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Wine People

A Novel

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available

Time Magazine "25 New Books You Need to Read This Summer"

"A riveting, behind-the-scenes portrait of a high-drama industry, from the chateau to the corner office...pour a glass and dive in."—Oprah Daily

An intoxicating escape into the cutthroat world of wine and the complicated terrain of women's friendship.

What happens when two ambitious young women, opposite in every way, join forces in a competitive male-dominated industry?

Wren and Thessaly collide when they land coveted jobs at a glamorous New York City boutique wine importer. Hardworking, by-the-book Wren comes from a modest background and has everything to prove while Thessaly hails from a family of prestigious California growers—but she is plagued by self-doubt. Thrown together at work, where they're expected to have exquisite palates, endless tolerance for alcohol and socializing, and the ability to sell, sell, sell, they regard each other with suspicion.

It's only on an important European business trip—with everything on the line for both of them—that they unexpectedly forge an alliance that will change the course of their careers and personal lives.

With mouth-watering descriptions of food and wine, Wine People takes readers from France, Germany, and Italy to the Midwest and California Wine Country. An utterly entertaining page-turner that explores how close friends can both misjudge and uplift each other.

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    • Kirkus

      June 15, 2023
      Wildgen explores the world of wine through the vicissitudes of two women's friendship. Wren works in operations and Thessaly in sales at the high-end Lionel Garrett Wine Imports. They are wary colleagues. Self-conscious about her working-class Midwestern origins and single-minded in her commitment to the wine business, Wren considers Thessaly, who grew up on a large vineyard in Sonoma, a "golden girl," while Thessaly sees Wren as "one of those worker-bee types." Wren envies Thessaly's apparent confidence, but actually Thessaly's confidence is shaky, especially concerning her private ambition to create her own wines--and she has a drinking problem. When Lionel announces he will soon be stepping away from the business without naming his successor, his company becomes a hotbed of competition. Much of the book reads like a tame version of the TV drama Succession as Lionel's erudite, cultured acolytes backbite and undermine each other over sips of Bordeaux. Despite their mutual distrust, Thessaly and Wren end up joining forces to compete as a team in the otherwise mostly White male establishment. Though they don't get the job, the women bond personally and professionally, Wren helping Thessaly control her drinking, Thessaly improving Wren's awkward communication skills and calming her anxiety. But when they open their own business, the existing cracks in their friendship widen. Despite her discerning palate, Wren's ambition lies in growing her distribution business, which means finding and pushing wines that are easier to sell to a wider audience. Although she's the gifted salesperson, Thessaly's ambition is more complicated, more idiosyncratic, and less traditional. Therefore she's also the more interesting character. Although each woman gets a romance, their lives are defined by their relationships to wine. Wildgen's eagerness to show and tell the ins and outs of winemaking and wine selling, including examples of chicanery but also nobility, is endearing, but she's mapped out her plot and main characters too obviously to let the narrative breathe. Likable and mildly informative but lacks punch.

      COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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  • English

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