This beautifully told historical novel is set in Champagne, France, during 1940. There is a dual storyline set in present day. A fascinating look at two time periods. I especially loved the 1940's storyline! Recommended for fans of historical fiction.

I enjoyed the twists of this WW2 and present day book. I don't want to spoil the story but I enjoyed learning more about the production of champagne and that area of France. Also the relationship between Olivia and her grandmother was interesting to read and find out more about them both.
Read to find out more and you'll be glad that you did!

This book was an incredible read. You easily feel for the characters and are invested in what happens to them. They are beautifully created. As I read this book it got harder and harder to put down and I even teared up near the end too. So glad I came across this book.

Round up to 3.5 stars. It took the first four chapters before I felt I was into the book, and then it got interesting and moved well. The story line was good, and most characters interesting, but something about the phrasing/dialog didn't sit quite right with me; it almost felt like a translated book, and not from French, as one might have expected.

Have a glass of champagne ready as you read this darling, emotionally-charged piece of historical fiction. This book surprised me in how captivating it was, and I loved how wonderfully woven together the story was!

Set amid the champagne region of northeast France during WW2, this book tells the story of how champagne houses were utilized by the resistance during the war to hide Jews, munitions, and other supplies.
After the Germans invade France, winemaker Michel begins hiding munitions in the wine caves beneath his vineyard unbeknownst to this wife, Ines. His chief winemaker has a wife who is half Jewish and as the situation in France becomes more intense, it inevitably is harder and harder to protect her. Ines is a bit reckless and eventually makes a fatal mistake with a Nazi collaborator that inevitably spirals them all into making unexpected decisions to not only protect themselves, but their beloved champagne house.
Told in a split story format between WW2 and present day, this is a fantastic story of WW2 historic fiction. 4.5 stars (rounded up to 5).

I've been a fan of Kristin Harmel for quite awhile now, but I didn't connect with this book. I really liked Grandma Edith, but I did not connect with any of the other characters. The story was a bit predictable, and I'm a bit over the present/past alternating time frame and characters format. I absolutely still recommend Kristin's books, and will continue to read her books in the future. This one just wasn't for me.

This is the second book that I've read by Kristin Harmel and so far it's my favorite.
One thing that I enjoy about historical fiction is learning about those lesser known historical events.
I had no idea that there was a resistance in the Champagne region of France by the winemakers.
I learned a little about the resistance and how the winemakers purposely provided poor quality Champagne to the Nazis. The notes provided by Harmel at the end of the book were wonderful and I've added a few books to my list to learn more about the winemakers.
The main characters were well developed and the description of the land was thorough, so I could really imagine being in the northeastern region of France.
4 stars.

I couldn't put this book down. It takes place in a remote champagne area of France at the beginning and during World War II. This beautifully written book spans two generations and it's descriptive passages are so well written. It's a winner!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Simon & Schuster through NetGalley and I’m grateful. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

This book is a historical fiction with a twist on French champagne. I found the story moving and enjoyable. It has some romance, suspense, and, as expected, Nazi abuse.

The chapters rotate between WWII in France and current day in US and France. The plot was easy to follow, kept the reader wondering, and tied up all loose ends. At the end, the character, Edith, had a memorable quote that spoke to me: “…you can’t rewrite the past. But you can choose to live with your whole heart in the here and now.” If you enjoy WWII historical fiction, this is a must read.

1940

Ines and Michel Chauveau are the owners of Maison Chauveau, a large champagne house. With the war on, they are faced with the Germans coming in and taking much of their bottled champagne. Celine who is part Jewish is married to Theo, the chef du cave. The four of them work together to keep the production going.

Ines is flighty and gets bored wanting to enjoy some nightlife. So, she takes the car and drives into Reims to see her good friend, Edith who owns a bar along with her husband. There Ines learns that Edith is working with the Resistance.

Celine and Michel are attracted to each other and both of passionate about seeing the champagne house prosper. They are also part of the Resistance.

2019

Olivia Kent has been married to Eric for 12 years. After trying for years to have a baby, Eric is divorcing her to marry someone else and hope for that elusive baby. Her grandmother, Edith, lives in Paris and arrives in New York to take Olivia to Paris. Edith, at age 99, is a wealthy woman. There, Olivia meets Julien who is Edith’s long-time attorney. He shows her around Reims and explains how it was nearly totally destroyed in WWII by the Germans. The rebuilding is unique as entities have undertaken and used various designs. Julien is a widower and has a young daughter. They enjoy being together.

We see how these families are all related and intertwined in the story. There is love, betrayal, fear, and death in this book. The descriptions of the evil that the Germans inflicted on the French and especially the Jews is well depicted. It shows how the people of France suffered, yet how strong they were to continue to carry on with their lives and families.

I enjoyed this book very much. Having lived in France, I have seen the scars of the occupation and the aftermath of the war. I had a friend who was in the Resistance who told me harrowing stories of things she did. The atrocious treatment of Jews is something that this world should never, ever see again.

Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Winemaker’s Wife, by Kristen Harmel, is another WWII novel set in France, with a dual timeline. As I whined in an earlier review, the convention of dual timelines is getting a bit old. Nonetheless, I loved this book! Set in the Champagne district, it told the complex story of one family’s commitment to the making of champagne and the greater devotion to the resistance, following the Nazi invasion. The second storyline, set in the modern world, tells the story of a woman, grappling with divorce, and feeling alone and adrift in the world.

Harmel is a gifted storyteller, creating nuanced characters who range from strong to weak, from stellar to evil. Even when her primary characters commit vile, despicable acts, the author never lets the reader forget their humanity. The plot twists and turns with a few surprises. It does end just a bit too neatly. I confess, however, that I found the ending sublimely satisfying, if not rigidly realistic. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery, Pocket Books for the opportunity to read an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Well written and researched.. Kristin Harmel is the perfect read in a category I often overlook because I like to keep nonfiction and
fiction writing in different boxes. I loved the champagne making region setting and can certainly see the novel as movie material. I had a
slight preference for the modern day story and was perplexed by the plot foreshadowing as I would prefer not to know how all
will unfold until it does. I liked that the book included some detail about the authors process which I am always thinking about after the fact
in most of the fiction reading I do. highly recommend as a weekend read.

The Winemaker’s Wife is a terrific work of Historical Fiction going from the late 1930’s and mid 1940’s while also visiting the present. The story takes you to the vineyards of France during the occupation by the Germans, the story of those who worked for the French Resistance and those who collaborated with the Germans. While there are so many WWII books flooding the market of late, not all are as well written as this. However, not everyone writes as well as Ms. Harmel! Highly recommended.

The winemakers wife was a wonderful book with such a surprise twist! I love that it wasn't a typical holocaust story. There was love, mistrust, loyalty, such great fear. Great book.

I've read most of Harmel's books. Conveniently, she was writing chick lit when I was into chick lit and moved onto historical and parallel narratives when that became my big thing. I was very impressed The Room on Rue Amélie, and she went with the WWII timeframe and added wine, so you know I was sold on this one! This was a good story, but much like All The Flowers in Paris, perhaps too short to do justice to the subject matter. On the other hand, I felt like the treatment of the modern story was an acceptable one (admittedly, Liv being dumped by a jerk and needing to find herself is not nearly in the same league as the issues in Jio's book). Sadly, it was the historical, champagne-infused half that felt a little flat for me. I felt like Inés got the short end a lot, and not just because the conflict was needed for the story but because the reader is supposed to think she is a shallow woman. Yet everything she does makes perfect sense to me, reading her as a very young person in difficult times with a distant older husband and isolated from any other friends while her husband carries on an affair. Still she tries her best to be a good person, a good friend, a good wife, and ultimately a good Frenchwoman. I think this book would have been an easy 4 stars if the author had at least treated Inés a little more fairly in her descriptions even as the rest of the characters did not! Of course, affair storylines always get under my skin and turn me off anyway, particularly when the relationships don't feel natural, as was the case here. (I mean, when a Nazi tries to hurt a woman in a book and I have a hard time mustering sympathy because she's been so horrible, that is a terrible sign.) And then the ultimate pet peeve for me, it ended a bit too conveniently-ever-after. Still, an enjoyable book, but if you haven't read Harmel before, please start with The Room on Rue Amélie before reading this one!

Thank you so much to Gallery Books for the eARC of The Winemaker’s Wife.
I have been reading books about World War Two for most of my life, and I love reading books that can bring a new perspective to that time period.
In the Winemaker’s Wife we follow the present day story of Liv- in France to recover from her recent divorce and the historical story of Inès and Céline - two women who live and work with their husbands in a champagne house in Champagne, France. The book follows the women as they respond to and live under the Nazi occupation.
This is a story of love, loss, strength, and redemption. I appreciated how both strands of the story were interwoven throughout the book, and I particularly appreciated learning about the resistance of the champagnois during the war.

The Winemaker’s wife by Kristin Harmel focuses on 4 women. Three in Champagne France during WWII– Inès, her best friend Edith and Céline wife of Theo their head wine chef. Then with 99 year old Edith, we meet her granddaughter Olivia in modern day France. We meet the three women as France, Reims , Ville–Dommange & Champagne are being occupied by The Nazi’s.

This book is full of betrayal, love, resistance, haunting memories, and terror during the deadliest times for the Jewish people, which Céline is and those who protect them.

I was a little hesitant to read another book about WWII because I had just finished reading Sarah’s Key and wasn’t in the mood for another “heavy” read. I’m glad I started in on The Winemaker’s Wife although the era is WWII the setting is far different and so it was easy to move my heart and mind to another book. The Winemaker’s Wife although equally as heavy is different, even with the strength that Sarah had, these three women showed a different type of strength. There were times when I wanted to scream at Inès, for her foolishness and then I was surprised by the turn of events Ms. Harmel creates and started digging into the story more. Like the Wine Cellars of Maison-Chauveau this book becomes deeper and deeper, twistier and twistier, and full of hidden secrets,

Ms. Harmel takes a much written about time in history and makes it impossibly so much different than anything else I have read about during WWII.

I believe this will be read in many book clubs around the world.

I was surprised about this one! The ratings were exceptionally high and I thought the book would be excellent. It is possible my expectations were too high (especially because I love all of Harmel's other books) but this one missed the mark for me. I couldn't relate to the characters because they all kept cheating on each other! It made it difficult to connect to them. Also, the ending was predictable.

Okay. Minority opinion alert. This book currently has a very respectable 4.14 average on Goodreads, so if the synopsis sounds like something you'll love, by all means, don't like my review turn you off of it. But my honest reaction to this novel was mainly disappointment. 

To start with, the synopsis gave me an impression of a plot that was firmly rooted in the resistance movement in France. Unfortunately, this all felt very secondary in the novel, and the main thrust of the historical portion of the plot hinges around marital affairs and discord. In and of itself, this could have been a decent focus for a story (despite not being what I was expecting) had the characters involved been a bit more developed. All that being said, there were high stakes for this part of the book and good cause to be emotionally invested in the outcome. 

The modern portion of the plot, by contrast, felt tacked-on and lifeless. Liv, much like the characters in the earlier timeline, feel quite underdeveloped, and she was without the benefit of the tension in the HF portion to push the story along. Liv is recently divorced and sad about it. A very obvious romantic interest figure pops into the story when Liv's grandmother, Edith takes her to France, and their romance is delayed to a positively ridiculous degree by a misunderstanding and multiple characters' failure to communicate very basic facts. 

Harmel has quite a few novels under her belt, but this one unfortunately read like a debut, in my opinion. The characters were all very shallow, and were often unsympathetic when I believe the author did not intend for them to be. The plot sometimes strained the limits of incredulity, and the more interesting aspects of the story routinely took a back seat to things like wine making and affairs. The rating is comparable to her prior books, however, so I think it's safe to say that fans of her existing work will not be disappointed in this book as I was. 

All that being said, I was still prepared to rate this around three stars rather than two until I got to a particular scene that cast the entirety of the book in a bad light for me. I will try to be as vague as possible to avoid giving away huge plot points, but some spoilers are ahead.

In a moment of distress, a character (I'll call her person A) confides in a person whom she knows to be a Nazi collaborator. The secrets she gives away lead to the arrest of several people, who then end up in a concentration camp. Years later, one of the characters who has managed to survive the camp (I'll call her person B) makes quite a point of saying that she doesn't blame the person who gave her up to the Nazis. Her reasoning is essentially that Person A was careless but not cruel. Again, I'd like to emphasize that Person A was well aware that her confidant was a Nazi collaborator. 

I'm all for victims finding forgiveness for those who have harmed them if it helps them find peace, but Person B is not a real person with autonomy; she is a character being fed lines by an author. Forgiveness can be healing, but there's something about the narrative that seems to frame this as the "correct" choice, and that didn't sit well with me. Perhaps I'm entirely misreading the author's intentions, but this was the impression I left the book with, and it was enough to turn me off of a book I already had a rather lukewarm experience reading. 

Again, many readers thoroughly enjoyed this book. If you are a fan of Harmel's work, please do give it a chance. Unfortunately, this was my first impression of her work and I don't think I'll be reading another of her books.