For February I was feeling a bit romantic and so selected a romance book. Wine and Children completely exceeded my expectations, but before I get too far ahead of myself, some details about the book and its author Sara Dahmen.
Wine and Children comes from award-winning novelist Sara Dahmen and was the 2017 First Place Winner of Wisconsin's Romance Writers of America Write Touch Award. The synopsis from Amazon is as follows:
Single and still smarting from her divorce, Charlotte Paggo takes a sabbatical to meander through California's wine country in an attempt to rebuild herself. Her travels lead her to meet Sam, a budding garagiste wine maker and a divorcee himself. Neither of them have any illusions about what it takes to make a relationship work, and romance is complicated by Sam's pre-teen sons.
Issues surface, from ex-spouses, children and medical emergencies. Underlying everything is the battle of Charlie's insecurities that stem from her irrevocable infertility. Like so many real life couples who hope for second chances, Charlie and Sam need to work together to discover what it might take to find comfort and happiness once more.
This novel more than delivers when it comes to details about wine making, the emotional turmoil that people have to deal with after divorce, the stigma around infertility, and the process of mature love.
I never knew as many details about wine making, and I absolutely loved when Sam would explain things to Charlie. I feel like, just by reading this book I gained insight about a hobby and passion that I didn't know about before. Dahmen definitely did her homework and included the details in such a way as to not overload and bore, but rather educated and entertain the reader.
As someone who has not been divorced, but did have an engagement end rather badly. I may not have had to deal with infertility, but starting a new relationship after mourning a previous one, is a daunting task. Despite not dealing with the exact issues Charlie has, Dahmen wrote the story in such a way that I completely sympathized, and was able to place myself in her shoes. I was almost brought to tears several times. Which is saying something as I never cry when reading!
I absolutely fell in love with Sam. I thought his character was fantastic. He was not idealized like some romantic love interests. Instead he was human, he had his own flaws as well as positives. He is the perfectly flawed match to Charlie and I found their interactions realistic. I never wanted the story to end, and found myself staying up late to read when I really should have been in bed. (Whoops!)
Wine and Children is a must read for anyone that enjoys romantic stories. Period. A truly refreshing take on the romantic story line that bucks traditional tropes in favor of realistic love that pulls on the heart stings. So grab your copy today, the eBook is on sale for $2.99, and the print book is discounted as well!
Link to book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Wine-Children-Sara-Dahmen-ebook/dp/B01N2UBGCO/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Sara Dahmen's website: http://www.saradahmen.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/saradahmenbooks
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/sara_dahmen/
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