Review: Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave

Title: Eight Hundred Grapes

Author: Laura Dave 

Narrator: Joy Osmanski

Published: June 2015, Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: 8 hours 6 minutes

Source: Library

There are secrets you share, and secrets you hide…

Growing
up on her family’s Sonoma vineyard, Georgia Ford learned some important
secrets. The secret number of grapes it takes to make a bottle of wine:
eight hundred. The secret ingredient in her mother’s lasagna:
chocolate. The secret behind ending a fight: hold hands.

But just
a week before her wedding, thirty-year-old Georgia discovers her
beloved fiancé has been keeping a secret so explosive, it will change
their lives forever.

Georgia does what she’s always done: she
returns to the family vineyard, expecting the comfort of her
long-married parents, and her brothers, and everything familiar. But it
turns out her fiancé is not the only one who’s been keeping secrets…

My thoughts: This is the first book I’ve picked up by Laura Dave and I really enjoyed it. I love family dramas and this definitely fits that and more.

Georgia is all set to get married when a secret comes out that throws a major wrench in that plan. Needing time to figure things out, she heads home to her family’s vineyard, but even there she uncovers more secrets. How is it that her life has suddenly become so complicated?

I just loved the characters that Laura Dave created in this book. The family was just so fun – so quirky and real. The relationships between each of them felt so true – that between mother and daughter, sister and brother, mother and son, sister and sister-in-sister, etc.Each and every one of them seemed to have their own struggles they were trying to get through.

This is a light-hearted, yet somewhat complex family drama that kept my interest the whole time. I was completely invested in the family, wanting everyone, particularly Georgia, to find what would ultimately make them happy. I loved the little tidbits about winemaking – especially the fact that it takes eight hundred grapes to make one bottle of wine. I will certainly be keeping Laura Dave on my radar.



Audio thoughts: This is the first time I’ve listened to Joy Osmanski narrate a book and I thought she did a great job. She gave each of the characters their own voices and I enjoyed listening to her voice. I will definitely be looking for see what else she has narrated.