This is the first book that I have ever applied to review as an ARC reader, and I must say, there is good potential in this story.
We see Avery Marquez, a corporate hotshot, working at a marketing agency for wine and bourbon brands, helping independently run legacy brands not become obsolete by improving their branding strategy and turning them into global businesses. She is reassigned to handle a full marketing makeover for a brand called Thorn Ridge Vineyard, run by Logan Thorn, the head vintner, also called “Thorn Boy,” who has already ousted a few marketing agencies that have come to help him revamp his legacy brand.
She immediately goes to Thorn Ridge Vineyard, and from here, the book becomes about the instant connection that they both realize they have, though he is a “hillbilly” to her and she is a “city girl who would never get down in the mud” to him. But from the first time she asks him, “What do you need?”, the switch flips and there is a surge of something electric between them. We then see them navigate betrayal, doubts about each other, and every other problem thrown at them to protect his family’s legacy.
The book is great on several points. It connects the aspects of the plotline really well—details about what a strategist would do at a marketing firm, how big companies try to run smaller companies to the ground to acquire them, and everything else that forms the business aspect of this book. I also particularly love how the author presents Avery’s friendship with Sienna and her brother Jackson, and how they are her found family and are there for her at every step. The spice is also a really good selling point (how can I miss speaking about it)!
However, there are a couple of issues that make this review come off as more clinical than my other reviews up until now. The chemistry between the protagonists feels rushed. If there had been a build-up, showing the nuances of their attraction to each other over the days or weeks that Avery spent on the vineyard with Logan, trying to help him, the confessions would have felt much deeper, the spice scenes more intimate, and the self-doubt more emotional. If the time between the chapters was filled out a little more, even if the book was longer, it would make for a phenomenal read. I see so much that could have gone wrong, and I’m glad that this book just has a bit of a detail issue—it isn’t that the plot is wrong—and it still made for a good read. Kudos to J. Nickole, and I hope the best for your future books!
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