This is our first review for this site, and being new to the romance genre, we hope you will forgive our mistakes, if any. :) Read on, dear patron, and enjoy!


A Review of
The Villa
by Nora Roberts

The Giambelli family has, for three centuries, provided the world with the finest of wines. Sophia Giambelli is proud of that fact, and of her family. When the Giambelli matron, Tereza Giambelli, decides to expand, to consolidate with their rival vintners, the MacMillan family, Sophia has to quell every instinct to fight the change; a change she never saw coming and can't easily get her mind around. The feeling is mutual for Tyler MacMillan, vintner and MacMillan point man. How they will ever see eye to eye, how they will ever do what Tereza demands and work together, instead of killing each other, Sophia has no idea. But the legacy of the Giambelli family and its fine Napa Valley villa are at stake, and for them both, Sophia will do anything. Tolerating her family is another matter altogether. With her family and mother's newly signed divorce papers still wet, and Sophia's new, young, beautiful, stepmother still ruffling her feathers, with several mysterious deaths to think about, a tainted batch of Giambelli wine, and a few million missing lire to wonder over, she'll have a lot to stand.

And worse yet, Sophia has to wonder what to do with Tyler, through all this; the fact that he has to teach her the finer points of winemaking, while she tries valiantly to teach him the publicity side of the business, may drive her mad, even before she figures out all the nagging questions before her--if, that is, Tyler's charm doesn't do her in first. But for the family, she will do anything: run all over America, spend cold days in the Napa Valley fields with Tyler bossing her around, fly to Venice, Italy to deal with the Italian arm of the Giambelli family business.

Answer questions from a corps of inquisitive police.

But Sophia's loyalty and love will see her through all of it; the question is, will it be strong enough to help her live through the truth? Will her integrity and loyalty be enough to help her accept everything that Tyler promises to give her? Or will she cave under the pressure of upholding the family name?

You'll have to read to find out.

The Villa is a stand-alone Nora Roberts novel, and being the second of hers that we've read, we have to say, we found it quite intriguing. There's something here for everyone: romantic scenery; strong, and yes, lovely, characters, romance, mystery, intrigue. Do give The Villa a try. We are sure you will be pleasantly surprised!

~Webmistress