These are three pretty different books but with one thing in common- they’re all set at vineyards! Two are struggling family vineyards, one involves a cult escape, so really, if it’s Wine O’Clock, you can’t go wrong with any of these picks!
The Devil's Own Duke by Lenora Bell. Lady Henrietta is absolutely not interested in love, even as she’s watched her fellow wallflowers start to fall in it. No, what she’s interested in is reviving her family’s vineyards into a profitable wine business. And when a man shows up claiming to be the distant but rightful heir to her father’s Earldom, and her father all but forces her into marriage with him, she accepts as it’s the only way she’ll be able to stay with her beloved vineyards. She also vows she will never trust or love this mysterious stranger, Ash Ellis, who until his origins were discovered was the owner of a gaming hell and a bit of a rogue.
Or were his origins discovered? As far as Ash is concerned, claiming the Earldom is one big con, but one that’s working. It doesn’t hurt he gets the beautiful Hetty (despite her fury) as well as all this land to build himself a legacy. One that, incidentally, doesn’t include wine. But Hetty convinces him to give her, and their grapes, a chance, before he bulldozes them for something involving horses, I think.
It does not matter. What matters is that they’re locked in a battle of wills over wine and the family’s future but ALSO over their own hearts. Con man gambler versus business-minded heiress? Yes frickin please.
Rating: 4.25/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
In His Hands by Adriana Anders. Before we hop into this one, if you have great romance recommendations set with a backdrop in cults (escaping from, having escaped from, etc), please send them my way.
OK! The third book in the Blank Canvas series brings the HEAT in more than one way. Abby has been a member of the Church of the Apocalyptic Faith since she was a kid, and as far as anyone will say, the only way out is death. But she’s been doubting the church’s word for a while, not least because they’ve been abusing a boy with special needs. But she can’t just take her friend and run, because she’s got no money and very little knowledge of the outside world.
Lucky for her, then, that Luc Stanek, a French (swoon) hottie moves into the mostly ruined vineyard next door to their compound. She manages to get herself on patrol duty, thus allowing her to exploit a break in the fenceline, and traverses over to her neighbor’s new land with a proposition: I’ll work at your winery if you don’t tell anyone I’ve been here.
Luc, though hesitant to get involved (with a woman, with an obvious cult member, with anyone), accepts that he does need the help, so he agrees. And as he learns more about Abby, and the danger she’s in, his resolution to Stay Out Of It crumbles. Unfortunately, losing the will to keep away from her puts both of them in active danger from the increasingly unhinged cult leaders.
It’s hot, it’s devastating, it’s fascinating, it’s wine and cults! Dibs on that idea for a book club.
Rating: 4/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥
Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey. After a near-miss-kiss as teenagers, Hallie has been lowkey in love with Julian every since. Then he moved away and hasn’t returned much, so she’s kept herself busy running her gardening and landscaping business and doing her best to fight the tacky gentrification coming to their shared wine country hometown. And then, Julian reappears, ostensibly on sabbatical from his academic career in the Ivy League to write a novel, but eventually to help revive his family’s struggling winery. He hasn’t been home much (family drama, PTSD, mental health crisis, our boy is Struggling) but now it seems he’s got his work cut out for him this “vacation.”
He doesn’t remember Hallie, which would be more disappointing to her if they didn’t immediately clash upon his discovering a woman covered in dirt and chaotically planting flowers outside his small cottage on the winery property, having been hired by Julian’s mother. Their reunion (or from his initial perspective, first meeting) sees sparks flying, but not the romantic kind. Yet. Then Hallie gets drunk and leaves an anonymous secret admirer letter for him to find.
What follows is an accidental love triangle as greyscale Julian begins to fall for the colorful, messy Hallie as well as the vulnerable, open-book anonymous letter writer, as both Julian and Hallie figure out what their futures look like together and independently. At one point, Hallie gets jealous of her own secret identity. Shenanigans abound! Also, it’s a Tessa Bailey book so you know it’s gonna be hot as hell, and reader, it is.
Rating: 4.5/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Next week, I’ll be recommending books about bookstore owners!
What should I be reading next? Let me know in the comments!
Dylan Allen's "The Sun and Her Star" has a cult escape involved, although it's more part of the backstory than the main plot. (MMC is *messed up*.) Angelina M. Lopez has a pair of vineyard-set books, "Lush Money" and "Hate Crush".