This is a complex story of love, betrayal and courage told with exceptional skill. Written in heart wrenching prose “The Winemaker’s Wife” goes back and forth between time and the present: Champagne, 1940 and 2019.

1940

The story gives us a different perspective of Germany occupied France. As it opens Ines has just married Michel, then owner of the champagne house Maison Chauveau when the Germans invade. As the danger mounts Michel joins the resistance. When rumours about Jews being deported… fear sets in… Celine, Michel’s chef de cave’s wife, is half Jewish….. They are afraid of being exposed…

Ines and Celine are the main voices and tell their point of views in alternate chapters as the war moves on. Celine tends to follow her heart and Ines eventually makes a dangerous mistake with a Nazi collaborator….Their side is told with warmth and emotions…

2019

In New York Grandmother Edith shows up at Liv Kent’s home insisting on a trip to France, she has something in mind and wants to share her tragic story with her granddaughter.

Edith and Liv are the driving voices when the story moves to the present.

More thoughts:

Actually we have two stories and at first I was wondering where the connection might be. The author keeps giving tidbits of information teasing till the denouement. The suspense is held throughout and very well-done. Although the plot moves very slowly and nothing melodramatic happens well into the novel I was nevertheless deeply engaged from the get-go. This tragic story inspired by real events tells how people make desperate choices in order to survive and is one that offers many twists which I did not see coming.

War stories are my favourite, even if they are fictional there is always some truth to them. “The Winemaker’s Wife” is set amid the champagne vineyards of northern France and we have a small view of how it may have operated during this hard time…right or wrong I do not care, the description is vivid and the drama lively….

Eventually the past and present merge and we are back to the caves of Maison Chauveau. Well-done.

It took a while for me to get into the book, but about halfway through, it turned around. I ended up really liking it. Throughout the book, I didn't understand the point of having the 2019 events with Liv and Julien but understood at the end. I dont' know if it was necessary to add that. I think it would've been a great story just telling the events of Celine, Michel and Ines.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating... I don't like giving or reading 3 star reviews. It's so hard to accurately convey how one feels about a book without the benefit of half stars!

At first I was fairly certain I was going to either DNF this or skim through it and give it a pretty low rating. Mostly this stems from the fact that none of the characters are terribly well fleshed out, maybe three protagonists was a wee bit much?! Or maybe it was because Ines and Céline were just too conveniently polar opposites of one and other; one a spoiled young woman with no awareness of what really happens in war and the other a perfect, selfless angel.

Also though the novel is set partially in 1943 in occupied France I feel like Harmel only superficially touched upon what living in this time and in this place would have been like. And though wine is central in the lives of the characters I feel like grape growing, and wine making didn't get the page time they deserved. Setting-wise I feel like caves and brasseries were over represented... I wanted descriptions of grapevines for as one can see, the smells; dry, green, ripe, whatever!

Liv our contemporary heroine was also poorly fleshed out. Other than her biography which we learn in her first chapter we don't know anything about her career, her likes, dislikes, aspirations.

The plot 'twists' were rather obvious when they were finally revealed, and yet I did find myself getting a little weepy in the end, so Harmel is clearly doing something write...

I like time shift novels, I do, maybe just with more thrills thrown in.

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and author Ms. Kristin Harmel for this Advanced readers copy.

The Winemaker's Wife, written by Kristin Harmel, is an engaging Historical Fiction novel inspired by real events. Those events took place in the Champagne Region of France during the dark days of The French Occupation by the Nazi's of World War II.

3 couples trying to survive the horrors their lives have now become, making choices based out of need, personal greed and desperation. Right or wrong, this is their story.

From 1940's France to modern day New York, the choices these characters made leave a lasting mark on those they have yet to meet, but all are forever linked in ways they could never imagine.

Blending the past with the present, forgiveness for choices made comes at a price...but is it ever really repaid?

Loved it!
I read this pretty much in a single sitting, I couldn't put it down.
Beautiful transitions, and complex characters in a rich tapestry of intrigue.