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

I was so excited to read this book. But due to racists remarks and the author not taking accountability I will not be finishing this book.

Thank you NetGalley w bloom books for the ARC!

5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was my first book by Sophia Lark and I can’t wait to read more by her! Also I am excited this is a series so we get more of the Sparrow and Beaumont families ❤️ Sadie and Monroe need to be protected at all costs because their relationship is just beautiful!!! Sophie does a spectacular job of turning a marriage of convince into a beautiful marriage…one we all wish to have. Monroe and Sadie come up with a plan to marry in order to save Sparrow and Vine Vineyards and it’s not an easy journey. But with a little love and family anything can happy. Highly recommend!

Hopefully the author will listen to her editors and publishers in the future!
Not sure why she didn't ...

Unfortunately, I ended up not finishing this book. There was a few lines of writing that did not set well with me and didn’t want to continue.
Thanks for the arc.

Will not read this book due to racist comments.
This is so disappointing. I was excited to read this story, but after seeing lines pulled from this book I will not be reading or supporting.

I’m in the middle of three ARCs, and this was next on my list. I will not be reading this book, and this feedback is just to prevent it from affecting my rating percentages on NetGalley.

As much as I love marriage of convenience / enemies to lovers, I couldn’t bring myself to finish this book and had a hard time collecting my thoughts for this review.

I’m a fan of Sophie Lark and loved her other works, but I’m beyond disappointed and shocked about the casual racism — “shouldn’t there be a crew of people with questionable work visas picking these grapes for us?” Who in their right mind would write that, read it, go through rounds of edits, and think it was okay to include. And let’s not forget the female main character’s sister is a super fan of Elon Musk of all people?? Considering the state America is in now, I’m surprised not a single person mentioned these issues before ARCs were sent out. It’s quite tone deaf and ignorant.

From the chapters I did finish, I didn’t even feel like the “enemies to lovers” were ever really enemies. Sadie and Monroe resolved their differences fairly quickly and worked together from the start, leaving a lack in any development/true connection and emotional build up. The romance that was there was overshadowed by the other unnecessary commentary.

I had high hopes for Sparrow and Vine and thought there was potential for it to be a hit based on the synopsis, but this simply missed the mark.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloom Books for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

Problematic lines. From the authors social media apology, it would seem this arc is going to be pulled and re-written. I’d reconsider it at that point but as it stands, I won’t recommend it.

Offensive book will not be reviewing until a certain line is removed. Think netgalley should pull this arc since the author has even said she’s going to pause it until rewrites are done

I just want to mention before I go any further that I can no longer support this author. I wish I could turn back time and not request an ARC for this book. But I can’t turn back time all I can do is speak my mind. If you haven’t already seen the Instagram post or the TikTok videos regarding the controversies with this book I recommend you do your research.

I started this book before knowing what was going on in the social media platforms. When I came upon reading this line “shouldn’t there be some people with questionable work visas picking these grapes for us?” I seriously had to read it multiple times because I had a mixture of reactions. Shocked, appalled, disappointed. How dare an author have the audacity to put a line like that in a book. And then to have that line make it past multiple editors. Has no one at Bloom or Sophie Larks team been paying attention to the global crisis right now. Like surely they can’t be that ignorant. And if that wasn’t bad enough the Elon Musk praise and support within this book. Words cannot even describe the rage I felt. The disgusting inner thoughts and the obvious racism is appalling.

Overall, I cannot and will not be recommending Sophie Lark books. And I seriously hope Bloom does some re-evaluating of their authors.

This is a simple romance book that did keep me engaged. It was different than I expected however and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing. This was my first Sophie lark book to read.