Book: A Taste of Merlot (The Napa Wine Heiresses book #2) by Heather Heyford
Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review
Publication: Available now
Rating: 2 stars
Review:
This was okay but it started out so well, with the story opening with Merlot St. Pierre who is heir to a successful wine family and also a junior in college majoring in jewelry. She had just received a prestigious award for her jewelry art exhibit and she was feeling extremely happy and accomplished. Until she overheard some fellow students which include Merlot's rival Rainn, criticizing and insulting her, those mean comments made her decided to drop out right before her last year of school.
Instead of going back, she decided to achieve her dream by creating and selling her jewelry, however she wanted to make it on her own. She wanted to prove she could succeed not only to herself but also to her father Xavier St. Pierre, her two older sisters Chardonnay and Sauvignon but also to those who mocked her.
With a slight loan from her father (the money she would have used for her tuition), Merlot found a studio and set up shop for her designs for Guilty Artisanal Jewelry. Since she wanted to make it on her own she decided to go by the name Meri Peterson.
Unbeknownst to Merlot, Mark Newman, a buyer for the premier luxury jewelry store Harrington's was looking for a new product to sell exclusively at the store and had stopped by the school to see the art exhibit. He spotted the winning jewelry exhibit and had to find the designer but it was taking him a while to track the person down. He had no idea who the designer was except for the collection name.
Mark had been working at Harrington's for a while but since the business belongs to his Aunt Gloria he has to constantly prove that he knows more than just the jewelry artsy side of the business and it didn't help that Dick, the company's Chief Financial Officer was always harping on about Mark not having a sense for business. Mark also wasn't looking for love any time soon after going through with a very bitter annulment.
However, the only thing on Mark's mind was finding the designer and once he did he was both surprised by Meri's designs and her beauty. But since her name wasn't yet known to the jewelry world his Aunt Gloria was less likely to sign the deal to sell her jewelry but his aunt was interested in giving Rainn a deal. It wasn't until Rainn told Mark who Meri really was that his Aunt Gloria was eager to give Meri a deal but only to capitalize on her family's famous name.
Mark quickly told Meri the good news about the deal but without telling that he knew who she really was. It wasn't until after the impromptu sex that the secret was accidentally revealed. The story progressed from there but it didn't leave me engaged in reading any more of it.
Yes, this was a fast read but I found the story started to lose focus and turned into one of those cheesy romance novel.
There was also quite a few things that annoyed me about this story besides the whole smoke and shadows thing going on between Meri and Mark, was it too much to ask that these characters actually tell each other the truth instead of constantly hiding things. There was also this secret that Meri was constantly alluding to as well as her worrying about Mark spending time with Rainn. I don't know why, he pretty much said that he had no interest in Rainn. Meri also thought with her body, she couldn't understand why Mark wanted to take things slower because after their first unexpected rush to have sex he wanted her to see that he really liked her and not just her body or for who she was. But Meri has had a problem with using sex to abate her feelings of loneliness for quite a while. It's one of the reasons she was afraid her secret may get out and ruin things for her.
This should have been a fun read but the story skips around and flips back and forth to detail Meri's past without any separation points. Yeah, this was just okay.
No comments:
Post a Comment