‘The Lost Vintage’ by Ann Mah

⭐⭐

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Meh, this book was just ok for me. It had all the ingredients that should have added up to a really delectable book recipe–wine, vineyards on rolling hills in France, rich food, more wine, charming villas, family secrets, a hidden cave unearthed in a cellar, romance, expensive vintage wine–but I found it hard to connect to characters that felt two-dimensional and annoying to me. I really wanted to like this novel but I found it disappointing and shallow, despite a number of elements I usually enjoy.

Kate returns to her family’s ancestral vineyard in Burgundy to study for her Master of Wine test. There she uncovers a lost diary, a forgotten relative, a long lost love, and a secret her family has been keeping since WWII. Though the book was pleasant enough to read and kept my interest enough to finish it, I found it lacking, especially in the amateur handling of one of the central themes–the difficult life and death choices that people often have to make in war to survive. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah did a much better job of that in my opinion.