DNF

I was SO excited to read this one, but due to the racial comments, comments regarding Elon Musk, and the overall lack of accountability from the author/publisher, I could not finish this one.

Nope. I will not be leaving a review for this book due to the insensitive additions at the expense of a minority population. Thank you for the opportunity Bloom Books. and the attempt at saving Ms Lark from herself.

Sophie Lark has done it again!

Although slightly different from previous work, this was still just as enjoyable and fast paced. I loved the plotline, and it felt different to other books with the same tropes (marriage of convenience, rivals to lovers). It was interestingly executed, with it being fresh to see the MMC willing to turn against his family to reach their goal.

As usual, the book was fast paced which fit well the with storyline and the “rush to find a solution”. However at times it did feel like elements could have been explored more, or more depth could’ve been added to some of the supporting characters.

One of the only things I would add, is that sometimes the dialogue felt a bit static/awkward, largely between side characters or when main characters are talking to side characters. But on the other hand, the dialogue between the MCs felt natural for the majority of the book.

I am glad to read that Sophie will be making edits to the book to remove some of the lines from one of the early chapters, and I hope this was a lesson learned.

Cute book. A light enemy to lovers. It was a bit repetitive I feel there could have been a bit more information shared cause there’s still so many questions left unanswered! So now we wait cause I’m sure we’ll find out more in the second book!

Sparrow & Vine
By Sophie Lark
Sadie, the granddaughter of Ansel Sparrow lives on a family owned and loved vineyard. Monroe also owns the vineyard, or well, his family does. & the families can not stand each other. Think Hatfield & McCoys. With both grandfathers getting older, the future of the vineyard is unclear due to the “wedding that never happen” and both families risk losing everything, until Monroe makes a wedding happen. The vineyard is in the red, will the families come together to save something they love?

Tropes:

Enemies to lovers
Contract marriage

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
🌶️🌶️🌶️

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this as an ARC.

“I don’t want to sound ignorant,” I say to Sadie as we ascend the gentle slope up to the vines, “but shouldn’t there be a crew of people with questionable work visas picking these grapes for us?” “Sometimes there is.” Sadie bites the edge of her lip. “We’re a little short on cash this year.”

This is a gross line. Not what I was expecting going into this book. Won’t be reading anymore by this author.

It's really disappointing that in this day and age such a disgusting comment about immigrants would be allowed in a book. I would never support an author that would think this kind of comment is okay and it's clear that this was not a mistake, but a conscious choice. Please do better.

It’s with a heavy heart and great disappointment that I write this review. When I started my book page and committed to ARC reviews, I promised myself I would always publish fair and honest feedback—and I continue to stand by that.

To put it simply, this book was disappointing and, at times, deeply uncomfortable to read. I had just finished Broken Vow prior to requesting this ARC, and I cannot believe how drastically different the two books are. Unfortunately, several aspects of this story left a negative impression.

First, the MMC’s dismissive remark stating the FMC was “nothing special”, while describing her sisters as attractive. This felt unnecessarily cruel and made the connect throughout the recent how the book hard to believe. Additionally, the FMC’s description of another character’s mouth as an “anxious anus” was off-putting and disgusting to read. June’s overall behavior in this book was also off-putting to me the entire time, even as just a side character.

What ultimately cemented my disappointment was the blatant and casual racism. My jaw actually dropped when I read this line: “But shouldn’t there be a crew of people with questionable work visas picking these grapes for us?”. WOW. This was unacceptable and inexcusable. The line was unnecessary, added nothing to the plot, and jarring to encounter. The fact that this line passed through multiple rounds of edits and still reached ARC readers is deeply concerning. Equally troubling is that no one before us took the initiative to address it, leaving the responsibility to us as ARC readers to do it for them. But what is even more disheartening and most concerning, is that an author would even write a line like this to begin with.

I believe books should serve as an escape for readers—a place to set aside the challenges of daily life and immerse themselves in another world. With that in mind, there is absolutely no place for a line as inappropriate and offensive as this in any book. Not only is it unnecessary, but it also perpetuates harmful stereotypes, making the reading experience uncomfortable rather than enjoyable.

In light of the current discourse and Sophie's most recent statement with regards to this release, I am unable to leave a review until a later date when the manuscript has been revised.

This was my first Sophie Lark read, and I wish I had picked up any of her other books first as I Sophie!

e community loves her dark romance.

To start, the title of the book feels very fantasy-esque, which this book is not. It is a rivals-to-lovers, marriage or convenience, small town business at stake, romance novel. The premise of this book sounds like just about every other romance novels out there, but sometimes I love a quick, easy read.

The plot of this book started at okay. It felt like it was going to be more enemies to lovers, Then poof, a few chapters in and they all of sudden really like each other, are partners, want the marriage to be real. Yuck, give me some slow burn Sophie!

The rest of this book felt like a jumbled mess of the author trying to convince us of how much they are falling for eachother. The plot disappeared and it became paragraph after paragraph of them explaining how much they love eachother, how great the other person is. Listen, I live for a happy ending, but give me some excitement on the way there, not 10,000 words of the characters explaining how wonderful the person is in different adjectives.

Spice was meh at best, and I quote "I give her pleasure", "I love carrying Sadie.", "His hardness making me soft and melting and wet." Insert throw up emoji.

Overall, my favorite part was the build up of the Hazel and Heath book you know is coming hopefully next. What secrets are you two hiding! Hopefully that book gives me a little something to live for..

That being said, this book is an immediate no due to the completely RACIST comment that was allowed to be left in the book, “I don’t want to sound ignorant,”I say to Sadie as we ascend the gentle slope up to the vines, “but shouldn’t there be a crew of people with questionable work visas picking these grapes for us?” Really? In a romance novel?

I shall not be finishing this book due to the racist remarks made by one of the characters. I was excited to read this book as the concept sounded great, however some of the comments made in this book were highly unnecessary and offensive. I will not be supporting this book.

Thank you #NetGalley for this ARC!!
I really enjoyed this story!! There are a lot of layers and relationships going on. Each different story/relationship has some kind of secret around it, and I ate it up!! I will absolutely be following this series for the answers to all of the mysteries!! The ONLY reason it's 4 instead of 5 stars, is because I had a really hard time following in the beginning because everyone was introduced at once. But, I really enjoyed the story. There is a build-up to the spice, but it truly makes the relationship more beautiful.

There was a line about the sister liking Elon Musks’ work process or something? I think that and an offhand line about undocumented people that I thought was tone deaf. Took me out of it

I love books with marriage of convenience, but I could not get past the racist comments about workers on visas and the comparison of a character to Elon Musk. These are not only tone deaf to the state of the world, but also unacceptable under any circumstances.

I wanted to like it, but I was genuinely disappointed in these choices.

Yikes. I did not care for this book. I'm always appreciative to receive an ARC and have read and somewhat enjoyed several Sophie Lark books in the past. I had three huge issues with this book:

1. We're promised enemies/rivals to lovers. We are not even remotely given anything close to that. What we are given is much more akin to friends and allies to lovers, yet still not quite even that. It was anticlimactic and disappointing. Like either make them friends with an interesting history between them or genuine rivals (for more than one conversation on like page 2). Disappointingly, the characters fell into uncomplicated and uninteresting mutual admiration and attraction almost immediately. Sadie was earnest and trusting, but quite flat as a character. Monroe was written to be sweet and caring, sure, but also was casually racist and had a sweat kink???, and even *still* despite all that good, bad, ugly...he managed to fall very flat as well. So, with the characters and their relationship failing to hold attention, I had to turn focus to the plot, wherein lies issue two.

2. The set up is far fetched, which is extremely excusable in most romance novels because you're being pulled through by the excitement, chemistry, and strong force of characters. That doesn't happen here, so you're suck really examining the scenery and asking yourself, do you really need to be here? does any of this make sense? And then the main "villain" of the book is Monroe's comically evilly behaved mom?? So like a lot of the moments where he stands up for Sadie...he's just telling his mommy not to behave hideously towards his wife? The bare minimum? Granted, a right fantasy for some irl! But as far as "that's my WIFE" book scenes go, when the adversary is your mommy?? It's a little anticlimactic. Also, and I thought about not writing this, but those Beaumont brothers are absolutely not beating the "want to bang their mom" allegations. Why was it written this way? Surely not intentional? But certainly an ever present implication/sense throughout the book.

3. Blatant racism. I don't feel like this one needs much explanation. It's so much easier to not be racist, there were lines that simply could have never been written and the book would have been exceptionally better off for it, though perhaps still not salvageable. Why go out of your way to be a bad person? This could actually be the number one and only issue I had with the book to award it the minimum number of stars possible. I decided to place this point last so the publisher/editor/author understand it also happens to genuinely be a very bad book on a content and execution level. Panning it isn't just a political or liberal sentiment, it wasn't good. And being poorly written and racist??? And traditionally published?? That's actually crazy. Lots of people could be doing better here. Disappointing. Embarrassing.

Finally, this doesn't qualify for its own main point, and certainly may not bother some. It had not bearing on the plot other than being quite odd and distracting. About midway through the book the author clunkily inserts praise for Elon Musk. It's so awkwardly done it could only be intentional to signal Lark's beliefs and allegiance in this current political climate. Too unsubtle and clumsy to be a proper dogwhistle and too cowardly to say it with her chest. Reading is inherently political; however many women do turn to the romance genre as an escape. It's a tough message to send to your mostly female reader base. Absolutely within the author's right to do so, and equally within mine to not enjoy. It also comes off as quite unskilled and feckless by the author. There have been many powerful books centered around or including romance that have delivered on deep and moving political statements through their plot and story arcs. Lark, instead, has essentially plopped a "dark MAGA" hat on a character and continued on as if nothing happened. And admittedly, most superficially...regardless of political affiliations Elon Musk is a deeply unsexy man to invoke in the reader's mind's eye. I was really trying my best to get into it, why make it impossible at every turn.

Hope this gets cleaned up before making it to print, but either way, this will be my last Sophie Lark book. Too grossed out.

DNF had issues with comments made in the text. It was a one-star read - perhaps even a zero-star one. The character development seemed non-existent. It is marketed as Enemies to Lovers, but at no point were they enemies. Possibly acquaintances but they were fine and didn't dislike each other. The MMC has a sweat kink, which to me is weird, and I grew up on wattpad and AO3...  ALSO the relationship itself was so simplified like they hung out for one day and then were almost instantly in love.

Girls agrees to enter into a fake marriage in order to save her families longstanding wine business. Of course, turns out that her new husband isn’t as bad as she thought and in standard romance book fashion they begin to fall in love.

Plot
The plot itself followed a standard tried and true romance pattern. Fake marriage for X reasons, forced proximity for married couple because of Y, they actually get to know each other, and what do you know? They actually get along and fall in love! I did enjoy some of the trials and tribulations the pair had to go through and how well they managed them, especially the issues surrounding his grandfather and mother.
Overall, the plot was fine. I liked the winery aspects and how they tied in her crafty background trying to give the brand some oomph. I maybe would have liked more of a look into the wine business and have had them make some wine from the grapes they spent so long picking.

Characters
FMC
I didn’t mind her in a generic romance FMC kinda way. She stuck to her guts when it came to rescuing the winery and took the primary position in organising the renovations with her new husband. I also liked how she handled his family, especially his mother.
But did she help her sisters managing her dad and grandfather? Nope. Did she get her sisters permission before turning her into a witch on their wine bottle? Nope.

MMC
Again, he was okay as a generic romance story fake husband. He had some strong college boy tendencies, but he did always have the FMC’s best interests at heart, even at the beginning of their relationship.

The Rest
I actually quite liked all of the siblings. They were all very different and I liked the individual input that they all played throughout the story.
The only character I just didn’t understand was the mother. Why was she so awful? There were hints of some big mystery about the Wedding That Didn’t Happen, but without this backstory, there was no context at all to her behaviour and I couldn’t understand why her kids tried to help her at all. I think we needed some redeeming quality for this woman to make the character work.

Chemistry
The chemistry between the two of them was pretty good.

The Good
Liked the winery. A novel location that I haven’t seen featured in a romance novel (yet).

The Bad
Maybe she could have helped out with her grandfather a bit?

The Ugly
Casual racism. This is such a flippant statement about migrant works, that I’m sure was entirely intended as a joke. However, it’s 2025 and these kinds of comments are neither funny nor acceptable. I’m aware that the author has made an apology which has gone down like a lead balloon. Seriously dude, if your publisher suggests you ditch something, maybe listen to them?
Mention of the Musk Rat. Insert vomit emoji here. I realise this book has probably been in the works for >1 year, but would this mention have gone down well even just a few years ago? I’m not sure it would and the whole paragraph just made me feel uncomfortable for way longer than I wanted. Apparently I can’t escape this guy on any platform.

The Wrap Up
This book had an awful lot of potential and initially gave me Elsie Silver type vibes, however it was let down by some really small details that could have just been excluded.

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

The story was adequate. On its own, I’d probably give it 2.5 stars. I like a marriage of convenience trope, but it wasn’t done well here. The characters were unlikeable and problematic.

But the obvious racism prevents me from giving this anything higher than the lowest possible rating. It’s gross, it’s unnecessary, and it made me immediately want to throw this book in the garbage (but since I was using my phone, I just turned it off for bit).

This was another fun romance from Sophie Lark! Sparrow and Vine is a super fun competitors-to-lovers romance! Sadie and Monroe’s "hate you so much I love you" vibe was everything, and their chemistry kept me hooked. Watching them go from rivals to something real was so satisfying.

There were some weird moments in this book that definitely make it seem a bit political. Monroe wasn’t my favorite all the time—he felt a little flat at times and made some off-color comments that seem out of character. I wonder if the author was injecting this book with some political overlay for some reason. In addition, I found the spice a little lack-luster and under-par for Sophie Lark, who is usually the queen of spicy books!

The HEA was a bit predictable but still satisfying, and now I’m dying to see what other love stories will come from this charming small-town world!

DNF at 39 % for many reasons:
- one main character expressed racial opinions and no one adresses it
- another character says it was inspired by Elon Musk
- Monroe says about Sadie that she is nothing special, but her sisters are hot (why did he not ask one of her sisters to marry him?)
- they are “enemies” but act like friends imediately after moving in together