The Villa by Nora Roberts [Review]

The Villa by Nora Roberts
Format: ebook
Source: purchased
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: October 8, 2024

Purchase Links: Paperback | Kindle

Nora Roberts
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

PR executive Sophia Giambelli loves her job and has never worried about competition. For three generations, her family’s wines have been world-renowned for their quality. But things are about to change at Villa Giambelli. Tereza, the matriarch, has announced a merger with the MacMillan family’s winery—and Sophia will be assuming a new role.

As a savvy businesswoman, Sophia knows she must be prepared for anything...but she isn’t prepared for Tyler MacMillan. They’ve been ordered to work together very closely, to facilitate the merger. Sophia must teach Ty the finer points of marketing—and Ty, in turn, shows her how to get down and dirty, to use the sun, rain, and earth to coax the sweetest grapes from the vineyard.

As they toil together, both in and out of the fields, Sophia is torn between a powerful attraction and a professional rivalry. At the end of the season, the course of the company’s future—and the legacy of the villa—may take an entirely new direction. And when acts of sabotage threaten both the family business and the family itself, Sophia’s quest will be not only for dominance, but also for survival.

Thoughts on The Villa: This was a reread for me (I think I read it when it came out. Maybe.), but I didn't remember who was behind the bulk of the events so it was like reading it for the first time all over again. Sort of.

Anywho. Here we have Sophia, Tyler, and the sprawling Giambelli-MacMillan family. Sophia is smart, driven, and knows how to steer the winery to success from a PR standpoint. Tyler knows the land and grapes like the back of his hand and is more comfortable in the fields than in a boardroom. They both practically bleed  Giambelli-MacMillan wine and they need to work closely together to make sure everything goes smoothly with the merger.

Honestly, there might have been a few bumps during the merger, but things WOULD have gone mostly smoothly if someone didn't have it out for the Giambelli family. Uncovering embezzlement would have been easily overcome if murder hadn't been committed with the family's wine. Soon the entire family is shoring up their defenses and working to figure out who's behind the string of unfortunate events befalling the winery.

In the meantime, Sophia and Tyler are butting heads and sparking off one another something fierce. The more misfortune that gets heaped on the winery, the closer they become and the more determined they both are to figure out why they're being targeted.

A solid story that sucked me in even on the re-read!