I was so excited for this book. It sounded so good but I don’t think Sophie’s writing is for me. I might try another book by this author eventually. I was a good storyline it was just hard for me to get into.

after getting accepted for this, i came across another review highlighting lines from this book that made me no longer want to read or support this author at all. The lines in question were racist and showed support for public figures whose views i think are harmful and they seem to be included for no reason other than for the author to slip them in. i appreciate the opportunity to review but have no further interest in this title/author

I wanted to love this but sadly, there were some questionable things in the book. In today’s political climate, where immigrants are being directly targeted, why would you include a line about “people with questionable work visa’s” picking grapes?

Whether or not the questionable things within the book mirror Lark’s own political stance, including them is very tone deaf and unnecessary. Also why include Elon musk in anything? We have to deal with him in the real world, please leave any mentions (or Iin this case, idolizations) of him out of fiction.

i personally do not care for the blatant racism in this book regarding “questionable visas” and having a side character so obsessed with elon musk especially with what is going on in the world right now. with none of it being mentioned by the other characters in the book it was completely unnecessary and don’t understand why to have it there in the first place. there seriously should someone who looks into the books that is published better. please change these insensitive things before it’s published.

I stand against racism. I will not read, review or share this book. This should not have exist. I’m very disappointed & disheartened.

After reading a certain quote in this book I was so shocked and disappointed. Thank you Netgalley for an arc of this book, sadly this was a huge disappointment.

As a new Sophie Lark reader and having friends that rave about books by this author, I was excited to dive into Sparrow and Vine. I am very disappointed that the casual racism in this book was not immediately flagged and removed, and subsequently distributed to readers for early review. I stand against all forms of racism and I cannot in good conscience provide a positive rating for this book. I cannot support anything that harms marginalized communities.

DNF. "Questionable work visas" and Elon Musk praise? Really? I didn't get very far, but it was also pretty boring. I think Lark also tried to throw in some mental health representation, maybe? Nothing explicitly stated in the portion of the book I read, but the handling of that just seemed off.

so i dont read books with racist comments and elon musk praise. there are so many people who should have caught these parts in editing so it seems like no one cares

Revoking reviewing at this time due to authors racist remarks & mentions throughout the book. There are mentions in regards to immigrants that are extremely hurtful and inappropriate and should’ve never been written.

Oh no, babes…. This was not it. I didn’t really even get i to this book because what was this?
“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?”
Yes, that is actually from this book. Don’t think I will even be reading this author again.

I have read and loved Sophie Lark books in that past and was really looking forward to Sparrow and Vine. The quote - “but shouldn’t there be a crew of people with questionable work visas picking these grapes for us?” really ruined it for me.

I cannot recommend this book especially after the MMC remarks why there is not “a crew of people with questionable work visas picking these grapes for us?” In our current state of the world, flippant remarks such as these are incredibly dehumanizing and racist. Furthermore, another character in this book cites Elon Musk as a source of inspiration, a man who continues to peddle far-right, racist ideas and is actively working to undermine the United States democracy. I will no longer be reading any further works by this author.

Unfortunately, this book was a huge miss. The synopsis promises an enemies to lovers premise and it goes from them “hating each other” in the first two chapters to them being partners and friends by the fourth. The timeline was very confusing at the beginning of the book and it would skip days but not in a clear way so I never knew what day it was and how much time had passed. Because time was passing without realizing it, you didn’t get to experience any of the main characters love for each other developing. It was a lot of some days had passed and this is what we did during that time so you didn’t really feel the connection between the characters and suddenly they were madly in love with no real interaction. This felt more like a set up to the rest of the series as the author dropped hints for the other siblings stories for future books and didn’t take the time to fully focus on the main couple of this book.

I read this book up until I came across this line: "but shouldn't there be a crew of people with questionable work visas picking these grapes for us?"

I cannot in good conscience give a positive review to a book with blatant micro-aggressions. I am the daughter of immigrants and a proud Latina who is deeply offended by this. How this line could have made it to ARC readers is incomprehensible. In my opinion, if you’re looking for a success with this book this needs to be taken out immediately. Once the general public gets ahold of this it will do damage to the author’s reputation.

I do not support casual racism. How do these things slide in publishing in this day and age??

Will not be reading.

I want to preface this review by stating that I have never given a one-star review before as I genuinely try to maintain an open-mind while reading a story and look for the positives even if it ends up not being my favorite. That being said, I struggled with this one too much to enjoy it. The premise initially caught my attention because I am a sucker for a good feuding family, enemies to lovers situation, and the cover is beautiful. Unfortunately, this fell completely flat, and I almost DNFed on numerous occasions, primarily due to lack of depth across the board.

Things I Struggled With:
* The Plot - Very surface level and not at all as expected. I never once felt that the families were truly feuding. The mom is the primary villain, but the rest of the family is either fighting some repressed feelings or battling their own demons or old age. There are also no twists, turns, or surprise reveals. It’s all very basic.
* The Characters - One-dimensional. The MMC is intended, I believe, to be badass, or morally grey, or what have you, but he is not. The FMC is childish and has no sense of self-worth, and I had a difficult time taking anything she said or did seriously. They are supposed to be 30 (MMC) and 28 (FMC) years old but read like high-schoolers. The supporting characters lack personality, making their presence in scenes lackluster.
* The Setting - Quite literally unimaginable. As the primary source of all the family “feuding,” I anticipated falling in love with the vineyard. In truth, I cannot remotely picture the thing. I also never really gathered where we are supposed to be in time and space.
* The Romance - Disappointing. There is no build up or tension. We jump from an interesting, promising intro in the first few percent to adoration and devotion very quickly.
* The Writing - Telling dominates this show, with situations presented in a juvenile way alongside cringey dialogue, especially during romantic/intimate scenes which I ended up eventually skimming. I felt zero connection to any of the people or events of the story as a result. And some of those remarks… yikes.

I had high hopes going into this and held out hope that there would be something for me to connect to before the story ended. Unfortunately, I finished feeling disappointed and frustrated. For the reasons above, I would not recommend this story.

I went into this as a fan of the author but I read several problematic lines that genuinely made me not complete this book.

There is a VERY problematic line in this book. I do not understand how it made it through beta and editing. I really hope it gets removed. The line is as follows “but shouldn’t there be a crew of people with questionable work visas picking these grapes for us?”

Not ok.

As a Latina, I refuse to support an author who chooses to make a throwaway comment about a marginalized group. This casual racism is not warranted and it is such a disappointment that it was even allowed in this book.