[as posted on goodreads and instagram]

thank you netgalley for the ARC!

3.5 stars ⭐

this is a great book to read on your summer holiday in the south of France, with a cold glass of wine in your hand. in Lush, four diverse characters are invited to a vineyard estate of a master sommelier to spend a few days and at the end, taste the oldest bottle of wine in the world together.

the book started really well for me. the writing is beautiful (a bit lengthy and vague at times with lots of long sentences and commas, but i'm guilty of that myself, so i am in no position to judge) and engaging. the setting and characters all have an air of pretentiousness and snobbery, but that is to be expected with a book about wine and wine tasting, and it didn't bother me in the slightest. i could feel the french sun beaming, the coolness of the villa, i even found it difficult to read without sipping from a glass of wine myself (a win for the alcohol industry).

though the book skips between character's povs, the person we follow the most is Avery, a young black woman who works as a wine influencer and sommelier. while i was eager and interested to learn more about her history and background in the wine world at first, she grew increasingly more unlikable to me throughout the book, which made it hard to watch her make certain decisions, and to be invested in the possible romance that is introduced in the book. i was more interested in the other characters and wish they had had more depth and background, and more meaningful storyline. plenty of events happened between the arrival of the guests and their departure, but none of it seemed to have many consequences for the plot or the characters themselves, besides the pushing and pulling between the love interests. the romance was in fact what i liked the least, because it felt like forced chemistry between two selfish people treating each other abhorrently, probably due to the copious amounts of alcohol everyone was drinking. i realize that they were possibly written to be unlikable, but it felt like a will-they-wont-they where i was really hoping they wouldn't.

i enjoyed the book, the writing was good, but i think i'd enjoy it even more if the key characters had more depth and more background, even if it had meant the book being twice as long. would i pick up a sequel for my next pool-side read? probably, yes.

loved loved loved this debut from rochelle dowden-lord about 4 people invited to the home of a mysterious, lauded master sommelier, to drink one of the world's oldest bottles of wine. they spend a week at his home in france, becoming increasingly drunk and hedonistic. the novel jumps between perspectives but focuses mainly on avery, an influencer and sommelier. i found avery to be compelling, funny, interesting and well drawn at every turn and generally loved the characterisation of this novel. i don't know anything about wine but i really believed in what the characters said, what they claimed to think or not think. really recommend. will inevitably be compared to sweetbitter (which i love) but i think it is far more interesting when it comes to why people love wine, love alcohol, love being drunk, love it too much

This book captured the hazy sunshine, baking heat and drunken days spent drinking wine so beautifully. I did enjoy it and thought it was written well.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

This felt like being on a heady, Mediterranean, hazey holiday, with strangers who all enjoy the same hobby. Wine. The atmosphere and underlying stories were so seamlessly explored and described, I was flying through the (digital) pages.

A study in the dynamic between different people brought together for one reason, this will ensure you keep your thinking head on and don't just accept things on face value.

Okay I didn’t have a great time with this book. It follows a bunch of people who have been invited to a master sommelier’s French estate for a weeks holiday. At the end of it they will drink the oldest/rarest bottle of wine in the world.

I don’t drink wine! Maybe that was the problem here (it wasn’t the problem). This was extremely character driven but none of the characters had any… characterisation. I didn’t know any of these people! I didn’t know anything about them! And it just felt like it was rambling along to nowhere.

A miss for me sadly.

Thank you NetGalley and Serpent’s Tail for the eARC in Exchange for my honest review!

Hazy, hedonistic, reckless, debauchery, excess, decadence, uninhibited, bacchanal

This is one of those books where the less you know going in, the better. In that way I can’t say much without giving things away so I think the best way to describe the book is with some word associations, especially since the story is all vibes with very little plot.

First half had its ups and downs. Second half had me so engaged I didn’t want to put it down! It was confusing at times as it skips around from person to person and scene to scene especially in the beginning. It starts to take off and become less meandering and more focused in the second half.

Explores each person, watching them as if you’re lounging on a slow, summer day overtaken by heat and alcohol numbing your mind to feel fuzzy! Which made the story feel almost like a fever dream for the reader. Each character has flaws and secrets revealed through the course of the holiday.

The book also explores the privilege and darker side of the wine industry. With commentary on the old vs the new, alcoholism, snobbery (I guess, or how closed off certain parts of the industry are for majority of the population), and the sexism that’s faced by female somms.

I enjoyed the lyrical prose and provocative imagery. The novel is filled with similes and metaphors to create a vivid setting and occasionally thought provoking sentimentality.

The title is accurate; everyone is drinking often and to excess. Overall I enjoyed my time with it and the second half definitely redeemed the book! I’d recommend if you want meandering stories that are purely vibes and would make Dionysus proud

"Lush" by Rochelle Dowden-Lord is for wine-lovers and lovers of those wanting to taste the rare things in life. 4 very different characters are brought together to drink the world's oldest bottle of wine. What do they have in common apart from jobs in the wine trade? Very little but that is what makes this book interesting. It is about diverse characters and how they interact with each other. Enjoyable.

To me this was a great exploration of what was unsaid. And to me a brilliant way of exploring a subject with bombarding an audience with doom, gloom and "issues". For me the subject at hand here was alcohol. And what it's.doing, does to groups of people. And definitely when our relationship with alcohol goes beyond what it should. For those already struggling it's not a good idea.
The added depth of what these separate characters came to the table with was brilliant. I felt for them both good and bad.
At first I thought it would be good. I love an exploration of a set of characters like this was at first teasing me with.
But it went so much more than that. And it was done with that holiday esque background which once again felt like a whole other layer.

Lush by Rochelle Dowden-Lord starts as a dream weekend for a group of sommeliers—Avery, Cosmo, Sunny, and Maelys—invited to a French countryside estate to taste one of the oldest bottles of wine in existence. But what begins as an ode to wine quickly spirals into something darker. Beneath the swirling glasses and tasting notes lies an unflinching look at alcohol—its allure, its grip, and its consequences. The story highlights just how pervasive and socially accepted over-drinking is, even among experts. A compelling read that may leave you reconsidering your next pour.

I was intrigued by this book but found it a struggle and had to give up at 40%. The writing style felt too vague and unformed for me. I enjoy literary fiction but something about this particular writing didn't connect. I found myself losing focus continually and having to reread, which made it struggle to push forward. I liked the characters and setting but the form of the writing felt vague at times.

Lush is a wine-soaked novel about what happens when four people are invited to the home of a Master Sommelier to drink one of the oldest bottles of wine in the world. There's Avery, a sommelier who makes most of her money as an influencer despite the reputational damage; Cosmo, a young Master Sommelier who was once the one to watch out for, but now is dogged by scandal; Sonny, who owns a popular wine brand that lacks prestige; and Maëlys, a critic who sees herself as separate to the others but has her own secrets. As they gather with the Master Sommelier and his husband, everyone spends days drinking, building up to the climax of the famous bottle, but they won't get through it unchanged.

I've enjoyed the recent influx of literary fiction that uses food and drink as part of the tapestry of the novel, so I was expecting Lush to be similar. It is in some ways, but it becomes far less about the wine and more about the people, an exploration of people with little in common except wine come together and face their lives. It is written in a hazy style that really suits the narrative, particularly how much the book says (or actively avoids saying) about alcohol and alcoholism, and that's perhaps the standout element for me, the sharp look at how a professional relationship to wine might change your relationship to drinking alcohol, or not. There's not a huge amount of plot, as might be expected from literary fiction focused on characters, and by following the four outsiders, you don't see much of the house's owners or know much about them, which again feels very intentional for the story being told.

This novel wasn't quite what I expected from it, neither a focus on the wine itself nor a scandalous plot, but rather something about the messiness of people and the disappointment of important moments. It feels ideal if you want a book for lazing around in summer, maybe on holiday, but you prefer literary fiction to actual "beach reads".