(44)Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave

Monday, June 1, 2015


When the going gets tough attorney Georgia Ford goes to the one place she was so desperate to escape - home.  Just days before their wedding Georgia discovers that her fiance, Ben, has a four year old daughter he never told her about.  Without even stopping to think about her actions she gets in the car and drives the nine hours north to Sonoma.   Her unexpected arrival reveals some shocking things about her own family.  Like her mother is having an affair and her father is in the process of selling the family's vineyard.  And one of her brothers wants to move to the other side of the country.  Georgia goes into "problem solving" mode and tries to solve everybody's problems but her own.  In the process she meets Jacob, the man who is buying the vineyard and that muddy's the waters even more for Georgia.   Will she go through with the wedding and save her family's vineyard?

Through the first part of Eight Hundred Grapes I found myself a little irritated.  Here is this highly intelligent, highly educated woman who finds out her fiance has been dishonest and her gut reaction is to run - still wearing the wedding dress she was wearing for a fitting - nine hours to her family home.  Later in the book Georgia's friend points out the reason she did that and I thought "Oh, that makes sense." - So I got over it!  There is definitely one thing that cannot be mistaken and that is the fact that Georgia loves her family.   Even though her own relationship is crumbling she is so concerned about making the relationships in her family.  She has always looked up to her brothers and to see their relationship in tatters hurts her almost more than her relationship with Ben.  I was pleased with the end even if it was a bit predictable.  Everything wrapped up nicely and with a "happy ever after" conclusion.


Bottom line - Eight Hundred Grapes was a good read. I loved the Sonoma Valley setting and most of the characters were interesting and engaging.  Grab a glass of wine and give it a read.

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