This book, The Shortest Way Home by Miriam Parker, is going to be a favorite for someone.

It is, unfortunately, not a favorite for me.

This genre, summery novels of self-discovery and idyllic locations, have always been hit or miss with me.

This book is a miss, although it was just interesting enough that I finished it.

Set in Sonoma, California wine country, wine is absolutely the point around which all things in the story revolve. It is why Linda and Everett are married, it is the thing they and their fathers did with their lives, it is what Hannah likes to drink with every meal, it is… everything.

If you like wine, this could be the book for you.

Not tying it entirely to wine, of course, the other unifying point around which things seem to revolve is a bit of what could be called Rich People Problems.

Hannah, newly graduated from business school at Berkeley and about to take a six-figure salary for a starting job at Goldman Sachs in New York, spends much of the book bemoaning her poor Iowa upbringing while contrasting it to an internship at Tiffany’s in New York all while somehow amassing the ability to give up said job for an $800 a week gig as… helper of sorts at a struggling winery in Sonoma. I mean, it helps that the winery job comes with a cottage to live in (and all the wine she can drink!), but I didn’t find her relatable enough to be likable.

It was hard to care if she chose Ethan, the super-rich Park Avenue boy who decides to slum it, as it were, and found a start-up app company because his buddies at Google want new jobs, or William, the son of the winery owners, who she manages to fall head-over-heels in lust/love with after a grand total of maybe three meetings. To Parker’s credit as an author of this sort of book, Hannah chooses neither - and that is why this book got bumped to two stars for me.

But Hannah’s unrelatable and kind of a brat, Ethan is mildly abusive to Hannah, Linda and Everett have a twisted, toxic relationship built on a modern day arranged marriage, and… there just wasn’t much here for me.

I think maybe I finished the book because it is a very fast read, the downside of that being that all of this, all of these life-changing decisions occur over the course of a summer, but really a couple weeks. Marriages break and are rebuilt, a massive heart attack is fully recovered from, a former farm girl marches in and takes over a century and a half old winery with permission from the supposedly very invested owners, affairs are had, a For Rent sign turns into a successful AirBnB B&B and… it’s just too much.

For me.

Maybe not for you. Try it if you like this sort of thing. It has it’s good points.

(I received a copy of The Shortest Way Home from NetGalley and Dutton in exchange for an honest and original review. All thoughts are my own.)

After having read countless psychological thrillers, I would call The Shortest Way Home a great palette cleanser.

Hannah, thirtyish, is graduating from a top business school, starting a highly coveted job and living with her boyfriend in an expensive Manhattan loft. Could life get any better than this? That is the million dollar question is this book.

This book could have easily taken a turn down Hallmark/Lifetime movie script, but it didn't. It was well written and since the book takes place in a winery, the descriptions are superb. Every time I picked up the book, I wanted a nice glass of something!

While the book was a bit on the side of cliche, there was quite a bit of depth in the characters, written in a great setting, and not everything was wrapped in a nice pretty bow at the end. Great quick read for my summer vacation!

I adored this debut novel from Miriam Parker.  It was exactly what I was in the mood for without knowing it.  It was one of the best books I read this month.  I loved all of the characters in this book and really was invested in the story.  It is a novel on the shorter side at 320 pages and I read it very quickly.  I wanted a glass, okay, really a bottle, of wine and plate of cheese by a fire while reading this story.

Hannah is about to have everything she has ever dreamed of - a great job in New York, a new apartment, and a boyfriend (Ethan) who is about to propose. When they go on a little weekend getaway to Sonoma before they graduate from grad school, Hannah makes a decision that may completely change the course of her life. She is offered a job at a family-owned winery doing marketing, and actually stops & thinks about it.

When she decides to abandon all she knows & jump in full force, she is able to grow & learn so much more about who she is as a person. She works to save the winery, but is also working to save herself.

This was an enjoyable & cute read. I loved all the references to wine & wine country. It transported me & made me want to go be in Sonoma. I enjoyed the book because it wasn't a typical romance where everything wraps up nicely in the end. I realized that I was about 90% of the way through the book, and her love interest issues hadn't been resolved yet, but I wasn't mad about it. I did wish there was a little bit more, but I thought it was a good homage to a strong, independent woman, who is discovering herself.

I would recommend this book if you're a fan of female characters discovering themselves, family dynamics, and wine. So much wine. But it's so fun! This is a great summer beach read.

Hannah is well on her way to having her dream life in New York: a wealthy, non-loser boyfriend, a Master’s in Business Management, and a finance job opportunity at a huge company that will pay exceedingly well, and move her in the direction of her life plan, far better than what she left behind as a teenager in Iowa. But when Hannah and her boyfriend decide to visit a few wineries before school ends in California, Hannah falls in love with a little winery and vineyard called Bellosguardo, where she is offered a marketing job by its owners, starting immediately! There, she can live in an adorable cottage beside the vineyard, save a company that actually needs her, and slow down from the hectic, beige life of a wealthy New York businesswoman. But what will happen to her boyfriend and their life plan? Is being impulsive for once something that will truly change her life for the better?
The Shortest Way Home is a delightful escape to California wine country, along with reevaluation of life goals, and an homage to taking a chance on your dreams, or finding new ones, no matter what age. This book will leave you craving good wine and cheese, the views of a gorgeous sunset over a vineyard to go with it, and maybe a puppy in your lap too.

Thirty year old Hannah Greene heads to Sonoma California for a weekend wine trip with her fellow graduate student boyfriend, Ethan.
Both are finishing up their last term at the Berkeley Haas School and after graduation will be heading to New York. Ethan and Hannah already have jobs waiting for them and their futures planned.
Hannah landed the job of a lifetime at Goldman Sachs. A seemingly perfect life awaits Hannah and Ethan, who will joining two friends in software app development.
While they wait for their room to be ready, the couple stop at the Bellosguardo Winery and suddenly Hannah’s future as well as Ethan’s takes a sharp detour. Throwing caution to the wind, Hannah abandones her planned “perfect” life in New York for a less secure marketing job at the small family run Bellosguardo Winery.
The struggling Winery is in need of help and Winery owner, Linda, offers Hannah a low paying job with room and board at the Winery. Hannah accepts the offer and leaves a stunned Ethan at the airport as he goes to New York alone but hoping that she will realize her “mistake” and come to her senses.
Author Miriam Walker writes a beautiful book that is simple yet detailed as we watch Hannah discover herself along with her strength as she uses her skills to save the Winery.
She finds her true self and falls in love but not the obvious one, the love of people from her past as well as people that will be part of her future and beautiful Sonoma, California.
You will find yourself wishing that you could read this book at a Winery outside on a beautiful sunny day with a glass of your favorite wine reading this book.
The Shortest Way Home was a book that reminded me of Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken, where Frost says “two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
Some might say that poem represents a regret but not in Hannah’s life as she takes the path less traveled but will find that this is her “perfect” path to Home.
The Shortest Way Home is a wonderful read and makes a great discussion book for book clubs.
I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley. My reviews are unbiased and my own. #netgalley #ShortestWayHome

I love the cover of this book, I think it looks cute and happy! The Shortest Way Home by Miriam Parker is on my To-Read list, at the very top! Its getting awesome reviews and I am so excited for Miriam! “Delightful” “Heartwarming” and “a gem” are just some words used to describe this novel.

Here’s the official synopsis:

After years of dreaming of and working toward a life more stable than the one she grew up in, Hannah is finally about to have everything she ever wanted. With a high-paying job, an apartment in Manhattan, and a boyfriend about to propose, all she and Ethan have to do is make it through the last couple of weeks of grad school, and the future they had planned will be theirs to keep.

But when they take a romantic weekend trip to Sonoma, and Hannah is spontaneously offered a marketing job at the first (and seemingly financially unstable) winery they visit and doesn’t immediately refuse, their meticulously planned forever comes crashing down around them. And then Hannah impulsively does the unthinkable–she turns down her job in New York and decides to stay in California.

Abandoning your dream job and life shouldn’t feel this good. But for Hannah, it is an eye-opening experience; and she realizes that maybe, after all her dream-chasing, she hasn’t actually been caring for herself. And this new life certainly seems like a dream come true–living in a picturesque cottage overlooking a vineyard in lush Sonoma; new friends with pasts and hopes the likes of which she’s never encountered before; and William, the handsome son of the winery owners and an aspiring film director who captures Hannah’s heart only to leave the very city she let go.

The mission to rescue the failing winery becomes a mission to rescue Hannah from the image of herself she thought she wanted. The young girl who ached to escape Iowa and leave her past behind for a glamorous life is now given the chance to come to terms with the upbringing that made her who she is.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this was turned into a Lifetime or Hallmark movie!

Hannah and her boyfriend Ethan take a trip to wine country, a getaway fro them. Away from all the noise of the big city they will soon be living in. Only it doesn’t go according to plan. Hannah falls in love with place and the people. She decides to stay.

Hannah has an amazing job waiting for her, but be such a free spirit puts a monkey wrench in the life that her and Ethan were planning. I just adored Hannah for they way she is. Hannah has made friends in the short time during the trip and has so many ideas that will help the slowly fading winery. But, Ethan is so nonchalant about her ideas, he doesn’t agree with her decision to help this family. I get the laid back attitude. but this is your girlfriend not wanted to leave the vacation place. He kinda agrivated me a little. but I was happy to see Hannah follow her heart and her own needs.

There were a few other characters that play a pivotal role in the story. The owners of the winery (Williams parents) were just adorable together. And William the son on the owners and is a free spirit as well just like Hannah. William has big plans to leave. But he also had in interest in Hanna, so the question came to mind while I was reading, would he possibly stay to help with her plans for his parent winery? Or would he move on to what he thought was bigger and better things.

The setting was just beautiful. I would soo love taking a trip to wine country after reading this, from the people to wine. To me, it seemed like the perfect place for Hannah too. She could use her skills and maybe even find something more and work on her own happiness. It was quite a journey to follow and the ending was just perfect.

The read was so engrossing, emotional and sweet, from the character development to the slow burn romance. I loved it! and I think that readers who enjoy the contemporary romances will enjoy this one too.

4.5/5 stars! I absolutely love books where the female character is starting over in a new location. This lovely gem of a book is about Hannah, who decides to stay in Sonoma after visiting while on vacation. She has graduated college and is a bit lost, as most college graduates are. Hannah’s quest to find herself, and what is important to her, is an eyeopening journey. Miriam Parker has such a beautiful way of writing.

This was such a sweet book! Warning, do NOT attempt to read this book on your lunch break or in the morning hours if you are not prepared to open up a bottle of wine and truly enjoy! I attempted to do so, and found that this novel screams to be enjoyed with your favorite bottle. I absolutely loved how the author described Sonoma, the vineyards and the wines. So relaxing and enjoyable.

I related to the characters well and loved the development of each. The story seemed predictable, but in the end wasn't, just like life.

I look forward to reading more from this author in the future!

What a fun summer read! I love stories of people taking a leap and starting over outside of their comfort zone my practical mind find them inspiring! This was such a fun romantic read with such a lush backdrop I felt like I was in wine country too the writing made it all so vivid! This is the perfect book to curl up with a good glass of wine with or for a ladies book club! Will definitely be checking out this author again!

Sometimes it isn't easy to really know what you want out of life, it's a difficult. challenge As with the main character in this book, Hannah is struggling to find her path, to make sure wherever that road takes her, it's the one she wants. On a visit to a winery in Sonoma Hannah takes a leap of faith and gives up everything she thought she wanted....a prestigious job at Goldman Sachs in New York, her boyfriend Ethan her soon to be fiancé and an apartment in New York City. She gives up everything to help out a family-owned winery with a job offer that will pay her $800.00 a week because somewhere deep inside her she feels this is what she honestly wants to do.

I read this book in one sitting today, savoring every page and enjoying how Ms. Parker brought these characters to life. It was interesting to see how Hannah became a more self-assured person, stronger and more defined in her goals and what she wanted. This book was very satisfying and I loved it from beginning to end. My thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is harmless, easy read. I'm guessing people will call it their beach book, knowing you can be distracted, doze off, drink a tad too much wine, then realize pages have passed without you paying attention, but you can guess what you have missed.

Hannah is on the road to "having it all" — great boyfriend, top-tier MBA degree, hotshot job — but on a romantic weekend in Sonoma she decides to forsake the conventional path for a simple life helping to run a failing winery. For someone who waxes poetic about her future retirement in wine country every time she goes (ahem, me), this book was a dream. It's a light read with a great female lead who is figuring out who she is and what she wants in life, and bucking societal conventions to do so! Great debut novel from Miriam Parker.

If you're looking for a charming, Hallmark-esque read that's not as far-fetched, grab Miriam Parker's The Shortest Way Home immediately! Parker's sense of place and real, dimensional characters will draw you in immediately. You know the Hannah's and Ethan's in your life, you know that local business everyone loves but might soon go under, you recognize the gossipy but well-meaning Celeste, and the accident-prone older people who still act like they're twenty. Parker swirls these characters' stories together in ways that will have you finishing this book in one sitting!

Life is going well for Hannah - she's on vacation with her boyfriend in wine country (and she thinks he's going to propose) and is about to graduate with a Master's Degree and start her dream job in New York City. So why does her heart do funny things when she walks into the winery? Will she give up everything she has worked for to follow something she never knew that she wanted? A story of strength, finding yourself, and following your dreams to make a happy life.

Although the author has a very good style of writing, I found the plot elements too absurd to allow me to enjoy the book without a huge amount of cynicism.

Essentially, “girl walks into a wine tasting, chucks her fiancé, job at Goldman and her move to NYC. Within minutes, gets job revamping winery, falls in love and moves into luxury cottage”. I had trouble with these plot lines as well as being given TOO much information about wine. I was bored by the endless description of every variety of wine and the notes and flavors found in them.

The author has tremendous potential, but books like this should be labeled “A wine lovers Romance” not really woman’s fiction.

Hannah and soon-to-be fiancé, Ethan, are graduating grad school with their bright (and upscale) New York City futures with Hannah especially looking forward to living the high life, but fate intervenes when the couple visits a charming Sonoma winery and Hannah falls head-over-heels for the place and starts to brainstorm ideas for creating more business. Before she knows it (and much to Ethan’s chagrin), she has accepted a low-salaried job and is living in the winemaker’s estate cottage. While getting to know more of the locals and discovering the pitfalls of the position, she also learns more about herself and has to decide what she really wants out of life.

This was a charming and lovely story with engaging characters set in the glorious Northern California wine country, and the themes of "following your bliss,” “your money or your life,” or “living your best life" will tantalize many into rethinking their current situations. I also loved the librarian who mentored the young Hannah, and Parker's knowledge of books and authors will have readers taking notes for future reading.

Readers who enjoy stories with likeable characters, appealing settings, and a touch of romance will thoroughly enjoy Miriam Parker’s debut novel. This is also recommended for those who liked Laura Dave’s EIGHT HUNDRED GRAPES (also set in the California wine country) and books by Jenny Colgan, Nancy Thayer, and Kristan Higgins.

Thanks to the publisher for the advance reading copy.

If you dream of restarting, in a beautiful locale, while finding yourself, this is the book for you. Hannah is graduating graduate business school and ready to start her life with Ethan in New York when she visits a small winery in Sonoma County. Everett and Linda are trying to grow their small family winery when Hannah shows up and is an answer to some of their their challenges. Facing personal decisions and finding where one is feeling at home, Hannah is a likable character, as are all of the secondary characters. I recommend, particularly on that beach or summer vacation!

The Shortest Way Home initially struck my interest because I love a good comfy romance novel but that's not really what this book is. It does have aspects of that but the romance is more about the main character and Sonoma, California than it really is with another person. Hannah falls in love with Sonoma and with the family she ends up working with much more than she falls in love with one person. She becomes immersed in this family's life and in their winery. But before I get ahead of myself and write everything in the intro, let's get to the review.

Synopsis (from Goodreads):
After years of dreaming of and working toward a life more stable than the one she grew up in, Hannah is finally about to have everything she ever wanted. With a high-paying job, an apartment in Manhattan, and a boyfriend about to propose, all she and Ethan have to do is make it through the last couple of weeks of grad school, and the future they had planned will be theirs to keep.

But when they take a romantic weekend trip to Sonoma, and Hannah is spontaneously offered a marketing job at the first (and seemingly financially unstable) winery they visit and doesn't immediately refuse, their meticulously planned forever comes crashing down around them. And then Hannah impulsively does the unthinkable--she turns down her job in New York and decides to stay in California.

Abandoning your dream job and life shouldn't feel this good. But for Hannah, it is an eye-opening experience; and she realizes that maybe, after all her dream-chasing, she hasn't actually been caring for herself. And this new life certainly seems like a dream come true--living in a picturesque cottage overlooking a vineyard in lush Sonoma; new friends with pasts and hopes the likes of which she's never encountered before; and William, the handsome son of the winery owners and an aspiring film director who captures Hannah's heart only to leave the very city she let go.

The mission to rescue the failing winery becomes a mission to rescue Hannah from the image of herself she thought she wanted. The young girl who ached to escape Iowa and leave her past behind for a glamorous life is now given the chance to come to terms with the upbringing that made her who she is.

As I was getting to know Hannah through this book, the first thing that came to mind was "oh, she is not like me." She is outgoing, talks to strangers very regularly, and is pretty great at selling/marketing the wine and the winery once she is hired. I'm a stone-cold introvert, only talk to strangers in the most dire of circumstances, and would rather not have to convince people to buy anything (I used to have to convince people to sign up for credit cards. Me, a person who thinks credit cards are a bad decision in most circumstances lol). So, at first I thought connecting with Hannah might be a little difficult but luckily, I was wrong. The way she cares for her work and the people she works with was possibly the best part of the book.

She ends up visiting California with her boyfriend, Ethan for a quick vacation before they move to New York together. She has a position waiting for her at Goldman Sachs (barf) and Ethan is going to be working on an app with some of his friends. But, as you can probably guess, things don't go as planned. When they visit the little winery, it is like Hannah's eyes are opened for the first time. She talks to the bartender, William (i.e. love interest) and gives him a bunch of ideas for marketing the business that he ends up relaying to his mom (It is a family-owned business). After Ethan and her leave, she can't stop thinking about the place and ends up staying in Sonoma once Linda, William's mom, offers her a job. Needless to say, Ethan is pissed, but he's an asshole, so we don't care.

But not everything goes smoothly from there on out. Hannah is kind of thrown into a complicated situation. She finds out that the relationship between William's parents (Linda and Everett) is on the rocks. Hannah has to deal with a lot of drama and does it mostly by herself because William soon moves to New York to go to school to write screenplays. I don't want to give too much away because the sections where Hannah works through Linda and Everett's issues is my favorite and I don't want to take those surprises away from you.

While this story may be marketed as Hannah and William falling in love, to me it was much more about Hannah working at the winery, finding new friends, and dealing with this incredibly complicated relationship between her two bosses.

Linda works the sales part of the winery and Everett is very much behind the scenes, growing and tasting grapes, and working through the whole process of making sure the wine is the best (can you tell I don't drink? lol). I thought I had them figured out from the beginning as just another unhappily-married couple, but they are much more than that. Linda has a past lover she still has a thing for and Everett is (deep down) just looking to make Linda has happy as possible. The twists and turns of their relationship are what kept me reading.

All that being said, I did not feel this story was as well-written as it could've been. Some parts felt very rushed including Hannah deciding she was going to stay in Sonoma for the summer. It went so quickly. I know we want to get to the part where Hannah is living in Sonoma as fast as possible but it felt unbelievable and took me out of the story.

And probably more disappointing was that most of the story was paced perfectly. The way Linda and Everett's relationship is shown to us in little pieces throughout the book was perfectly done and made the ending that much sweeter. I wish we had that in the beginning as well. There are also some points that were more telling than showing, where I wanted to see the emotions of Hannah rather than be told them. The story was interesting and the characters were honestly quite well developed, but there were a few issues that kept The Shortest Way Home from being really amazing.

With all that said, I am giving The Shortest Way Home 3 out of 5 stars. It has some great elements and most of the characters were lovely to get to know and see interact, but, for me, it had a few too many problems for me to give it a higher rating.

The Shortest Way Home by Miriam Parker comes out July 31, 2018

Thank you, NetGalley and Penguin Group/Dutton for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.