It's a stretch to give it 3 stars due to a couple of things that really annoyed me.
First, the characters were rather shallow. Ericka is engaged to Craig one minute, the next she learns she has inherited a vineyard in Tuscany and is off to Italy to supposedly sell it and return to him. In only a few days, she finds herself attracted to a couple of men at the vineyard. Hmm... Craig is unreachable and their calls to each other just sound angry, petty and not like a conversation with someone you love.
Second, the most annoying to me, was the use of their names in EVERY sentence, at least it seemed that way. They know their names, so why do you have to use it every time you talk to them? Example: "Ericka, how do you like this wine?" "Paolo, I love it." "Ericka, how do you like Italy?" "Bernardo, Italy is wonderful." Seriously? I got to the point where I was looking for the name more than the content. That must have happened thousands of times and annoyed me too much.
I wonder if people on vineyards really drink that much wine every day? Sure, there was some hard work bringing the grapes to the finishing point, but so much drinking took place that I wondered how they could function.
Another annoyance was that if Ericka was such a good business person, how could she ignore her NY business for days or weeks at a time with only an email here and there?
I really wanted to like this book as I love Italy, but for these reasons I won't be giving it more praise. It belongs in the 2.5 stars category.
First, the characters were rather shallow. Ericka is engaged to Craig one minute, the next she learns she has inherited a vineyard in Tuscany and is off to Italy to supposedly sell it and return to him. In only a few days, she finds herself attracted to a couple of men at the vineyard. Hmm... Craig is unreachable and their calls to each other just sound angry, petty and not like a conversation with someone you love.
Second, the most annoying to me, was the use of their names in EVERY sentence, at least it seemed that way. They know their names, so why do you have to use it every time you talk to them? Example: "Ericka, how do you like this wine?" "Paolo, I love it." "Ericka, how do you like Italy?" "Bernardo, Italy is wonderful." Seriously? I got to the point where I was looking for the name more than the content. That must have happened thousands of times and annoyed me too much.
I wonder if people on vineyards really drink that much wine every day? Sure, there was some hard work bringing the grapes to the finishing point, but so much drinking took place that I wondered how they could function.
Another annoyance was that if Ericka was such a good business person, how could she ignore her NY business for days or weeks at a time with only an email here and there?
I really wanted to like this book as I love Italy, but for these reasons I won't be giving it more praise. It belongs in the 2.5 stars category.