A Riveting and Smartly Structured Story

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SUMMARY
It is a memorable story of war, love, and family when two women from different continents' lives intersect and a life-changing connection is made.

In 1942, A scared father, a winemaker, hides his seven-year-old daughter Martine in an armoire as the Germans are approaching his vineyard. He gives her a bottle of wine and tells her to protect it until he comes home. The Germans take Martine’s Jewish father. She accidentally drops the bottle when she witnesses the Germans also taking away her father’s vineyard’s caretaker. She runs and, with a bit of help, eventually makes it to Paris, where a nun rescues her from a nearby abbey.

In 1990, Charlotte was a bright and beautiful commercial airline captain well ahead of her time. While in Paris, she discovers that one of the bottles of wine she and her boyfriend had bought at a wine auction is extremely valuable. Under the bottle's label is a mysterious note and a second, more elaborate label indicating that the wine was from the Burgundy region of France. Charlotte begins a quest to find who this bottle had belonged to and what had happened to them.


REVIEW
The French Winemaker’s Daughter is a riveting story set in Paris and the French wine regions. While WWII plays a role in the book for Martine, it is not the story's whole focus. The story is about survival, recovery, love, and family. I enjoyed learning about the history of the wine in that area, and my favorite part was Charlotte’s moral need to find the story behind the bottle of wine she found.

There are actually three female characters who serve as the pillars of the story. Martine and Charlotte are both intriguing and gripping characters, but it is Sister Ada who heroically rescues Martine in Paris and plays a pivotal role in the abbey.

Author Loretta Ellsworth’s writing was superb, and dual narratives were smartly structured. The narrator Caroline Hewitt audio performance was delightful and bought the .

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Publisher Harper Audio
Published December 10, 2024
Narrated Caroline Hewitt
Category Religion and Spirituality, Women’s Fiction
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

Special thanks to NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of this book. This was a lighter historical fiction that has a dual timeline going back and forth between chapters. Decent.

Title: The French Winemaker’s Daughter
Author: Loretta Ellsworth
Format: 🎧
Narrator: Carolyn Hewett
Publisher: Harper Audio Adult/Harper Audio
Genre: Historical Fiction, WWII, Women’s Fiction
Pub Date: December 10, 2024
My Rating: 4.5 rounded up
Pages 288

The story is told in the POV of Martine Viner, a young girl in 1942 and Charlotte Montgomery a commercial airline pilot in 1990.

Martine-1942 ~ One afternoon seven year old Martine is instructed by her Papa to hide in an armoire. The Germans are searching their home and he wants Martine to hide. He gives her a bottle of wine, telling her to look after it for him and it will be their security.

Charlotte -1990 ~ Charlotte and her boyfriend Henri attend an auction at Hotel Drouot, the oldest and largest auction house in Paris. They bid on a basket of wine that Charlotte later is horrified to learn the wine was seized by the Nazis.
Henri a wine expert decides they will drink one bottle and he will keep two and give Charlotte what he was told is the least expensive bottle. Charlotte is fine with his decision but later while cleaning the old bottle; she finds it has two labels. It appears it is vintage WWII and the label indicates the owner was giving it to his daughter. Charlotte wants to try and find the original winery and perhaps the rightful owner.

Story had me captivated and I honestly am NOT a WWII fan but I am a mystery fan and loved the mystery of finding the rightful owner.
As we move through the story we learn that Martine was helped at time by strangers and ends up in an Abby. This little Jewish girl knows nothing about Catholicism but soon learns.

Audiobook narrator Carolyn Hewett is absolutely fabulous in performing the characters.

Want to thank NetGalley and Harper Adult/Harper Audio for granting me this audiobook.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for December 10, 2024.

While I enjoy historical fiction reads, I felt this one fell short. Normally I see big character development and connection in good historical fiction as big events impact people in big ways. However, in The French Winemaker's Daughter the two main characters in dual timelines did not develop much in my opinion. There were many characters with lots going on in each story, but I had a hard time digging deeper and connecting to them. Charlotte especially, as a captain air pilot should have a lot of problem solving skills, but I felt she was pretty naive about her whole romantic love triangle as well as the historical "mystery" piece. The narrator was great, especially with the French and accents. But unfortunately the story itself fell flat for me personally. I was really wanting more on the historical story as I felt there was real potential for big character connection and development. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to listen in advance in exchange for my honest opinion.