A hazy, intoxicating debut about four strangers invited to a French estate to drink one of the world’s oldest bottles of wine. Over the course of a week, things get increasingly messy—emotionally and otherwise—as the characters drink, flirt, argue, and unravel. The story shifts perspectives but mostly follows Avery, a wine influencer and sommelier who’s sharp, complicated, and often frustrating in all the right ways. The writing is lush and lyrical, leaning into the heat, decadence, and blurred edges of a boozy summer holiday.

It's about excess, desire, and the strange intimacy that comes from drinking with strangers. It also digs into the darker sides of the wine world—elitism, sexism, addiction—without losing its dreamy, slow-burn vibe. It’s perfect for readers who love character-driven fiction and want something that feels like a sun-soaked fever dream. Definitely one to pack for your next holiday.

I found this to be perfectly pretentious. A group of people, all existing within the world of wine, get invited to a Master Sommelier's home, in order to open and share a bottle of very rare wine.
Each person is at a point of crisis in their lives, though on the surface appear completely put together. But, upon arrival, bottles are opened, and the days begin to blur together into a luscious haze.
This is a very indulgent book. The writing is flowery, the wine spoken of like it turns the world (and maybe it does!), and the people are so gorgeously flawed and human. It was easy to forget that we only knew these people for a few days. By the end I felt as if I knew them for much longer.
A book of the summer...everyone needs to pick this one up!

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From the very first page, this book draws you into its world with engaging prose, well-developed characters, and a compelling narrative. The author's storytelling is confident and immersive, weaving together themes that resonate long after the final chapter.

An intricately-drawn bacchanalia full of wine, indulgence, and risky choices. Wine lovers will enjoy the vivid descriptions of tastings and the inside look at the wine world. If you're not into wine, you might struggle to find your footing in this story where everyone's drunk all the time and waxing poetic about Mourvedre and Viognier. But if you're willing to wait, the ending comes to a dramatic head that makes it all worth it.

Lush is a sensory experience: sun-drenched, disorienting, and heady on a too-hot afternoon.

The premise: four wine-world misfits—a sommelier losing relevance, a disgraced prodigy, a wine mogul, and a wine critic—are invited to a mysterious tasting weekend at a French estate. There, they await the uncorking of a singular, almost mythic bottle.

Told in shifting perspectives, The novel is less interested in plot than it is in atmosphere—what it feels like to sit in a glass room with people you don’t quite trust, buzzed but alert. Each character arrives already on the brink, and the wine doesn’t help.

Rochelle Dowden Lord writes hypnotic prose. If you’re looking for something linear or tightly plotted, this isn’t it.
There’s also sharp commentary on industry elitism, gender politics in wine culture, and the line between appreciation and addiction.
#Lush #RochelleDowdenLord #BloomsburyPress #SummerReads #LiteraryFiction #WineLit

Wow! The writing in this was good enough to eat! The lit fic girlies are going to love this one. It’s raw and messy.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA for the advanced reader copy.

The premise of this novel--that four members of the elite world of sommeliers and wine critics are summoned to do a tasting at a vineyard estate in the South of France--sounded right up my alley. But the writing threw me off from the opening sentence. It felt too aware of itself, which isn't the kind of book I enjoy. Couldn't finish this one.

I was intrigued by this literary fiction novel, yet somehow it just fell flat to me. It was confusing to follow as the chapters kept bouncing around narrators (four protagonists is a lot, you know) and it all just got jumbled in my head more than once. I didn't really see a big plot or conflict; it just seemed like day-in-the-life snippets. It just felt boring and I was very much waiting to reach the last page. Writing is fine, and it does take an extraordinary amount of time and effort to write a novel -- especially with multiple protagonists and so I can appreciate that. It's just when it came to the story itself, it did not hit for me personally.

👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
This read was rich and I took my time with it as one would with a nice glass of wine.

Four strangers meet at the private home and vineyard of a Master Sommelier with the promise of being the first and only to taste one of the oldest wines left in the world. A week of debauchery ensues and everyone leaves seemingly changed forever.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read. The interactions between these people brought together with little in common outside of wine was shall I say, indulgent. Everything is written in a way that you somehow intimately know. Beauty, drunkenness, disgust, disdain, jealousy, forgiveness. I didn’t know where any of this was going and honestly I didn’t care. I found myself jotting down a sentence here or there just because it was so wonderfully expressed. I can tell time and heart went into drafting this read and I learned a thing or two about this community as well as wine itself.

Lush will be available May 27th and I’d like to thank Netgalley, Bloomsbury Publishing, and Rochelle Dowden-Lord for this ARC in exchange for an honest unbiased review. This was such a ride! I look forward to seeing what this author does next.

Rochelle Dowden-Lord’s Lush follows four wine-enthusiasts — a Master Sommelier, a new world producer, a food critic, and a wine influencer — who go to the french countryside to taste one of the oldest bottles in the world. Lush is as languid as a summer’s day and filled with luxurious descriptions of wine that are approachable to all readers, even those who have no taste for drinking. The novel is slow, but heavy on atmosphere. As most of the protagonists are intoxicated for the majority of the novel, the prose is loose and hazy. Vibes reign over plot or character development and the book always chooses beauty over clarity when the two are put at odds.

That said, the novel is immersive and gripping, perfect for readers who are looking to escape and maybe also learn a thing or two about wine.