I received an early digital copy of this book for review. After seeing the quotes that have come out regarding immigrants, I will not be reading this. I searched the quote in question about immigration status and farm workers on my kindle and can confirm it’s in there. It’s disappointing to see rhetoric like this in 2025. The “joke” isn’t funny. Don’t even get me started on the part about a character idolizing Elon Musk. That would’ve been a better joke.

I’ve read two of her books in the past. The incest-y vibes of the first Kingmaker’s book was pushing it. I thought I’d give her latest book a go, but I’m glad now that I hadn’t gotten to it yet. Truly disappointing.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC of this book!

I have really enjoyed Sophie’s books so I was super excited to read this. I think fans of Sophie’s books will enjoy it. I had fun with it despite so cringy lines. Overall though the ending felt really rushed and the pacing was off.

A vineyard in trouble, an enemy to the rescue, and walls torn down and rebuilt. An enemies to lovers story. Very enjoyable.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I could not get into this book after the first five chapters. Then seeing all the racial allegations I decided to put a pause on it. Maybe once it's edited again, it'll be better. But for now, I won't be picking it up again for awhile.
I do appreciate getting the arc though and wish I could have loved it more!

I do enjoy S. Lark's romance books and I really enjoyed this one also; I wasn't completely obsessed with the characters, but I did like them enough to carry on with this series.

I'd say this one is more friends to lovers due to marriage of convenience. They weren't enemies even though their families (more specifically their parents) are.

This book is set on a beautiful vineyard where Saddie's family lived all their lives; Monroe has loved the site all his life and he was meant to inherited it, along with his family, due to a contract made by both families grandparents, back when Saddies dad and Monroe's mom were in love and to be married. The marriage never happened, and so the vineyard is at risk of going bankrupt and auctioned to be bought off.

As the contract stipulated that a marriage was to happen, but was nom specific on who was to be married, Monroe proposes to Saddie so they can save the site together, and together they work relentlessly to fill this objective.

Close proximity and equal objectives soon develop a strong friendship, which then evolves into a very sweet romance. Sex is on page, but not smutty.

With the exception of some stupid phrases in the beginning of the book, i really enjoyed this. I can see why some people had a problem, particularly with the phrase "shouldn't there be workers with questionable visas working here", but I took it more like a stupid thing that people say than actual racism (you can argue I'm downplaying it, I can argue people are overreacting, but considering I say something stupid on a weekly basis I choose to give people the benefit of the doubt, you don't have to agree and this can be the stupid think I say this week 🤣).

Overall I'm was a fan of Sophie Lark, and I still am! Very happy to have been privileged to receive the ARC of this book.

I hemmed and hawed over what I was going to write when it came down to this book. With all the controversy surrounding it, I can separate what is going on in the book world from what I'm reading, so I'm sad to say that it wasn't the outside world that affected my lower rating, but the actual story itself.

I didn't feel the love connection between Sadie and Monroe. For an enemies to lovers, the main chemistry should constantly be bubbling and brewing. There should always be a nice push and pull so when they finally give in it's explosive and it was just lacking between these two. They internally thought very snide thoughts about the other and it just felt wrong and that's where a character is allowed to have their truthful thoughts. So, since they didn't feel it, I didn't either.

I also began to wonder about the actual winery. I'm surrounded by several and they vary in size from small to large, they are all family owned and pretty much all of them have a heavy social media presence. Winery's nowadays have entertainment and tastings, etc.... Sparrow and Vine felt very dated and perhaps where I'm going with this is perhaps there should have been better or more research.

Sooo, like I said, I didn't need outside commentary or controversy when personally this book just didn't do it for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloom Books for the advance review copy and all opinions are my own.

DNF after the racist quote that ultimately is causing the downfall of this book, it’s just not for me.

I won’t be reading this book after the racist remarks made in it. I don’t support that kind of “entertainment”

It was very….offensive in moments and I did not enjoy it as much as I would have liked to.

The racial comments through the book were harmful to someone who is African American. I understand what she was trying to do but it was not portrayed tastefully.

This book is NOT something that should be out in the reading world

The book was pulled and was very controversial so I will not be reading it. Even against publishers advice they decided to add some racist comments that aren't okay.

Since this book was pulled from the publisher as well as archived on here I will not be reading and reviewing it. After learning about the themes described in the books, I would not feel comfortable reading the book.

I enjoyed the premise of this book as well as many of the characters!

I'll come back and edit this once I read the re-edited version of the book since I know some changes are being made.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read it!

I heavily debated if I wanted to read this or not after the authors remarks about immigrants and Musk. I've read many, many books from Sophie Lark and loved them so I was so excited for this one. I'm severely disappointed in the author and the publisher for even allowing this harmful and insensitive type of writing into a book in the year 2025. I am a person who can separate the author from their work, but not when their ignorance is splashed on the page for all to see. Sophie Lark actively made a choice to keep those remarks after the publisher suggested she remove them which disappoints me greatly. I'm also disappointed in the publisher for not requiring her to remove those lines in the first place because I can't imagine how anyone thought they would be accepted with grace. I do appreciate that everyone is taking steps to rectify this gross error in judgement, but it's a shame we had to get here in the first place.

Whereas the plot and characters showed promise for a good story, there are lots of ideas and words in here that just arent acceptable anymore (tbh they never were); racism, and support of nazis among them, as you might have read in other reviews. I should admit that i still enjoyed reading, if you shove all that aside, but i just cant support this book fully. With some big changes in these aspects it could have been a good read.

Thank you to netgalley and the author for sending me the book in exchange for an honest review

ARC Review: First and foremost I want to thank Bloom and Sophie Lark for giving me a chance to review this book before publishing.

There was controversial dialogue put in this book that has been addressed and that is being fixed by both the publisher and the author. I will be basing my review STRICTLY on the plot lines and characters of this book.


I’m a sucker for a marriage of convenience and this book had all the right making of a great book! I liked Sadie as a FMC and I liked that Monroe gave her confidence and built her up. However, the switch up from Monroe from the beginning of the book when he describes Sadie to the end of book kind of gave me whiplash. He goes from seeing her as the “ugly duckling” of the Sparrow family to seeing her as the most beautiful and we as readers never got to truly see that shift for him. I will say I wish there was more development of their relationship from beginning of their marriage to the end of the book. I felt like their “love” was rushed and came out of left field a little bit. I liked the sprinkling of the sibling relationships throughout. Overall, I think was a good romance book and it was a departure from the authors usual dark writing style.

I rarely give one-star reviews, but unfortunately, "Sparrow and Vine" just did not work for me. From the start, the story felt disjointed and lacked the depth I was hoping for. The characters were underdeveloped, making it hard to connect with their journeys or invest in their struggles.

I kept waiting for the narrative to pick up, but it never quite managed to capture my attention.

I had high expectations based on the premise and some positive buzz, but I was left feeling disappointed. I appreciate the effort that went into this book, but unfortunately, it just didn’t resonate with me.

Cannot support this author, book was pulled from publication. Thank you to the publisher for listening to feedback.

I cannot read a book that the publisher pulled. I'm sad there's inappropriate content that I wasn't informed of before requesting this book. I am saddened the author made inappropriate comments in the book even though the publisher asked her not to.

I'm sorry, but this was way more controversial than I thought, and I was expecting a proper apology, which never came. I really don't like to be unnecessarily cruel and negative towards books or authors, so the less I say the better. It wasn't for me.

Overall rating: 1 star
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Pub Date: Apr 22 2025

Thank you to the author, SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books and NetGalley for giving me the chance to read an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I think this book has potential to be really fantastic however due to the sensitive subject matter in the book I think further revisions should be addressed. I love the marriage of connivence trope in this book.