The Winemaker by Charmaine Pauls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RATED 4.5 STARS

 

 

 

 

 

 Etán Perez-Cruz, world-renown winemaker, excels in everything he puts his mind to, but self-expression. When an intoxicating woman crashes head first into his life, he finds a way to communicate his feelings through his wine bouquets. As knowing Zenobia becomes a hedonistic pleasure, he fights to keep her safe, and to keep his all-consuming desire from destroying her happiness ... and his brother. Etán will need more than his exceptional talent of taste and smell to overcome the dangerous obstacles set in their path.

 

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Zenobia’s fiancé dumps her and walks away to another woman just three weeks after she moves from England to Chile.  She is left with a house she can’t afford and no job.  To add insult to injury she is accused of owning a stolen car.

Luckily, she has kind neighbors who help her out after their son, Etan is witness to the final scene between the couple.

Zenobia thinks Etan is a judgmental chauvinist and he thinks she is enchanting but he  has a lousy way of showing it.

The family is winemakers and they own a huge vineyard and mansion to which they invite Zenna to visit so she can deal with all the things that are happening to her.

Zenna ends up working at the vineyard, falls deeper and deeper in love with the standoffish Etan who only seems able to work her into a sexual frenzy and then walk away leaving her unsatisfied.

How these two come finally come together involves special gifts of some of the characters, a kidnapping and an earthquake.

Zenna was a great heroine.  She was plagued by her non understanding of her special gift as well as a very real threat in the form of kidnappers.  She thinks she is devastated by her break up but she can’t deny the strong feelings of attraction that keep growing towards Etan.  She forges a brother/sister relationship with Etan’s brother, Luca and I found their banter to be fun and carefree.  It sometimes helped to lighten the mood which often got a little heavy because of Etan.

Etan was the “nose” and the winemaker of the vineyard and because he had been burned once, he turned off all his feelings to protect the women that he thought he would eventually fail.  He was torn between his attraction to Zenna and his desire to do right by everyone and everything.

I didn’t like the way he kept teasing Zenobia sexually.  I thought she had “ it” pretty bad if she could put up with the ups and downs of any sexual encounter they had.

The parents of the two men were good characters who helped support the story.

 

This is, of course, an adult novel.  It is not intended for young adults.