Written by one of Napa's own, Decanted takes the highly male-dominated wine world, and introduces us to two fierce heroines instead. What a relief! Told in alternate timelines between a great aunt and her grand niece, Decanted weaves a cozy tale of wine, love, and redemption found in the least likely places.

I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

Fantastic! Samantha has it all. A great job many would envy. But she’s missing something. A wine lover she feels like she would love to make her own brand. Risk everything to give herself a chance to do this may seem crazy to some. But she does it! Giving up her job and using her savings she sets off to France. While she starts her journey from the beginning she learns the wine making and bottling process as well as finds some romance. Though her journey isn’t a easy one she does it admirably and with fun. I really enjoyed this fun read! Highly recommend you grab this!

I struggled with this book. I thought that a combination of romance and wine making would be a wonderful combination, but it just didn't hit for me. I'm sure other folks will enjoy it because it was really well written.

I enjoyed this romance about love, persistence and winemaking. Samantha leaves her well paying job in NYC to learn about wine, working at a domaine in France. After a failed romance, Samantha leaves France, drives from NYC to Napa in an old truck with the intention to get a job in the wine business. Although much of her story seems a bit unrealistic, it is a fun read, particularly if you are a wine lover. A few chapters were devoted to her Aunt Vivian, her inspiration for her independent spirit and resourcefulness. Recommended as a good vacation read. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Samantha Goodyear is an accountant at a huge firm in New York City. She works all the time and wants to incorporate her passion which the business of wine into her work life.

After meeting the owner of a winery in France, getting her dad as her new roomie, and having an “Aha” moment at work, Samantha quits her job to pursue her dreams of becoming a wine maker.

Armed with her Great-Aunt Vivian’s grit, Samantha goes from France to Napa Valley to learn everything she can to make her dream come true.

First of all, wine is my love language, so all the wonderful descriptions about the wines and the wine making process made this a dream come true read for me.

The story is well done in the book and it isn’t just Samantha’s story, we get a little history about Great-Aunt Vivian during her time in France from 1936 - 1940 which gives the book an extra layer of complexity.

I really liked the way all the secondary characters were written into the story,
how many of them had interesting back stories, and how they all played a roll in Samantha’s adventure.

Finally, without giving away the ending, I love the celebration of girl power done in a subtle way!

Unfortunately, this didn’t really click with me! I found I had some issues with the pacing of this novel and I wasn’t really invested in the narrative or any of the characters. I still think it was enjoyable and easy to read and Loved the cover. Very eye catching. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I honestly chose this book to read because of the cover. But I was definitely not disappointed once I started reading. It caught my attention from the beginning and held it all the way through.

This is the take of Samantha. Samantha has a dream of making wine. She is an up and coming accountant at an up and coming accounting firm. But when she is given the chance to be a toiler at a vineyard in France she cannot say no.

I enjoyed this book because Samantha made me feel as if there is nothing that I cannot do. This isn't just a story about a girl who follows her dreams. Nope, there's also some love and romance to go along with the wine.

What more could you ask for?
Thank you Netgalley, the publishers and the author for the chance to read this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

Linda Sheehan, the author of “Decanted” has written an entertaining, intriguing, and thought-provoking novel. The genres for this novel are literary fiction, romance, and a dash of historical fiction. The timelines for this story are set in the author’s present and the past when it pertains to the characters or events. I love the author’s vivid descriptions of the wine-making process, and the landscape, and the scenery as well as the characters and plots. The author describes her colorful characters as complex and complicated. This is a book of secrets, betrayals, and lack of communication. I do enjoy that the author discusses that there are some courageous and powerful women characters. The settings for this story are in southern France and in Napa's “wine” country.

Samantha (Sam) seems to be following in her Great Aunt Vivian’s footsteps. Vivian had gone to Paris, before the war, hoping to find what her dreams will be. To support herself, Vivian found jobs posing for artists. When the Germans entered France, Vivian does some brave and courageous things.

Sam is bored with her accounting job for a wine company and finds that she has a desire to become more invested in the growing, and production of wine. She sets off to France to work on a vineyard, not realizing how this will change her life forever. Sam can tell grapes are ready by tasting them. It is a tedious and long day in the vineyards, and Sam loves every moment ingesting the information about grapes. She realizes that making good wine takes dedication, and is an art.

After a major disappointment, Sam returns to the Napa valley and becomes involved in the wine industry, and again works on a vineyard. Little does Sam realize that her deceased Great-Aunt holds the key for Sam’s dreams to come true. I would highly recommend this novel to other readers.

My momma @nannarino is back with another winner! Thank you to @suzyapprovedbooktours for our gifted review copy of DECANTED by @lindasheehanauthor - out now!
🍷
Read DECANTED if you enjoy stories about:
-Determined women
-Second chances
-Dual timelines
-Family secrets
-Wine country
-Dash of romance
📖
This was a different type of read for me and I really enjoyed it. I love that I learned a good deal about wine while reading DECANTED. The way the author weaves the timelines and pieces everything together was just wonderful.

Romcoms are not my typical read but I thought I would give this a shot. I loved the premise of following your dreams and doing something you are passionate about. I think the wine part also sold me because I would seriously quit my day job for that ;). But overall, the book fell a bit short for me. I felt it was very rushed and a tad too perfectly unrealistic and the romance happened in the blink of an eye. I wish the characters were more delveloped and there was more depth to the story as well as an ending that left me satisfied. By the end of the book I felt like I ran a marathon without actually running.

At first i struggled to get into this book, but about half way through i was into it! I am a wine drinker so the front cover and description instantly attracted me. Some places it was a bit unrealistic, but that's what books are about. Always follow you dreams

not for me
Found it boring and flat
Struggled to finish it

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Thank you to Netgalley fot this ARC copy of Decanted. What a fun read! I probably would have given it four stars but I had trouble jumping from the past to the future. Writing was good though and I liked the characters.

I wanted to like this book, and I did for a lot of it - mostly the wine and the idea of being a nude model in France and being another mans muse. However, I found the relationships ingenuous and the dialogue was stilted and didn’t seem to have much give and take but rather was halting and difficult. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the book for me. But there were some truly wonderful moments that were written so vividly and beautifully.

Vineyards
South of France And Napa Valley
Passions

This immersive and captivating story takes us though the beautiful vineyards of the South of France and Napa Valley in Northern California. Samantha and Vivian are both wonderful characters. These women are strong and don’t follow traditional conventions but instead forge their own path and future. The setting and the intricacies of the wine making business is so well written I completely immersed into the story line. This was a gorgeous story about following your passions, family and of course wine!

I was really torn between a 3 or 4 star review for this so I'm going to class it as 3.5.

I struggled to get into the story at the beginning but I was captivated by about 50%.

The descriptive writing was really good and I enjoyed all the wine dialogue. But I just felt sometimes the way the characters spoke it felt unrealistic. Certain things that happened in the book just didn't feel right and it always fell into place far too easy.

The ending really disappointed me, I was hoping for a different outcome and I still feel that I have unanswered questions.

As a wine lover, I was very exited about checking out Linda Sheehan’s Decanted. The concept of the book is good. Our main character, also a wine lover, decides to follow her dreams of a career in wine. Along the way, various people come into her world that inspire her journey, but there was not enough depth in these connections. This book has great potential, but would really benefit from another round of strong editing. There was more focus on wine making and terminology than character development. I would love to see (and feel) more about our main character’s connection to those in her life, especially to the two men who are love interests. The book ends without (in my opinion) a full resolution to the story. Thank you to NetGalley for the Advance Reader Copy for review. All options are my own.

This story really tells us that we can follow our dreams, and I love that! Samantha leaves her day job behind to become a wine maker. She gets an internship in France🥳!!! (but it’s unpaid😔). That is okay though, she takes her life’s savings and hops on a plane!

Samantha is this inspiring character that makes you truly feel like you can do anything! Learning about wine making with Samantha was an amazing experience. Watching her learn and grow felt easy and I just enjoyed the story from start to finish!

Characters are really important to me, and all the characters in this were easy to get to know and likeable! Samantha was a character I really enjoyed getting to know. She’s quite the inspiring person. She’s determined, works hard, and wants to succeed at her goals. I loved her story!

Before you sit down to start this one, make sure to pour a glass of wine! It’s a must-pair kind of story!

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

The premise of this book completely drew me in. A young woman leaving behind her desk job to pursue her passion for wine and winemaking in France! The dream, right? Well, not quite. Yes. The main character ends up doing all those wonderful things. Against all staggering odds. Therein lies one of the main issues I had with this book - it's so wildly unrealistic that it detracted for the escapist fun it could have been. Samantha is just so bloody perfect and not at all a relatable character. Obstacles evaporate before her and perhaps the only saving grace to the book is that she, at least, doesn't end up with the so-called man of her dreams. She does, however, become the shining new star of Napa winemakers on her very first go around, with a multimillion dollar vineyard that she literally stumbles upon and is able to save from the clutches of a big Napa Valley wine producer with an unlikely surprise inheritance from her aunt. On the subject of her aunt. Was that side-plot really necessary?
Another great annoyance in reading this book. The dialogue. It was forced and unnatural. No one talks like that. Ever. And the stereotypes. Misogynistic, philandering French men. Gypsies. Coked out superstars. Old relics. The polarizing depiction of French winemaking vs California winemaking.
Then there is the banal, textbook descriptions of the winemaking process and wine tasting. Where is the passion? I say this as someone who loves wine and who has actually worked in the wine industry - at a winery. I was primed to love this book. But. there were too many missteps and, ultimately, it was disappointing. That is perhaps the best description for this book. So full of promise and so utterly letdown by one dimensional characters, poor dialogue, an outdated reliance on stereotypes, and impossibly perfect outcomes.. This book could have been so charming. It fell completely flat for me.