

By Marina Adair

Publisher: Montlake

Release Date: 

January 21, 2014

When he receives a series of calls that make him think his grandmother is critically ill, Trey DeLuca returns to St. Helena, California, as fast as modern transportation can get him there from Paris, but he finds his irrepressible grandmother practicing dance steps in preparation for the town’s annual Winter Garden Gala rather than fighting for her life. The only emergency is that ChiChi Ryo has decided that Trey, her youngest and only unmarried grandson, should be her dance partner for the Valentine’s Day event. The last gala Trey attended was the one four months before his parents’ death. He has avoided them for the past decade. In fact, he avoids spending time in St. Helena generally, a task made easier by his position as vice-president of sales in the family wine business. Trey loves his family, but the guilt he feels over the death of his parents has left him with a deep need for emotional distance even from them. Trey is confident that he can con one of his brothers into partnering their grandmother. As soon as he can do so, he plans to leave town again.

Sara Reed moved to St. Helena because it was the kind of town in which she wanted to raise her son. Between caring for her son and struggling to build the reputation and enrollment of her dance school, Sara hardly has a minute for herself. Widowed for two years, she has no expectations of finding the kind of love she shared with her husband Garrett, a Marine killed in battle, and she has been reluctant to even begin dating.

When Sara and Trey meet, both their lives begin to change. Suddenly St. Helena seems much more appealing to Trey, and Sara is reminded that she is a woman, not just a dance studio owner and a single mother. Their attraction is instantaneous, powerful, and mutual. The understanding that they are all wrong for each other is mutual as well. Trey knows that Sara is a forever kind of woman, and Sara soon recognizes that Trey is allergic to commitment. But resisting gets more difficult as layers of genuine liking and a rare rapport are added to the simmering physical attraction. Trey finds that not only Sara but also five-year-old Cooper and Trey’s young nieces are effortlessly bridging the emotional space he has preserved since his teens. Sara knows that Trey can give her only February, but her heart persists in hoping for more. It’s a recipe for heartbreak unless Trey is willing to risk giving himself without reservations to the possibility of living happily ever after.

Be Mine Forever is the fourth book in Marina Adair’s St. Helena Vineyard series, and it has the all the humor, sweetness, and sizzle that characterized the earlier books. Trey is a charmer with a vulnerability less hidden than he believes, and Sara, a real sweetheart, is the perfect heroine for a Valentine’s story. The honesty, the shared humor, and the revealing conversations that the two of them shared allow readers to see them falling in love, not merely lusting for one another’s bodies. Trey’s relationship with Cooper is particularly endearing.

Readers who read the other DeLuca books will enjoy seeing Reagan and Gabe and Lexi and Marc and their growing families and catching glimpses of Frankie and Nate’s wedding preparations. ChiChi and her posse are as funny and outrageous as ever.

I fall a little more in love with St. Helena and the DeLucas with each visit. If you are a fan of series with rich family dynamics, likeable characters, and a setting that is memorable and distinctive, I recommend you add the latest Marina Adair book to your TBR list. According to the author’s website, there are two more books in this series: From the Moment We Met, the story of the Deluca brothers only sister, in July 2014, and Need You Now, a Winter 2014 release. I’ve added both to my book calendar.

I’m always surprised that there are not more Valentine’s romances. In fact, most of the ones I know are traditional Regencies. What’s your favorite Valentine’s Day romance?

Tuesday Review: Autumn in the Vineyard

Autumn in the Vineyard

By Marina Adair

Publisher: Montlake

Release Date: 

October 29, 2013

Frankie Baudouin learned some painful lessons early in her life. Her grandfather just confirmed them when she chose to do something against his wishes and he kicked her out of the family business--and out of his life. But Sorrento Ranch, the most desirable acreage in Napa Valley, is Frankie’s chance to show her grandfather his mistake in letting her go and to fulfill her dream of producing her own boutique wine. The fact that she bought land that the DeLucas, rival vintners and  Baudouin enemies for more than half a century, are eager to own makes her purchase all the sweeter. Frankie is prepared to work hard, but she’s not prepared for Nate DeLuca to complicate her life again. Nate has a history of creating problems for Frankie, but this time she’s determined to win the battle. She has too much at stake to lose her land.

Nate DeLuca is looking forward to putting to use the land the DeLucas just bought fulfill his father’s dream. Nate has fond memories of teen years spent working with his dad trying to find the perfect blend for a dream wine the elder DeLuca called his “opus.” Now he and his brothers have plans to turn the twenty prime acres the family just paid an inflated $7.5 million for into the site of DeLuca’s premiere winery, Opus. Nate is surprised to find Francesca Baudouin on his land and claiming it as hers, but he’s confident that the DeLucas will prevail—at least until he discovers he has been unwittingly paid a platinum price for half the land he thought he was buying, acreage that was divided fifteen years ago. Still, knowing the Baudouin are cash-strapped, he feels certain he can persuade the volatile Frankie to sell.

When the two face off in court, they do so before a judge who is weary of the DeLuca- Baudouin feud, uses the fact that the property division splits the house in half to give Nate and Frankie thirty days to work thing out peacefully together before he takes action. Thirty days with two stubborn antagonists who know they are all wrong for one another but can’t escape the passion that simmers between them makes for an interesting, conflicted, and dangerous time.

Autumn in the Vineyard is the third book in Adair’s St. Helena Vineyard series. Readers familiar with the earlier books will recognize Frankie and Nate and remember the kiss that sent the sizzle-meter soaring in Kissing Under the Mistletoe. Frankie, with her ball-busting boots and motorcycle, is a tough cookie, but one with a soft center. The child of a divorce that left her feeling rejected and cut off from her father’s world, she longs to be loved and accepted for who she is. Nate is a fascinating contradiction—an easy-going charmer who prefers loving to fighting and an obsessive list-maker who has felt the need to exert control even in this limited way since his parents’ deaths.

I usually prefer friends-to-lovers stories to enemies-to-lovers, but I found both Frankie and Nate likeable, engaging characters. I believed in their conflict because it was based less on the feuding families than on their very different experiences and personalities. I especially  appreciated that Adair didn’t smooth out all the rough spots created by their differences with true love. One of the reasons I believe these two will endure is that they have accepted that love doesn’t mean never being irritated by or disappointed in the beloved. My favorite lines belong to Frankie’s wise spinster aunt: “It’s the liking part that’s difficult. Love, once it happens, is always there no matter how angry you get. But like, that takes compromise and honesty and understanding and a lot of hard work.”

Family dynamics are an important part of this story. I enjoyed watching the teasing and easy affection that bind the DeLuca brothers to one another and to the rest of their extended family, and I found Frankie’s more complicated relationship with her brothers and other family members interesting and credible. Part of the appeal is setting, both St, Helena as a particular place and the wine culture generally. Adair is generous with the details, giving the reader a strong sense of place.

There are four DeLuca brothers, and with Frankie and Nate settled, three of them now have their HEA. That leaves Trey, and his story will be available January 21—Be Mine Forever, a Valentine story just in time for Valentine’s Day. I look forward to another trip to St. Helena.

Some of my favorite series have involved families with wineries. In addition to Adair’s books, I love Susan Mallery’s Marcelli family, Christie Ridgway’s Baci sisters, and Kristan Higgins’s Hollands. And, although not a part of a series, I have The Vineyard by Barbara Delinsky and The Villa by Nora Roberts on a keeper shelf. Do you like wineries as settings? What’s your favorite?

Tuesday Review: Summer in Napa

Summer in Napa

By Marina Adair

Publisher: Montlake

Release Date: May 14, 2013

Alexis Moreau is back in St. Helena, California. Once the golden girl of her hometown, she is returning with a divorce decree so new the ink is barely dry and with her self-esteem in tatters. Her faithless ex was supposed to be her soul mate and forever love, but Lexi didn’t realize there was an expiration date on her high school romance that morphed into marriage. Now former husband Jeff is already someone else’s husband, and there is no room for Lexi in the New York restaurant she helped to make a success. She’s hoping that fulfilling an older dream of turning her grandmother’s patisserie into a bistro will give her new purpose. But first she has to cope with a string of unwanted dates her matchmaking grandmother arranges and the ambivalent feelings Marco DeLuca, he ex-husband’s best friend and perennial best man is evoking.

Marco DeLuca has always known that Lexi Moreau was off-limits for him, no matter how much she appealed to his libido and to his heart. He needs to focus on getting the old hotel he is transforming ready for the Summer Wine Showdown. Besides, even though technically Lexi is free now, Marco knows that getting involved with her would violate the man rules of romance. Or so he keeps telling himself. But although his head knows he should ignore Lexi, the rest of him is not getting the message.

When the two agree to fake a summer romance, it soon becomes clear that intentions are just tinder for the sparks that fly when this combustible twosome is together. Summer and wine and chocolate and a hero and heroine who finally have a chance to rectify the bad choices their hearts made earlier—it sounds like a perfect recipe for romance to me.

I finished Kissing Under the Mistletoe, Adair’s first book in her St. Helena’s Vineyard series giggling over the abundance of Rudolphs, and I started the second book giggling over Lexi’s window adventure. Both books mix laughter with family dynamics, small-town atmosphere, and sigh-worthy moments to produce just the kind of entertaining escape many romance readers are looking for. 

One of the things I liked best about the book is that there is a balance of fraternal support and friction among the DeLuca brothers, a blend I find more believable than the idyllic sibling relationships I sometimes see in romance. I admit I found the family’s conviction that Marcus was destined to be a player and a screw-up irritating. But I know that once a family member is cast in a role, breaking out of it is nearly impossible. So I accepted their actions as credible even when I deplored them. 

If you are a fan of light romances that are fun to read with likeable primary characters and some scene-stealing secondary characters (a child in the first book, Marco’s dog Wingman in this one), I recommend Marina Adair. I look forward to seeing more of the DeLuca family.

Romance fiction, historical and contemporary, is filled with matchmaking characters. My favorite matchmaker is probably Daniel MacGregor from the MacGregor family series by Nora Roberts. Who is your favorite fictional matchmaker?