November is Victorian month on Historical Romance Review. I’m starting with a cleverly written tale set in Portugal in the Victorian era.
Julia Costa, a widow and a winemaker in the Douro region in northern Portugal. There she harbors a secret valley where she grows new vines unlike any other. Her business partner who has loaned her funds wants to know if his investment will pay off so he sends the Englishman, Griffin Maxwell, to check on things. Griffen, an expert in accounting and trusted by Costa, is willing to do it because he wants a partnership with Oport’s largest trading firm. And Costa, the owner, wants Griffen to marry his daughter.
Opposites attract, and the independent widow, who is knowledgeable in all things to do with vines, and the Englishman, who knows the financial side of the business, are soon a pair. When a mysterious plague decimates the vineyards, Griffin and Julia race to find a cure. As attraction leads to passion, Griffen fails to tell Julia he is engaged to another. Lurking in the background is an aristocratic Portuguese who is bent on having Julia as his wife and a politician who knows much about vines who also has her in his sites.
This book is well-written and full of information about growing grapes for wine, port wine to be exact. It’s cleverly done weaving together the story of the vines and wine and the growing love between the two lead characters. Some exciting scenes add spice. There are explicit love scenes should that be an issue.
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