After being divorced a few years, Daphne is starting to think about picking up with romance again -- especially as she is tempted by her very attractive contractor, who just happens to be a decade younger than her and her daughter's ex-boyfriend from high school. Meanwhile, her daughter Ellery is fresh out of college and it seems like so much of her life is on track the way she planned ... except she didn't get the coveted fashion internship she wanted and her fiance seems extremely distant now that he's in medical school. Ellery starts an online friendship with an older man who owns a vineyard, pretending to be writing as her mother. She thinks it's an innocuous enough distraction but things go extremely haywire when her mother's surprise birthday present to Ellery is a weekend trip to that very vineyard. Daphne herself is in for a surprise when one of Ellery's friends invites Daphne's ex-husband and her new potential flame to the weekend retreat.

I picked this book up solely to finish a challenge from Book Riot's Read Harder list; romance is not really my preferred genre so I went in to this thinking I wouldn't like it per se. From the outset, I liked Daphne on the whole and while I have no problem with the older woman-younger man dynamic, I did think it was a bit odd she was interested in a man who she actually knew when he was a young boy. Ellery, on the other hand, was really hard to care for as she was so very entitled with her bills paid by her parents (and her bills consisting of designer clothes, spa treatments, a fancy townhouse, etc.) and what seemed like a stubborn refusal to realize medical school would eat up a lot of her fiance's time. As the novel progressed, it became apparent that was all part of the story ... Ellery was learning how to become an adult, not a spoiled child. Still, I found myself frustrated with her quite a bit ... although I guess that's an argument that the author did a good job in creating the character so fully.

Unlike many formulaic romances, I have to admit there were times I was wondering where this story was going to go. It was clear from very early on who Ellery was going to end up with, but it was less obvious for Daphne. Although their endings are in theory happy, I do have to question it a bit. Due to their new relationship status, Daphne and Ellery are now dating men who are uncle and nephew. This means that if either relationship gets serious enough to become legally official, Ellery's new stepfather would also be her uncle-in-law. It's a very strange setup. I'm not sure why Talley didn't just have Gage be an employee at the vineyard and not a family member as well.

While there is some of the steamy in this book, especially in the beginning, I appreciated that it wasn't all heaving bosoms and rock-hard bodies. Rather, a lot of the story was about the relationship between Daphne and Ellery, as well as other relationships they had such as with a family friend/neighbor, co-workers, etc. It was very much about how both of them grew as people. On the whole, I liked this book far more than I thought I would. That being said though, it still really wasn't my cup of tea.

The audiobook narrator did a good job of navigating the two different points of view and giving characters enough of a vocal distinction. Her tone always seemed conversational, which made it a pleasant read. ( )