Wasn’t a big fan of the book. The detail was too much and the writer over explained thing no one cares about

I saw someone describe this book to be similar to a Hallmark movie and I have to agree.
I absolutely loved the setting, Italy actually has my heart and I'm also partial to a good glass of wine, so being transported to a vineyard in Tuscany was more than amazing.
However, the story itself was lacking for me. If you're looking for an easy palate cleanser between more demanding books, this is a perfect choice. But don't expect complex characters and plot. It was extremely predictable and everything perfectly fell into place way too easily. It felt like reading a daydream, that's why it's great if you want to escape reality but not if you're looking for anything more serious than that.

This book felt like a lackluster love child of Under the Tuscan Sun and Eat Pray Love. It had some wonderful elements about Italian country living, winemaking, and European lifestyle. The book follows a woman whose life completely changes and she’s forced to not only evaluate her changed circumstances but evaluate if the life she has been living is the life she truly wants. Like in Eat Pray Love, the main character experiences a new culture and has the opportunity for introspection.

However, I felt the book had a lot about all the Italian food, winemaking, Tuscan culture and locations but didn’t use those moments to their advantage. The book kept mentioning that the character had changed by saying things like, she felt lighter, she was more relaxed, or was looking at things differently. And while that may be true I wanted more from that. I wanted the WHY. This book fell short of giving that. It needed more emotional substance behind some of main plot points and character growth and it wasn’t given.

This book was a pretty fun read. The FMC is engaged, has a successful business with her best friend, and what appears to be a perfect life when she gets a letter about an inheritance from a long lost grandfather. She goes to Italy intending to sell everything and return to her fiancé and wedding planning but finds a paradise with wonderful people. The book was a little predictable except for the last twist which took me by surprise. I would definitely recommend a read.

Tropes include: fish out of water, friends to lovers, and found family.


Thank you NetGalley and Greenleaf Audiobooks for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

A successful New York designer receives notice in the mail that she has a long lost grandfather in Italy with a massive winery which has now become hers. In the midst of planning her wedding, it is an inconvenient time to sort out this estate and she wants to get it over and done with as quick as she can however, when she gets to Italy, things are a little bit more complicated than just settling the estate. Cheers required to stay there for five months and then she can decide what she wants to do with the estate. The longer she stays the more charm she is, but the life in Italy and what her grandfather has left her. This book is exactly what you would expect. It is a light breezy read and was predictable. It had a comforting feel about it that I enjoyed.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to preview this audiobook in exchange for a review. This will appear on Goodreads.
Reviewing books can be difficult, but reviewing an audiobook adds another layer of complexity.
As an audiobook, the narrator did a great job with the accents, the pacing, and with the male voices (female narrator). Often a book is made or broken in the first moments that a narrator speaks. Her voice is pleasant and she adds enough inflection to bring the story to life without vocal defects or bad accents that might ruin the experience. Maybe too good. When an American character who doesn’t speak Italian says the place names with perfect inflection, I paused. Just a minor note.
I would classify this book as a romance. A woman planning a wedding in NY is suddenly an heir to an Italian estate from a grandfather she never knew existed. She must go to Italy to work out all of the details. Well, you know where it goes from here. She falls in love with italy, a new man, the wine, and the long lost grandfather through letters he left behind.
I liked the characters for the most part. I couldn’t buy into the fiance at all, as I never really understood any of the emotions he was having or expressing. The gay best friends were great. The other best friends, and cousins, very underdeveloped. I didn’t get the whole point of Max at all. That could have been eliminated. The best part was the relationship with Paulo, and the vineyards. I won’t spoil the ending but I liked it.
As for romances, most go for the HEA which I wanted and expected. I enjoyed all of the food and wine (how was she not drunk for the entire months?) and the explanation of how wine is made. The recipes at the end will be lost in the audiobook, sadly. Overall an enjoyable read.

I enjoyed this story. It was a good story of ones travels to Italy, to learn the history of her family, their vineyard, what family means, and in the end what it means to have family.

I believe this is the authors first book. If it is it was a lovely debut. I look forward to reading more books by them.

Book Title: Casalvento: House of the Wind
Author: Gudrun Cuillo
Narrator: Maria Marquis
Publisher: Greenleaf Audiobooks – Greenleaf Book Group Press
Genre: Romance, Women’s Fiction
Audiobook Pub Date: October 17, 2023
My Rating: 4.5 stars
Pages: 315

Erika Germoglio is a self-made woman who has it all. She has a successful career and is about to marry her fiancé Craig Bernhardt, who is a prominent real estate lawyer—the two of them have nothing but best in front of them.

When Erika turns thirty Craig gives her a new larger engagement ring and says it is time to move up the wedding date. They now can afford to move out of their little NYC apartment and move to a home in the Hamptons

As Erika is making weeding plans, she gets a message that her grandfather - whom she never met, has left her his estate and vineyard in Italy.
At first Erika is shocked and says no way was she going to accept it perhaps if it were a vineyard in Napa she would consider it. (Have to admit I laughed out oud as I live in California and do love our California wine county but Napa is not Tuscany!).

She heads to Italy with the intension of selling her inheritance. However, learns it comes with the condition - she must live there for five months and learn the business.


The narrator Maria Marquis did a fantastic performance. Her accent is beautiful - she totally had me transported to Tuscany

Have to admit I am not a big romance fan. But when I read something Romance author Katherine Center said it has made me look at romance stories a bit differently. She said that many readers say they don’t like romance stories as they are so predictable. She goes on to say that reading romance stories is fun.~ they give us the sense that something is going to get better; something to look forward to.

Yep! This was a fun read – I highly recommended it to a reader who is in the mood for as story with likeable character, food and wine that will made you want to book a flight to Tuscany or at lease to your local favorite Italian restaurant.

Have to admit since I read a lot of mystery thrillers, I did figure out the bit of mystery in this story as my arm chair detective skills were on high alert. I wasn’t surprised by the ending but I still loved it!!

I enjoyed the “About the Author” -loved that this story is based on author, Guidrun Cuillo's life experiences. Yes she and her husband own a winery in Tuscany!
BTW: There is a bonus at the end of the novel - .
Includes the following recipes: Pennee Della Nonna, Pasta E Fagioli, Linguine Con Cozze E Vongole.

Want to thank NetGalley and Greenleaf Audiobooks/Greenleaf Book Group Press for this totally enjoyable audiobook.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for October 17, 2023.

Erika and Craig are supposedly living their best life in Manhattan. They are doing well in their careers and engaged to be married. All is going as planned until Erika gets notified that her grandfather in Italy has passed away. She never knew anything about her grandfather, let alone that he was living in Tuscany. The instructions in the letter were to go to Tuscany as soon as possible. Once she gets there, she by all the property and beauty that was left to her. Through the travel back and forth from New York to Tuscany she realizes one major thing: Paolo is much more of a man than Craig ever will be. Tuscany is where Erika stops rushing and starts living. She learns to cook and learns about wine and the growing seasons and that maybe New York doesn’t have it all.
My thoughts: I love a book that involves travel and food. This book had all the details of meals and wineries and wine tasting along with some life-changing events for Erika. I went to Tuscany over a year ago and this book took me back. Reminding me of the rolling hills, sunshine, food, sightseeing, and good memories. I only wish there was more about romance and less about picking grapes. I gave it three stars meaning, it was good, and I enjoyed learning about another perspective of seeing a place for the first time. I would recommend it to anyone who also loves food and travel. The book includes receipes in the back which is always a bonus.

Erika is a career woman who is engaged. She gets notice that she has inherited an estate in Tuscany from a grandpa she did not know. She had many decisions to make.

Many thanks to Net Galley and Greenleaf Audiobooks for an audio ARC for an honest review. I liked this one!

This book storyline is everyone's dream. Inherit two winery's, ton of land and even a hotel all in Italy. I liked Pablo in this book that showed Erika around. He was like the books tour guide to Italy. I personally did not like Erika's character. I found her entitled soon as she got to Italy; demanding paperwork etc. She didn't take others in to consideration. The characters throughout the book were flat and the audiobook reading was the same voice throughout the entire book making it boring at points. Overall the concept was cool just wish bit more enhancement to characters and visible descriptions to Italy.

This was the cutest story! I want to run away to Italy and visit all of the places mentioned. Some of the storyline was a bit predictable, but sometimes you need the comfort of that kind of love story. Loved Erika’s character development during her time in Italy. Loved the surprise at the end! Open door romance but only 1/2 🌶️ on the spice scale. I listened to the audiobook and really enjoyed the narration. Great story flow. I ended up listening to it in one day because I was hooked. If you like sweet love stories I recommend this one.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this providing me with this audiobook of Casalvento in exchange for an honest review! This story is an absolute delight! It's such a sweet. romance and I loved the characters. Gudrun Cuillo was able to transport me straight to Tuscany with how beautifully she described the main character Erika's surroundings and experiences. I loved Erika and enjoyed the way she grows as a character. She has her own mindset when she arrives about how things should be & what she expects, and has to learn to be open to different ideas of how things could.be. She's really kind even in circumstances were she's confused or annoyed, which makes her growth so believable for me. The plot was very romantic and fun, and I fell in love with the characters, the scenery, the food, the wine, and basically every element of this book. I personally thought the ending was the best part and was the perfect way to wrap up this journey I'd been taken on. The narration is done by Maria Marquis who does an amazing job. Her voice helped bring the characters and the scenery to life for me. She told Gudrun Cuillo's story perfectly, making the audiobook an incredible way to experience the novel and certainly a way I'd recommend.

Erika has her whole life planned out in New York. Successful career, about to marry her fiancé, and so on. Suddenly, she inherits an Italian winery from a grandfather she didn’t know she had, and everything she thought she knew is turned on its head.

I loved the vicarious Italian experience provided by this story. The story itself, however, was another matter. Erika was the embodiment of the ‘ugly American’ - extremely privileged, swooping into Italy, completely annoyed at the “inconvenience” of her inheritance, immediately and endlessly bossing everyone around with no respect for their expertise or general personhood. Everything continues to get handed to her, but somehow she mellows out a bit and becomes a slightly better person in the process- and finds a romance that we’re told is romantic, even if no chemistry is provided for the reader. And I didn’t love the convoluted ending.

If you’re craving a trip to Italian wine country and a serviceable story, this could work to pass the time.

Maria Marquis did a nice job narrating the audiobook.

Thank you Gudrun Cuillo, Greenleaf Audiobooks, and NetGalley for providing this ALC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.