The story of Mackenzie & Rhys was painful but ultimately triumphant. Married for many years, when they realize that their marriage is over it comes as a shock, primarily to Mackenzie. Mackenzie has spent most of her life with Rhys, including working in his family business - a winery. Leaving the family is one thing but leaving the winery, her true vocation, is the hardest thing she's ever had to do. It doesn't help that her mother-in-law who she considered her mother turns on her too. Luckily for Mackenzie and her sisters-in-law she is able to move on and thrive. Great story of love, loss, and second chances.

Mackenzie has it all but does she really? This slows moving story of family drama revolves around the family vineyard. Mackenzie has worked hard in the vineyard for sixteen years when her marriage breaks up and she has decisions to make. Will she stay and work in the vineyard or leave for another life?

The Vineyard at Painted Moon by Susan Mallery is wonderful stand-alone novel focusing on family and the wine business. I really enjoyed this book, which had a bit of everything, including romance, family, wine making, divorce, betrayal, revenge, friendships and love.

Mackenzie Dienes, our heroine, is a top-notch elite winemaker, who married into the Barcellona family. Mackenzie loves her life, happily involved in creating wonderful wines, and loves her family. Barbara, the matriarch, runs the business, and totally depends on her daughter in law to continue their successful business. Stephanie, her sister-in-law, is also her best friend, who had brought her to meet the family during their college days. Catherine and Lori are two other sisters in laws, one whom Mackenzie is close to and the other (Lori) is mean and resents her. Rhys, her husband, is also a big part of the winery. After the annual celebration, when Rhys and Mackenzie go home, they have sex, after many years of none, and both realize that their marriage was over, and decide it is best if they divorce.

Mackenzie needs to decide what to do, as her whole life is surround by the family and winery. Should she stay even though she would no longer be ‘part’ of the family, and just be an employee. With her respect as a winemaker, Mackenzie looks into the possibility of her own winery, to do things she has always wanted to do. She and Rhys agree to amicable divorce, and he willingly offers her a share of the value of their home and prenup together.

When Mackenzie tells her mother-in-law, whom she has always been close, about the divorce, Barbara says no worry nothing has changed; she can continue to do what she always does and be with the family. Mackenzie tells her she felt to stay here would be difficult, as Rhys wants his freedom and she would like to be able to start her own. At this point everything changes, as Barbara fearing the loss of someone so valuable and instrumental to the business, becomes over time the evil horrible mother-in-law.

What follows is a wonderful and emotional story of Mackenzie becoming partners with a wealthy man, Bruno, who is happy to join hands in creating their own winery. She to handle to making the wine and he to do the business side of things. They purchase another existing winery, Painted Moon, as the owner is retiring. Barbara becomes such a terror, even to her daughters Stephanie and Catherine, who have supported Mackenzie in her new endeavors. When Mackenzie realizes that she is pregnant, she is surprised when Rhys is willing to allow her to have full custody (he just wants his freedom), with some visitation. Barbara continues to spiral out of control with threats, which slowly brings havoc and chaos to her own family and winery.

I loved how Stephanie and Catherine continued to be there for Mackenzie, including distancing from their mother. I really like Bruno, and how patient and wonderful he was with her. This was a very sweet and slow build romance between them, as they also made great partners in making Painted Moon a successful winery. The Vineyard at Painted Moon was very well written by Susan Mallery, and a wonderful story that pulled on many emotions, such as happiness, love, betrayal, as well as friendship and learning about the winemaking business. You need to be reading this book.

I have to start off by saying I love the cover of this book. This book was great women's fiction/chick lit book. This book is told by three different women. They each are going through a lot. Two of the women grow stronger from everything that happens and one does not. I didn't put two and two together about Bruno until the author mentioned it than it clicked and I was like oh yeah I remember him. It is amazing how children can all turn out different when you see who the mother is how they were all raised and still treated. Susan Mallery does a fabulous job describing the vineyards in Walla Walla. I felt like I was right there with Mackenzie while she was checking on the grapes. I loved how this book shows two women who are content with life find strength to change and grow.

*I received this free book from NetGalley/author and am leaving my honest opinion*

If you looked at it from the outside, Mackenzie Dienes really does seem to have it all. A job she adores, a handsome husband, and a family that has welcomed this orphan into their ranks. But if you look a little harder, you'll see that there are cracks in the perfection. Yes, she has been working her ass off to develop the family's wines but there always seems to be something keeping her from truly becoming a part of the family legacy. Then there's the fact that she and her husband haven't really been together in years. And she is somewhat doubting whether it was ever truly a love match.
When she has the chance to reach for her dreams, it threatens to upend her entire life.
Like many of Mallery's non-series books of late, this book is a little lighter on the romance and more on the plot development. Even with the plot development, the book was a slooooooow build and I kept putting the book down and picking it up again trying to figure out why we needed exactly so much back story. I wish we could have learned more about some of the other characters - the main focus was on Mackenzie with a bit more about her best friend/sister-in-law Stephanie. It did eventually pay off with a satisfying ending.

A true feel good story, captivated me from the first chapter.
Mackenzie is a strong woman, having been orphaned in her youth, she rises up and makes a name for herself in the wine business. Her marriage to Rhys ensures she has family all around, including sister - laws. nieces, nephews and a controlling mother in law. She lives with her extended family on Rhys' family vineyard, having a major role in the production of the wine. After 16 years of marriage, Rhys and Mackenzie agree that a divorce is the best choice for them, Mackenzie loses everything in a blink of the eye. Her home, family and job vanish with the divorce. But what she gets is a second chance to make her life what she wants it to be.
Beautiful story, great, strong female characters.
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I love this cover! The story was good. The wine business and grape growing interesting. I like strong female characters. Mackenzie manages to raise above many obstacles and make her dreams come true. It was a hard to put down book,definitely recommend
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy

This is a starting over story and while it includes romance, the real story is Mackenzie choosing to leave the safe but unsatisfying world of her ex-husband's family business and striking out on her own. She has it a lot better than a lot of divorcees--her husband is wealthy and writes a generous settlement check, much to her mother-in-law's chagrin--but she has spent her adult life living in their family compound and her sisters-in-law are her best friends. The story explores how much life changes after even the most amicable of divorces, and how divorce not only affects the couple but the extended family as well in some cases.

I enjoyed the book and thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley. Grade B.

To be published 1/15/21

Slow Start, Sordid Middle, Solid End. This is one of those soap opera type books that starts out *slow*. There's enough to keep most readers hooked, but dang, the pacing could have been a bit tighter. Indeed, the titular Vineyard doesn't even get mentioned at all until at or after the halfway point in the tale. Instead, quite a bit of detail and most of the story is given to the fall of McKenzie Davis - who the description labels as the primary protagonist, but who never *really* feels as such. This is because so much attention is given to two other characters - Stephanie, McKenzie's sister-in-law and best friend, and Barbara, McKenzie's mother-in-law. So to my mind, these three were the core of the story, though McKenzie's own plot did indeed drive the other two's for the most part. McKenzie's story works well, Stephanie shows a great deal of development, and Barbara... starts out regal, yet falls to her own madness to become a character clearly intended to be despised. Still, overall this story could have been shortened by 50-100 pages and still worked just as effectively, maybe moreso with a bit tighter plotting such a reduction in page count would have required. Yet there is nothing technically wrong with this story or the storytelling, and therefore the tale overall gets the full five stars. Very much recommended.

The Vineyard at Painted Moon by Susan Mallery Emotional family drama with many members including a wick evil mother-in-law (Barbara). The friendship and love between the sisters-in-law highlights the story. Bruno is a Prince Charming and MacKenzie is a sweet, loving and strong heroine. Loved Four, the free spirit sister, and her flapping fish capris, and her down to earth wisdom. A leisurely read and a feel good story.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

This book takes you into the wine business on the west coast. MacKenzie is a top expert at blending wines and has been doing it for her husbands family at their vineyard. Her life falls apart when her husband asks for a divorce. The story revolves around different generations of a family. Some of the characters were not likable. The background of the story was the wine industry which I found interesting. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

I loved this book!!! The women characters in this book were so distinctly different but so strong in their own ways. It was so nice to see that kindness, love and loyalty trumped hate, revenge and misery. I do love books about families and their relationships with each other and this book has some very interesting family relationships from different generations in it. The background stories revolving around the vineyard and the wine producing industry was also interesting. If you are looking for a book that delves into a very dysfunctional family that grips you from the first page to the last page then this is the book for you to pick up and read!!!!

The Vineyard at Painted Moon is another classic by Mallery. In this novel, we meet Mackenzie, an employee at Bel Apres Vineyard. She is unhappy with her life and throughout the book, she works to make it better: starting with divorcing her husband Rhys. While her life continues to look upward, Barbara, her ex-monther-in-law's life continues to downward spiral. The story focuses on Mackenzie and Barbara, but also includes Stephanie, Mackenzie's best friend who is also Rhys sister. There are multiple additional characters including Four, Giorgio, Bruno,

The characters were well-written and I found myself connecting with Mackenzie and really hating Barbara by the end. A character that fell a bit flat for me was Stephanie. I feel like she felt sorry for herself a lot and even when she decided to "prove" herself, I didn't find it extremely profounding.

Mallery perfectly blends the past and present into this novel. The relationships she creates between the characters is perfect. I also love the region she picked for the setting - Washington State. The descriptions of the vineyards are gorgeous! I also learned a lot about wine making (something I knew nothing about previously). I also loved the wine descriptions at the end of the book!

I sure hope this is just the beginning of Mackenzie's story. The life Mackenzie thought she had under control spirals out of hand when her husband asks for a divorce. Master winemaker for his mother's vineyard earned her a place in the family that Mackenzie knew she would lose now that her husband was ready to move on. She would have to move out of the family compound, and try to keep her relationship with two of three of her husband's sisters, and his mother, was daunting. What would she do? Would she be able to find work in other vineyards, and what about the unexpected pregnancy after goodbye sex with her husband. I was thoroughly entangled in this book. I'm not sure if this was the author's intent, but the male characters in this story are only two dimensional. The women are all way more interesting and vibrant.

This is Susan Mallery's newest stand alone novel. It brings you into the world of wine making on the west coast. A family is tested in this story of love, friendship, marriages, and family expectations. When one of the grown children of a family run vineyard goes through what begins as an amicable divorce the family dynamic changes as old rivalry are revealed and friendships are either lost or strengthened. This is one of her best novels yet.

I received a free advanced copy from Netgalley for an honest review.
#Netgalley

Another wonderful book by Susan Mallery! Set in an idyllic vineyard, this family drama is about finding yourself - even when you didn't know you were lost. Full of strong characters and brilliant writing, this is one that will satisfy fans, old and new.

I loved this book. Loved everything about it. The storyline, the characters, especially the characters, the life lessons presented and learning about vineyards and wines. I did not want to leave the lives of MacKenzie, Bruno and Stephanie. Im already hoping for a sequel.

What happens when your 16 year marriage ends and your world changes. An excellent story about change, heartbreak, romance and coming home. This is an excellent read, with a little insight into the world of wine making (which I know nothing about other than drinking). Enjoy this one. Add to your TBR list.

This is a family drama set in the wine country of Walla Walla, Washington. Mackenzie Dienes married into a family with a vineyard and has become a very talented winemaker. She has a great life doing what she loves - mostly. Then she and her husband decide their marriage isn't working and they decide to divorce. Mackenzie has some very difficult choices to make. She could stay on as an employee or go out on her own, or find another job. If she left, she could lose everything. Her entire life is wrapped up in the winery and the family - her mother-in-law is the closest thing to a mother she's ever had, her best friend is her husband's sister, she loves being a winemaker and has built quite a reputation. What should she do?

Susan Mallery is a talented novelist and I've enjoyed many of her books, this one included. The characters are well developed and complex. The plot was both compelling and absorbing. I enjoyed my time with this story.

Thanks to HARLEQUIN – Trade Publishing (U.S. & Canada) through Netgalley for an advance copy.

A fun read! Mackenzie Deines' life implodes when her husband states the obvious - they should divorce. Although she agrees with the decision, she isn't quite ready to face the actuality and leave his family's winery where she has been a loved and accepted member of staff as the head winemaker. With her marriage in ruins and her relationship with her mother-in-law and owner of the winery shattered, Mackenzie is forced to reconsider her life and future. But perseverance and determination, plus a little support form loyal friends, save the day!