GRAPE JUICE by Eliza Dumais

I wish Alice could describe how this book tastes. I speak French with a ‘90s New Jersey accent but I’ll do my best — It tastes like a faded Polaroid, found inside a book you forgot you owned; like taking off your bra the second you walk through the door after a long flight. It tastes like the first and last days of overnight camp; like the promise of wonder before a theater curtain rises. It tastes like how a song you can’t believe you still know all the words to sounds.

Grape Juice reads much like drinking a glass of wine itself. Deliciously languid, some sips fuller than others, unexpected notes popping up here and there. It’s gone before you know it and you want more — more of Henri and his openness, Alice and her clever phrasing, her careful unraveling. More of Antoine’s wisdom, Bea’s home cooking, Ruby’s warmth and Julian’s Julian-ness, more of Pietro’s techno-color approach to life.

If I said I didn’t immediately Google “French wine harvest volunteer” I wouldn’t not be lying.

831 Stories continues to deliver on its promise and Grape Juice sparkles as its latest offering. Eliza’s writing has a comforting rhythm to it — it’s quiet and hopeful and the lilt of her language is so, so satisfying. Grape Juice is an absolute dream of a romance.

Cheers to 831 Stories and NetGalley for the ARC.

Grape Juice is out 11/4!

THIS BOOK WAS EVERYTHING!

I've had an up-and-down relationship with the novellas from 831 Stories, so I had a little trepidation when I started this one. However, it grabbed me from the first chapter and never let go. In a week with two late nights due to concerts I was attending, I finished this book in like 3 days because I just couldn't stop.

Alice goes to France to participate in a wine harvest, ostensibly to learn more about the wine she sells, but really she just needs a change of pace. She meets the other four who have come for the harvest to stay with Antoine and Bea and they quickly become a family together. Each of the others are so well-drawn that I can picture them in my head and feel them as real people. The way Alice and Henri are immediately drawn to each other feels authentic and not at all forced, their connection naturally continuing to grow as they work together to bring in the grapes.

I read the last 40% or so in one sitting this evening, and I'm still crying a little from not only the ending, but saying goodbye to these characters. Alice and Henri's story worked for me because the author didn't try to go for the big cheesy swing, but something more realistic, more lived-in, more what real people with lives and jobs and expenses would do. I want to read everything this author has ever written and ever will write now. Incredible work!

I could taste this book! A divine experience for my senses, I now find myself fantasizing about spending a summer in France on a grape farm and eating the most tantalizing foods with the most charmingly delightful companions.

I don’t often read short stories because my experience with them has most often left me wanting and I am the type to *need* closure or I feel insane 😃

177 pages completed and I could not imagine this story being told more perfectly. I feel giddy! I feel like I have champagne bubbles fizzing inside. I want to eat grapes and practice French and giggle over all my silly but big feeling life situations with my girlfriends.

The way Eliza Dumais packed in so much about the human experience, connection on both platonic and romantic levels while seamlessly relating it all back to taste, smell and texture…absolutely brilliant! I’ll definitely be rereading & annotating because some of these quotes were dazzlingly profound while remaining sharp in its pithy delivery. An absolute delight to read and the ultimate escapism!

Read if you like:
Letters to Juliet
S1 of Emily in Paris
Wine tasting
French pop music (queue amour plastique 💗)

This book was SO GOOD! Dumais’ writing style is both light and decadent. The pacing was lovely and the relationships between characters felt real. I loved loved LOVED the descriptions for emotion. I love a good, dramatic metaphor. My favorite 831 story by far!!!!!!! Ahhhh!!!!