There are secrets you share, and secrets you hide…
Growing up on her family’s Sonoma vineyard, Georgia Ford learned some important secrets. The secret number of grapes it takes to make a bottle of wine: eight hundred. The secret ingredient in her 
mother’s lasagna: chocolate. The secret behind ending a fight: hold hands.
But just a week before her wedding, thirty-year-old Georgia discovers her beloved fiancé has been keeping a secret so explosive, it will change their lives forever.
Georgia does what she’s always done: she returns to the family vineyard, expecting the comfort of her long-married parents, and her brothers, and everything familiar. But it turns out her fiancé is not the only one who’s been keeping secrets…
Bestselling author Laura Dave has been dubbed “a wry observer of modern love” (USA TODAY), a “decadent storyteller” (Marie Claire), and “compulsively readable” (Woman’s Day). Set in the lush backdrop of Sonoma’s wine country, Eight Hundred Grapes is a heartbreaking, funny, and deeply evocative novel about love, marriage, family, wine, and the treacherous terrain in which they all intersect.
~ Goodreads
My review............4 stars
This book piqued my interest when I found out it takes place at a wine vineyard, a subject I know next to nothing about. Just the fact that the title refers to the number of grapes it takes to make a good bottle of wine, and the clever cover drew me in. While I admit that the information about the way the grapes are grown, the year long process to get the grapes ready for harvest, the things that need to be added to the soil as well as the fermenting process was fascinating, this was also a darn good family story! You just never know what is going on behind the surface until you start poking around. As much as this family love each other, there were several very tense and tenuous moments throughout. While I wasn't entirely happy with the resolution to all of the issues, this was a thoroughly satisfying read. Great writing throughout, made me want to keep flipping pages to find out how everything would work out for this family.
Pour yourself a glass of wine and curl up with this very interesting and inviting story!
This book is part of the BookSparks summer reading challenge. Follow the link for more information, and a list of this summer's books.
Eight Hundred Grapes: A Novel
mother’s lasagna: chocolate. The secret behind ending a fight: hold hands.
I love novels set in wine country, there is just something about the setting and small towns that pop up around the vineyards. I love that this focuses on family and that you loved it.