Sam’s wine course thrusts Ellie, Rachel, Ronan and Zita together. Ellie is planning her dream wedding, but when her fiancée starts a prestigious new job things begin to change between them. Ronan’s marriage to shopaholic Louise is on the rocks, and has left him in dire financial straits. Rachel is married to high profile politician Carl, but her perfect life is a facade. And unknown to anyone, Zita’s sole reason for joining the course is to ensnare Rachel’s husband to further her career in television.
After eight weeks on the wine course, they know their wines, and firm friendships have been formed. But everything else has changed beyond recognition.
The wine course brings together a diverse range of personalities, and they complimented each other well. Zita is the standout character for me, you have to love to hate her, and she has a great background story. I also found the portrayal of Rachel and the challenges of her life behind the glamour to be quite interesting.
With an abundance of central characters, this book was never boring. However, there was a bit too many stories going on for me, and while they all intertwined perfectly, at times I felt that if there were one or two less, the more compelling ones could have been fleshed out more. That said, I did enjoy this book immensely, and will certainly be looking forward to reading more by Pauline Lawless.