Books: The Vineyard

The Vineyard
By Barbara Delinsky
Copyright 2000
Audiobook
Abridged
Read by Lauren Mufson

This is the story of Olivia Jones, only it starts out as the story of Natalie Seebring. If I had one quarrel with this, it is the point of view. The story would have been just fine if it had stayed with Olivia instead of hopping around at the beginning. It stayed with Olivia through most of the rest of the book, though it occasionally broke into omniscient point of view.

Anyway, Olivia repairs old photos for a living. She had a rough childhood. She has a daughter, Tess, who has dyslexia. She falls for the Seebring family via old photos she is restoring. When Natalie Seebring decides she wants to write a memoir, Olivia takes the job and moves to the vineyard in Rhode Island.

Natalie is 76 and is marrying a second time to 80-year-old Carl, the former manager of the vineyard. Her two children disapprove; hence, the memoir. We learn about Natalie's upbringing and life in snippets; we learn a lot of Olivia's heartbreaks and then watch her fall in love with Simon, the current vineyard manager and Carl's son.

No mystery, really, just good sentences telling a nice story. A nice little romance.

2.5 stars