You know why this is getting 1 star from me, at least it's been pulled from publication. My feedback: sensitivity readers are an essential part of the process, and hopefully Bloom will learn and grow from this experience.

I won’t be reading this due to the content that is being removed. It’s a bit distressing that the author believed in the year 2024 that a joke about work visas for farm work was in good taste. I’m not sure that I’ll read even with the edits, unfortunately, as I believe in human rights and not minimizing the lives and work of anyone.

Bloom, do i need to even explain the low rating? At this point I am not going to even go into how wrong it was for the author to include racist dialogue in their book. But as a publisher you should be holding a higher standard for what you will accept from books. I love Bloom Books and have received many books in the past. I hope this is truly used as a learning opportunity. You should have stood on business and NOT allowed a book to be published that consists of such blatant racism. Please do better and learn from this occurrence.

As this book has been pulled due to problematic content, I will not be reading and reviewing at this time. Thank you.

This is a book that I am very interested in reading, however, at this time it does not feel right to read it. I know the background of what is going on and want to ensure that I am reading a work that an author is proud of not one that they made mistakes on to this extent. I believe that Lark is apologetic and I am eager to see what she does moving forward and what this book looks like when she has reworked it and followed through on the promises she made. I hope to read the best version of this book and it does not feel fair to read something that is not the best version and has caused harm. I do not believe in review-bombing or cancel culture, but rather, seeing what someone does after making mistakes and what they learn from their mistakes. People deserve a second chance and I hope to get another ARC of this book when it has been reworked. For now, thank you giving me an eARC and I hope this book does get reworked because I am really interested in the concept.

NOTE: I am giving it 3 stars because I have to give something.

"shouldn't there be some people with questionable work visas picking these grapes for us?" actually disgusting that it was allowed to be published. not even going to finish this book as I'm so turned off.

Sorry I tried. I DF it. I lied the premise of this book however I couldn’t finish it. I agree with everyone else. Sorry.

I will not be giving feedback for this book. I came to this decision after seeing multiple worrying social media posts about some racist and ignorant remarks made by this author in this book. I will not support this kind of bigotry on any of my pages and hope NetGalley will listen to its readers and remove this Author and their works from the website.

1/5!

This book had so much potential, I loved the name and it sounded really interesting which it was and i enjoyed the romance BUT THE RACISM. What a let down, this isn’t even the first time for Lark as she’s made some controversial decisions in her previous books.

"shouldn't there be some people with questionable work visas picking these grapes for us?" To write or even think this statement in 2024/2025 is disgraceful and you should be ashamed.

I love a marriage of convenience and this had some sweet moments and would have been a good book if it hadn't been overshadowed by racism.

Sparrow and Vine had a lot of potential, but ultimately, it didn't quite meet my expectations. The forced into a marriage of convenience due to family conflict-was intriguing, and I appreciated the setting, but the romance felt somewhat flat.
Sadie is a determined, hardworking woman, fiercely protective of her family's vineyard, and her decision to marry her rival, Monroe, is driven by a sense of duty. Monroe, the overbearing love interest, brings a lot of intensity to the relationship, but his dominance sometimes veered into
controlling territory.
The family dynamics were interesting, but they overshadowed the romance at times.
The constant interference from Sadie's family made it hard to feel fully invested in the couple, and by the end, I wanted a stronger emotional payoff than what was delivered.
If you're into stories with family drama, high-stakes decisions, and slow-burn tension, you might enjoy this. But if you're looking for a richer emotional journey or a more satisfying romance, this one might not be the best fit.

As a person of color, this book rubbed me the wrong way. Why did the author think that it was okay to make one of her characters say. "but shouldn't there be a crew of people with questionable work visas picking these grapes for us." No sort of apology or book correction can excuse the blatant racism that she has displayed in her books. And the fact that her publishers told her to remove that line and she said no and decided to keep it in is very disappointing and disgusting.

I would start it ZERO if I could. There is no space for racist rhetoric on my shelf.
Since this has to be one hundred characters I'll add that Sophie Lark's statement mentioning that when she wrote this in 2024 and things were as bad...... GTFO.

I used to be a Sophie Lark fan and was very excited for this ARC, butI refuse to promote this on my networks due to the insensitive and racist dialogue, especially knowing the author said she was warned to take it out by the publisher and still kept it in. I will no longer support this author.

this was disappointing in ways i can't even fathom.

it was my first book by the author and i wasn't expecting much, but i still didn't think i'd dnf it not even halfway through. what threw me off was obviously the unnecessary, awful dialogue - i don't see how including a line about 'questionable' visas (blatant racism btw) wouldn't immediately raise concerns. not to mention the mmc was a complete douche from the start.

books ARE and WILL ALWAYS BE political.

To whom it may concern,
I was so excited to be approved for a book by Sophie lark and by a large publishing house such as Bloom. After seeing posts from other arc readers regarding the quote, "but shouldn't there be a crew of people with questionable work visas picking these grapes for us?" I am not comfortable being associated with or promoting this book, or future releases by Sophie. The blatant racism is absolutely insane. This kind of quote coming from a main character and not being contradicted in any way by other characters is incredibly disappointing. I hope you still consider me for future ARCs by other authors in the future. I hope Sophie learns from this experience and does better.

Hello, I am not able to finish this book as some of the casual dialogue is hurtful and meaningless to what should be acceptable 2025 entertainment.

Yeahhhhh the not so subtle racism isn’t for me. And the apology that wasn’t an apology… no thanks. Thanks for the arc copy, I appreciate it, but this was a no for me.

While I’m always grateful for an arc from NetGalley and was excited about this book, I can’t promote this on my networks due to the insensitive and racist dialogue already called out by so many on here, especially knowing the author said she was warned to take it out by the publisher and still kept it in. I don’t want to support this author.

Ugh, I first was introduced to Sophie Lark through her book "Broken Vow" and quickly binged the rest of the series, I was excited to experience this next one from her and was concerned I would end up not loving it as much with the high expectations I had going in. However, I was unfortunately just left disappointed with this book, which breaks my hear to write. This was just not it, the writing was off from her other books, the innuendos of racism casually thrown out was just down right appalling. I am shocked this came from Sophie personally. This has so much potential and it just utterly fell flat for me.

Shame on this author. Shame on Bloom for allowing this. Regardless when it was written, it shouldn’t have ever been written regardless of the status of our country.