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.